The Return Of Removable Hard Disk Drive Architecture - Technology Information

Computer Technology Review, July, 2000 by Steven L. Kaczeus

Another practical application is the sharing of workspace and a PC between two or more employees, which some companies are moving towards due to physical space limitations or cost reduction mandates. With a portable hard drive, large data files, application software, and operating systems are all safely transportable instantaneously to other computer systems without agonizing download time, other hardware implications, or fear of damage.

If a removable hard drive is selected to be the "C" drive, it can be bootable and, consequently, used for dual operating systems. This feature is attractive to bilingual operators who run two or more language versions of Windows interchangeably or users that need to boot up different operating systems on the same PC. Numerous industries and applications benefit from removable hard disk drive architecture such as video editing, graphic artists, CAD/CAM, game developers, software developers, government agencies, banking, insurance, legal, or medical imaging.

In the past, when a disk drive was updated in a personal computer, the old disk drive was thrown away. Statistics indicate that millions of disk drives were discarded, wasting billions of dollars. This wasteful activity can be reversed with removable drives because, when the disk drive becomes full, it can be archived without fear of becoming obsolete in the future. Thus, one can start building digital libraries for work or for personal purposes with home videos, photo albums, financial history, business correspondence, design activities, and any other digital, data destined for future reference.

The convergence technology revolution is a new territory for exciting applications. Removable, rugged disk drives will be used as Internet and multimedia devices. Songs, video, animation, games, and university courses will be downloaded from the Internet to a high capacity storage device and then transferred to televisions, stereos, gaming machines, or automobiles. Removable hard disk drive architecture offers efficiency, speed, economy, security, and convenience for multi-system users, telecommuters, and the convergence technology industry.

Steven L. Kaczeus is the president and CEO at DataZONE Corporation, a removable hard drive manufacturer (San Jose, CA).