Instant Erase
Does that mean the drive encrypts everything by default and just throws away the key to "erase" the data?
Toshiba, the newest third 3.5-inch disk drive manufacturer, has announced a 5TB drive, beating other suppliers except HGST. HGST has gone 1TB better with its 6TB helium-filled Ultrastar product but Toshiba is the first manufacturer, we believe, to introduce a 5TB air-filled drive. We're expecting 5TB drives from Seagate this …
Why did you put "erase" in quotes like that? Do you think that method is somehow insecure?
The key would be stored in NVRAM or flash, so once overwritten with a new key it is gone gone gone. Even if you had some known plaintext (you knew it was a Windows boot drive, for instance) its going to take someone with the resources of the NSA to decrypt it.
They aren't claiming MILSPEC instant erase, but it is good enough for your banking data or your bank's credit card database. If you're paranoid, you can always overwrite the unreadable data with garbage if you have enough time while you're waiting for the feds to get off their bullhorns and bust down your door.
1) Insert bare drive in external docking bay.
2) Forget to take proper precautions and turn away for a brief moment
3) Resident feline with nickname of "Catastrophe" demolishes the drive, docking bay, definitely chews the crap out of the cable, and knocks any open drink containers over into your PC vents
It's the only way to be sure...
@EPurpl3: I can only think that you are doing something wrong with your HDDs.
I have 2 PCs (3 & 5 years old), 2 laptops (3 & 2 years old), and two Fileservers (9x2TB greens and 6x3TB reds, 5 and 2 years old respectively)) at home. I have had exactly zero (0) drive failure in all the years I have used this particular set of hardware; and prior to that I have had one (1) HDD failure in the 20-odd years I have been building my own PCs - it occurred within a week of buying the drive, and got replaced under warranty.
In fact most of the time the PC's motherboard or the laptop itself dies before the drive does (the wife's latest laptop got rebuilt around her HDD after the cat poured coffee over it) - and the drives themselves get recycled as portable drives using cheap enclosures (ex-laptop drives are great for that).
For the record, I prefer WD drives... but that's a personal preference. YMMV.
Give the laptop to the kids for a few months then the attrition rate may rise. Though I wouldn't store critical data on it.
Tried replacing with an OCZ SSD but had to go back to spinning rust as when the Mint distribution closed unexpectedly more often than not it took the file system with it. Hopefully Toshiba improve their S/W.
Same here (though not quite as much photo data).
I hate digital photos. Last holiday it got so bad with all the digital paraphernalia, I just wanted to dig out my 12 year old Olympus Mju II 35mm compact and take three rolls of film like we used to back then. One camera and approx 100 shots to capture the three week holiday in.
Perfect.
Unfortunately, my other half wouldn't have it, so she won.