Seagate Launches First USB-Powered Desktop Hard Drive

[petalino]

Seagate today announced the launch of the Innov8, which it claims to be the world's first desktop-class external hard drive that does not need to be plugged into a power outlet. The HDD is compatible with the Retina MacBook and other USB-C notebooks.

Innov8 is an 8TB hard drive powered by a single USB-C cable, eliminating the need for a dedicated power source or adapter. The achievement was possible through USB 3.1 advancements and Seagate's new Ignition Boost Technology.

Seagate was the recipient of a 2016 Red Dot design award for the Innov8, which features an aluminum enclosure that can be placed horizontally or vertically on a desk.

Innov8 will be available in April for $349 through Seagate, Amazon, and select resellers. 200GB of free Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage is included.

Article Link: Seagate Launches First USB-Powered Desktop Hard Drive

"Ignition Boost Technology"

I usually associate ignition with a car engine, rocket, spaceship.... but with my Hard Drive?
Calling it Turbocharged Ignition Boost Technology may impress me even more!

 

[Markoth]

HFS and NTFS formats need to be opened up. I'm sick of having to stick to FAT32 for compatibility but not having the ability to actually take advantage of larger drives thanks to the 4gb file size limit. Exfat is nice but it has it's problems and not every device recognizes it.
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Media.

HFS is actually a well-understood and open format. Read this if you're curious:
https://developer.apple.com/legacy/library/technotes/tn/tn1150.html

Microsoft has some decent documentation on NTFS too:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc781134(v=ws.10).aspx

The issue is that both filesystems are designed for the operating systems they come from, and are not ideal formats for cross-platform filesystems. I'm not sure what issues you've been having with exFAT, but as far as I'm concerned, it's the filesystem to use for portability. Any device made in the last few years should support it.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Cool product but I would never pay more than 100 for a hard drive. They're so unreliable.

chicken and egg, buy a better hard drive and method to keep it cool and it will be reliable.

 

[MikhailT]

Off-topic: I'm really frustrated to how Thunderbolt 1/2 have been ditched in such a short period of time. I have two of these ports on my laptop and won't be using them in the foreseeable future...

TB3 has already adopted more widespread support than TB1/2 did ever in many years in the PC world and it will continue to do so because Intel is bundling TB3 with USB C, USB 3.1 Gen2 support and all in one smaller and more efficient controller.

TB3 is being used for eGPU support as well, Razor Blade is the first and many companies are planning to do the same.

Western Digital has been making USB powered drives for years. I have about 6 of them, all work fine in both Windows and OS X.

Link to one? All bigger drives required a power supply for me. The notebook drives can be powered via USB but we're talking about 8TB desktop drive, they require far more power that USB2/3 can supply, thus, the USB C requirement with USB-PD.

 

[Bigsk8r]

If it only sits on a desk, the question is why would you pay 50% premium over a normal 8TB USB 3.0 HDD? Sure, you save one power socket, but that saving is hardly worth +$100. The only real advantage of being USB powered is the fact that the drive is portable, but even that's debatable given the high power draw.

Because this is a power user product. Look at the size of the thing. Yes it "can" be used portably when absolutely necessary. But most of the time it's going to be on a desk, or attached to a photographer or videographers laptop for a quick backup of RAW files.

This is not a product that a college kid is going to want to carry to class, or a business man is going to want to carry on a plane to work while on a long flight. It's a product for someone who is 80/20 or 90/10 on desktop to portable use, but when they need it, they gotta have it and not have to fuss with a wall wart or other power cable.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

HFS and NTFS formats need to be opened up. I'm sick of having to stick to FAT32 for compatibility but not having the ability to actually take advantage of larger drives thanks to the 4gb file size limit. Exfat is nice but it has it's problems and not every device recognizes it.
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Media.

ext3 would like to meet you.

edit: sorry, spaced the fact that you were looking for compatibility, presumably you mean that you use the drive with OS X and Windows. I format ext3 and then plug my drives to network devices so I can access as network shares on whatever device I want.

