Will Green Hard Drives Go the Distance?

By Sandy Cosser

As Joel Hruska from Ars Technica says, green is the new black in the IT industry. Everything is going green, from data centres to hard drives, and IT companies are doing their utmost to be seen as part of the environment solution and not part of the problem. Hard drive manufacturer, Western Digital, got into the game a while ago with its line of efficient GreenPower hard drives. They have recently extended their range with the launch of the new enterprise storage division: RE2-GP. The RE2-GP drives come in three sizes: 500GB, 750GB and 1TB.

With all the hype and activity surrounding the rush to go green, Hruska questioned whether all developments were effective and delivered on their promises, or whether companies were simply climbing on the bandwagon and sticking a "green" label on their products. Happily, in Western Digital's case, it appears as though they are the real deal.

Western Digital's new drives make use of three different systems, which work in conjunction to make the RE2-GP up to 40% more efficient than their competitors, without sacrificing performance or reliability. They also claim that while in use, the RE2-GP uses 4 to 5W less power than competitors' hard drives.

The three systems which make up the RE2-GP are: IntelliPower, which manages the transfer rate, spin speed and caching algorithms; IntelliPark, which controls the drive heads, and reduces drag by moving them off the disk while the entire system is idle; and IntelliSeek, which calculates exactly how fast the drive heads need to move for the system to function continuously. The drive heads then move at the optimum speed and no faster, which reduces power consumption.

Western Digital estimates that the biggest power savings will be seen in data centres, where companies can expect to save $10 (R70-80) per RE2-GP drive installed. In sum, large companies that make use of multiple hard drives can save tens of thousands of dollars per year (or hundreds of thousands of Rands).

Western Digital's GreenPower drives and RE2-GP systems were reviewed by The Tech Report, which reported that they are as power efficient as they claim to be. This is good news for green computing endeavours on the whole, as various companies' efforts are vindicated and technology is proved to work just as well as traditional computing methods. It also encourages other companies to give green a try, which is essential in driving competition and the evolution of technology. Only time will tell if these efforts stand up to the demands of consumers in the long-term, but the important thing is that, for the moment, steps are being taken to address a pressing environmental problem.

Recommended site:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071125-western-digital-bills-its-new-re2-gp-drive-as-the-greenest-ever.html

Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers Data Detect data salvage and recovery one of the most experienced and expert providers of data recovery services in South Africa

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