Seagate, Hitachi, Fujitsu self-encrypt

HARD DRIVE manufacturers Seagate, Hitachi and Fujitsu have almost simultaneously announced the launch of several high-capacity self-encrypting notebook HDDs.

The piggy named Seagate introduced the new Momentus FDE-series. These come in 160GB and 320GB (500GB drives announced) with 8MB or 16MB of cache and with spindle speeds of either 5400RPM or 7200RPM. The hardware encryption is 256-bit AES encryption. For some reason, Seagate is plugging McAfee’s enterprise solutions with the launch. Go figure.

Piggy number two spun it another way. Hitachi announced the Travelstar 5K500.B with (up to) 500GB of storage and 5400RPM spindle speeds, 8MB data buffer and Bulk Data Encryption (AES 128-bit equivalent). There will be another version for servers and low transaction/enhanced availability – the AE models.

Then came piggy number three who said, "hey, we’ve got one too!" That’s when Fujitsu hit the 'send' and the world became aware of their 256-Bit AES encrypting notebook HDDs with 500GB of capacity/8MB cache, spinning away at 5400RPM – otherwise known as the MJA2 CH- and BH-series. The CH is the one with the encryption.

All three companies swear their encryptions add no overhead to disc operations nor do they harm the environment as they’ve removed all the noxious bits that tend to end up in landfills and seeping into the soil/spreading in the atmosphere.

Availability is another matter - most drives state end of 2008 and Q1 2009 - but you can already get smaller capacity drives with encryption from Seagate in Dell's lappies.

Don’t you get a feeling these guys sit around in the office all day with a new HDD neatly tucked away in a drawer, just waiting for another manufacturer to break rank? µ