 

[Ed217]

WD makes simple ones up to 3TB. I have a number of their 2TB units which work well.

 

[charlieroberts]

Dear God this better have two USB ports so you can charge your MacBook while using it.

The point? No extra power adapter and no extra need for wall sockets.
Cool idea but if it only has one usb then its a missed oportunity

 

[thisisnotmyname]

How do people use and need 8TB for anything outside of work use?!

I have 32 TB raw (4x8TB) on my home network (plus the smaller local storage on individual computers/devices). Quite a bit is lost among the base 10/base 2 marketing game the drive manufacturers play, and formatted overhead, and RAID etc... I think that's about 21-22TB usable (haven't looked in a while though). I still have a good deal of free space for now but I'll chew it all up over time. Lots of pictures, home movies, iTunes content, backups of everything, etc... it adds up.

 

[n-evo]

Does this drive have any secondary power source (being able to plug it into an outlet and MacBook at the same time)? Would be a shame if your battery craps out on you while transferring data.

 

[grayskyz]

Western Digital has been making USB powered drives for years. I have about 6 of them, all work fine in both Windows and OS X.

Sure, but their desktop drives require AC adapters and a wall to plug them into . The 2.5" ones are powered over usb.
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TB3 has already adopted more widespread support than TB1/2 did ever in many years in the PC world and it will continue to do so because Intel is bundling TB3 with USB C, USB 3.1 Gen2 support and all in one smaller and more efficient controller.

TB3 is being used for eGPU support as well, Razor Blade is the first and many companies are planning to do the same.

I think I've only ever seen a couple of motherboards that have TB3 and I'm not even sure they're shipping yet. Will everything be TB3? Probably not, just because it has the same connector does't mean it will support TB3. I did read that there will be backward compatibility with TB 1/2/3 just not sure to what extent.

I'd love me some TB3 for eGPU support though.

 

[EdT]

He was talking about POWER, you are talking about current, which makes no sense.

Without getting into power correction factors and component efficiencies, the basic formula for Power is Power = Volts x Amps. So at any given voltage 30 amps would equal a lot more power if the voltage is the same. I don't know computer architecture as well as I use to but 30 amps for any component inside a computer sounds extremely high though. Should it have been 30 watts (Power) instead?

 

[bladerunner2000]

Dear God this better have two USB ports so you can charge your MacBook while using it.

The point? No extra power adapter and no extra need for wall sockets.
Cool idea but if it only has one usb then its a missed oportunity

Missed opportunity is on Apple releasing a laptop with more than one USB port. I don't see why Seagate needs to change it's products just to fix Apple's stupid decisions.

 

[erinsarah]

If a hard drive lasts more than 2 years, it will likely last for 10. Most if not all have warranties to get you past that 2.

I've got three externals (two La Cie, one Seagate) all over 5 years old, the oldest one over ten years old. Still going strong. On the other hand I've replaced two internal iMac drives in the past 5 years.
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How do people use and need 8TB for anything outside of work use?!

Photos, p0rn, movies, p0rn, email archives, p0rn, p0rn, and p0rn. And documents.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

I've got three externals (two La Cie, one Seagate) all over 5 years old, the oldest one over ten years old. Still going strong. On the other hand I've replaced two internal iMac drives in the past 5 years.

Right. I've had a couple cheap externals with bad case designs/poor cooling die early but then the companies have warrantied them. Good desktop drives in quality external enclosure and good quality drives inside my NAS have been great. I end up replacing them to upgrade capacity before they even start reporting errors let alone die.

 

[skinned66]

If only my PVR had USB C. Oh well we'll get there eventually.

 

[Mums]

How do people use and need 8TB for anything outside of work use?!

I've been making videos for years and am pushing past 4TB of archives. 8TB would be excellent.

Does anybody know if this Seagate will work with 2013 new Mac Pro?

 

[star-affinity]

Is it USB 3.1 Gen2 or Gen1? Seems nowhere to be found.

