Hard drive sales will take a nose drive in 2013, according to a report by the market analysts at IHS. "Facing a relentless onslaught from tablets, smartphones and solid state drives (SSD), global hard disk drive (HDD) market revenue in 2013 will decline by about 12 percent this year," IHS reported in an email on Monday …

Review Following OCZ’s great success with its SandForce SF2281-based Vertex 3 solid-state drive, it seems everyone is jumping on the SandForce bandwagon now. I recently tested Patriot Memory’s Wildfire SSD from, and today I have the latest addition to Kingston Technology’s HyperX product line. It too uses an SF2281 controller, which …

Owners of second-gen MacBook Airs have gained much-requested Trim support for the SSDs in their skinny computers thanks to Apple's latest OS X update. The Trim command can be issued to compatible solid-state drives to tell them which data are no longer considered in use and so can be erased by the drive itself. This …

Review Reg Hardware first reviewed a Samsung SSD - the South Korean giant's first, and a device aimed at computer makers rather than upgrade-hungry punters - way back in March 2009. Rather keen we were on it too. But that was two years ago - how has Samsung managed to improve matters in the meantime? Samsung Series 470 Samsung's …

Memory specialist Crucial has released a set of 1.8in SSDs. Based on its C300 RealSSD line of notebook drives, the new, smaller versions are intended for folk looking to upgrade netbooks or sub-notebooks that are too slim to take 2.5in drives. The 1.8in drives use MLC (Multi-Level Cell) Flash and are available in capacities …

Review Reg Hardware has covered plenty of solid-state disks before, but never anything to match the capacity of Kingston’s latest high density SSD. Back in January, Kingston announced the SSDNow V+ series, the higher spec members of its family of “value” drives with capacities ranging from 64GB to 512GB. Kingston SSDNow V+ 512GB …

Review Buffalo has come up with a novel way of easing the hard drive upgrade process. Instead of bundling a 2.5in enclosure with its MicroStation SSD - or not even bothering with one at all - this 3Gb/s Sata laptop drive has its own on-board USB 2.0 port. Buffalo MicroStation SSD Buffalo's MicroStation SSD: speedier than your …

Crucial has rolled out a 64GB version of its RealSSD C300 6Gb/s Sata solid-state drive line. With the company's existing 128GB and 256GB C300's retailing for, respectively, £309 and £540, the 64GB model provides a taste of SSD goodness for a more cost-effective £121. The C300 uses the laptop-oriented 2.5in form-factor, but …

Storage specialist Buffalo has introduced a solid-state drive upgrade kit for notebooks. The 2.5in, 3Gb/s Sata-connected drive comes in 32, 64, 128 and 256GB capacities, all offering up to 240MB/s read speeds and between 80MB/s (32GB drive) and 190MB/s (the others). Buffalo MicroStation SSD The drives come with a USB …

Review You can picture Team Buffalo's thinking. Solid-state drives are increasingly being used in notebooks, so why don't we put one in an external storage device? That's what it did, and the result is the MicroStation SSD. Buffalo MicroStation SSD Buffalo's MicroStation SSD: glorified - but fast - USB Flash drive But did no one …

Doomsayers are predicting that Apple's iPad will hinder the adoption of SSDs in PCs. The argument, made by unnamed sources cited by DigiTimes, goes something like this: the iPad will suck up supplies of Nand Flash chips through 2010, that will encourage suppliers to up the price of whatever is left over, limiting the storage …

Sony has introduced a 13in notebook with four Raid-arrayed SSDs. The Vaio Z comes with either 128GB or 256GB of storage space in Raid 0 configuration so data is striped across four 32GB or four 64GB drives, respectively. Sony Vaio Z Sony's Vaio Z: aluminium construction There's no data security provision, but Raid 0 …

Kit of the Year Solid-state drives have yet to truly challenge magnetic media when it comes to storage capacity and the price you pay for it. But 2009 saw a bumper crop of SSDs as Flash and storage specialists really tried to drive performance. Some even pushed low capacity but cheap drives in a bid not to replace the HDD but to work alongside …

Intel has quietly released new firmware and an updated firmware loader that, it claims, fixes the problems 64-bit Windows 7 users had been experiencing with its second-generation, 34nm X25-M SSDs. The original firmware was released more than a month ago, on 26 October 2009. Almost immediately, drive owners began posting claims …

Memory maker Micron has introduced what may be the first solid-state drive fitted with a 6Gb/s Sata 3.0 connector. The RealSSD C300 is being pitched as "the fastest drive for notebook and desktop personal computers". Easy to say, that, and Micron followed it up by stating the C300 is faster than any other SSD connected by a …

Memory and storage specialist OCZ has unwrapped its latest SSD and it's a biggie: the Colossus packs in 1TB of solid-state storage. The price is enormous, too: $3572 (£2123/€2392) for that terabyte capacity, though cheaper (sort of) 500GB, 250GB and 120GB versions are available for the less well-heeled. OCZ Colossus OCZ's …

Review We are deeply impressed by solid-state drive technology and would love to recommend that you ditch your hard drive immediately. However, there are a few obstacles. You can buy a 2TB hard drive for £135 but have to fork out £195 for an 80GB Intel SSD, up to £300 for a 128GB SSD and £500 for a 256GB SSD. Kingston SSD Now V 40GB …

Intel has once again promised a fix for the glitchy firmware update tool it released for its 34nm solid-state drives last month. But it still can't say when the new version will arrive. The chip giant released new firmware for the drives on 26 October. The following day it pulled the software after a number of users running 64 …