Hitachi Hard Disk Drives

With their purchase of IBM's data storage division in 2003, Hitachi inherited IBM's famous (and infamous) hard disk drive brands. They have since added new drive families. Their current hard disk drive line-up consists of the following drive families :

• the Hitachi Ultrastar for their high-performance, high-reliability models,
• the Hiatchi Deskstar for their high-speed desktop hard disk drives,
• the Hitachi Travelstar for their mobile hard disk drives, and finally,
• the Hitachi CinemaStar for their CE (consumer electronics) models.
• the Hitachi Endurastar for hard disk drives that are designed to survive harsh working environments.

The Hitachi CinemaStar is an established family of hard disk drives with no less than five different models available. They are all targeted at consumer electronics (CE) applications, such as PVRs, DVRs and CCTV systems. Hence, they have a feature set that focuses on this segment :

• Designed for on-demand digital video - Optimized to record multiple, simultaneous video streams, Hitachi SmoothStream technology supports the ATA‑7 streaming command set, and SCT provides time-limited error recovery and thermal monitoring capabilities. Because IT data and video streams have different throughput demands, AV-Zoning allows the definition of various error recovery procedures for predefined ranges of data blocks or zones to enable the system to effectively deliver critical data and time-sensitive video content from a single drive. Other features that help tailor this drive for streaming video applications include Read Continuous mode, which helps manage error recovery for video streams, and Media Maintenance enhancements, preventing track wear-out from around-the-clock operation.

• Less power for cooler operation and longer life - Leveraging eighth generation power management technology, as well as power-saving HiVERT innovations pioneered on Hitachi 2.5-inch notebook drives, this new CinemaStar hard drive provides up to 18% idle power savings over the previous model, delivering best-in-class power management and thermal emissions.

• Robust technology for a more sustainable environment -All CinemaStar products are enhanced with silent-seek acoustics to deliver bedroom-quiet operation, and the Hitachi patented load/unload ramp mechanism that helps prevent disk wear and protects the disk during non-operation.

This review will be looking at one of Hitachi's latest 7200 RPM CinemaStar model - the 500 GB CinemaStar 7K1000.C hard disk drive. Let's take a look!

Packaging

Like most OEM-packed hard drives, the Hitachi CinemaStar 7K1000.C hard disk drive came in just a sealed anti-static plastic packet with a sachet of dessicants to keep it dry. Other than the sparse packaging (and no documentation), this OEM-packed drive is no different from the retail version, right down to the 1-year warranty.

All you need to do is cut open the plastic packet and slide out the drive. Be sure to ground yourself before removing and handling the hard disk drive as static can damage it. In particular, you should try to avoid touching the exposed PCB located on the drive's underside.

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