 

[heeloliver]

I've been making videos for years and am pushing past 4TB of archives. 8TB would be excellent.

Does anybody know if this Seagate will work with 2013 new Mac Pro?

No, it uses USB C which the 2013 Mac Pro doesn't have.

 

[macduke]

Cool product but I would never pay more than 100 for a hard drive. They're so unreliable.

Seems like that might be your problem. I spend more for Hitachi G-Drives and they've always been reliable lasting for many years.

--

I'm hoping that someday we don't need wires at all. It's neat to lose half the wires with this new drive, but I have to wonder if wireless power will ever become truly viable. At the very least it would be nice to have a power mat to put everything on my desk, which could communicate wirelessly or at the very least through the mat itself.

Personally I'm dreading moving because setting up the cable management on my desk is always such a massive pain. I have so many USB and power cords running everywhere. So something like this would be great. On the surface everything looks fine but there's a massive tangle behind my monitor from my switching things out, but everything is routed efficiently under the desk so you can't see the mess. I should also probably take the time to consolidate all of my media onto two mirrored larger drives instead of being split across several mirrored smaller drives. My storage needs have really fallen off in recent years as the TB race finally massively surpassed what I typically need. I mainly archive photos and videos that I take of family events as well as personal art projects and store all of my movies and music in the cloud. I also need to get a Thunderbolt hub at some point so I don't have so many USB dongles all over the place for audio, card readers, ethernet, and the drives. Getting new drives also means I won't need my eSATA adapters which help my older G-Drives achieve decent speeds since they don't have USB 3.0.

I think I'll just buy a new 5k iMac next year with a RAID 1 8TB USB-C enclosure and just be done with things until 2024 or so. I just hope Intel kicks their chips up a notch because I haven't had much reason to upgrade from my mid-2012 MBP except to want a big, sharp display which won't run above 30Hz on my machine. So I have an old 1920x1200 display from 2008 that I still get by with. It was a really high-end monitor at the time, but over the years the color balance has shifted so bad (beyond calibration) that I have to do all my photo corrections on my MBP display. It also has issues staying connected with my Mac sometimes, but it seems to be doing better on 10.11 so who knows if it's the monitor or not. But I think getting an iMac would also mean I could get a smaller desk and have a tidy and concise working space, which I like the idea of. Only problem with that is my massive 13x19" Canon printer. Maybe I'll buy the newer wireless version and stick it in the basement of our new place.

 

[jdillings]

How do people use and need 8TB for anything outside of work use?!

4K Porn

 

[MuseumVisitor]

Im going to take this opportunity and congratulate to Seagate on their professionalism and business. A few weeks ago one of my LaCie’s suddenly died. It was just over 2 years old and pass the warranty date. I contacted the company anyway and they were sorry to what happen to my drive (thanks God I have backups of everything). They offered to replace it even though it was not covered anymore and few days later in exchange for the destroyed 3TB d2 USB 3 Thunderbolt I got a newer version of a 4TB d2 TBT2 USB3 drive! This new HD is probably refurbished, but looks new and never used. Further more, it works like a charm on my old MacBook Pro 2009 that would eject every HD that I tried to hook on. This new LaCie never ejects and super quiet.

Thanks Seagate!

 

[dyt1983]

The issue is that both filesystems are designed for the operating systems they come from, and are not ideal formats for cross-platform filesystems.

hmm, exFAT is also designed for the operating system from which it comes, and is not an ideal format for a cross-platform file system. It does however have a few features that make it ideal for large flash media.

 

[sudo1996]

8TB seagate....do you feel lucky and love your data?

That's what I was thinking.
- 8TB
- Seagate
- HDD meant for desktop that you're carrying around as if it's portable
- USB-powered, which might not be very reliable (EDIT: NVM, it's USB-C, so there's more power)
I'd be surprised if this lasted long. Oh well, use it for backups I guess, but it's also expensive.

 

[ziggie216]

Damn how far we have come... I think I spend about $300 on my first 1.6GB HD back then when it first came out and I thought I would never run out of space.