Laptop RAID: The First Eggs Have Been Laid

Almost two years ago (yikes!), in one of my first odes to the wonders of RAID mirroring, I stated my aspiration that laptop computer manufacturers would begin offering systems containing dual RAID 1-configured 1.8" HDDs instead of a single 2.5" HDD. Such an approach has two fiscal shortcomings, of course:

• 1.8" HDDs cost more than their 2.5" brethren on a price-per-GByte basis, and
• For the same equivalent capacity, a RAID 1 setup requires two drives as compared to its non-mirrored alternative

However, consider consumers' continued ignorance of the fundamental impermanence of HDDs, as reflected in their reluctance to do regular backups, coupled with their growing reliance on HDDs to store valuable, irreplaceable information such as archived emails, photos and videos, purchased multimedia content, and financial records. It seems to me that computer manufacturers could fairly easily convince at least a portion of their customers to pay a premium for enhanced data security….a move that'd also reduce the companies' technical support costs.

Two recent data points indicate that my forecasted trend is beginning to come to fruition:

• Toshiba just introduced three proliferations of its Satellite A135 notebook PC line, one of them (the upcoming A135-S4499) containing dual 120 GByte SATA HDDs. Although information on the system is scant at the moment, a read-through of the press release suggests that RAID 0 (striped, for performance), RAID 1 (mirrored), JBOD and conventional dual-drive configurations are all supported. To wit: "The multimedia-rich Satellite A135-S4499 incorporates two 120GB serial ATA hard drives to provide consumers with the luxury of optimum storage capacity using both drives and the convenience of using one drive for business applications, while reserving the second hard drive for music, photos and other multimedia files…. Toshiba’s new Satellite A135 notebook PC with dual hard drives offers consumers advanced multimedia performance and maximum storage capacity…. By designing a notebook computer that features dual hard drives, the Satellite A135 platform provides consumers with a notebook computer that increases the system’s overall functionality while providing optimal storage capacity and secure data redundancy on one drive…. Designed for mobile enthusiasts and multimedia professionals…." It's interesting that Toshiba squeezed two HDDs and an optical disc into the A135-S4499; the press release doesn't give drive dimensions or RPM specifications for the dual-HDD configuration so I'm guessing the A135-S4499 contains 1.8" HDDs while the two single-drive Satelite A135 flavours embed faster and cheaper 2.5" HDDs.
• Apple MacBooks, MacBook Pros and now-obsolete PowerBooks don't come in two-HDD configurations, but a third-party vendor is addressing the (at least as-yet) unmet need. MCE Technologies' OptiBay drives come in form factors that exactly mimic the size and shape of the internal optical drive they replace. Yes, alas, you won't be able to add a second HDD while retaining the integrated Combo Drive or SuperDrive, but the company does (in some cases) also provide an enclosure so you can still externally tether the optical drive to your Apple laptop over USB2 or FireWire. If you're squeamish about cracking open your system to perform the transplant, they'll even perform the surgery for you….at an additional cost, of course.

Toshiba's in an interesting potential standards-setting position here. As a majour manufacturer of small form factor HDDs, they can provide the PC division with attractive pricing. And as a majour manufacturer of mobile computers, they can motivate competitors to follow their feature set lead. Ironically, I was just talking with HDD division representatives about dual-drive system demand two weeks ago at CES. This'll be fun to watch….