Hitachi Desktar 250GB SATA Hard Drive
Reviewed by James Sams on 11.08.2004

This drive is a mixed blessing and represents clearly that SATA is still an emerging technology that has not yet ramped up to its potential. The specs on the drive are without argument great. The lab enjoyed watching directory and file listings pop up nearly on command, despite the fact that thousands of files were resident. However, the specs on the drive would not max out the limits even on ATA interface, making the SATA part of this drive something of an unnecessary luxury. While the heat-reducing motor technology associated with SATA is welcome, there is no reason why those motors could not also be used on normal ATA drives. The biggest advantage to this drive being SATA is reduced cable clutter, not having to deal with jumpers, and the ease with which the SATA cables fit into their slots, not exactly tangible benefits of a new technology. This is not to the drive's detriment, but just shows that going SATA at this point is not revealing major benefits except maybe increased drive reliability. Indeed, one of the things that excited so many about SATA, Hot Plug/Unplug capability, is not supported by this drive, with Hitachi claiming, "Damage to the drive electronics may result if the power supply cable is connected or disconnected while power is being applied to the drive." We understand the fear of drive manufacturers of file system corruption due to unplugging a drive that is still mounted or being written to. Of course they will want to cut down on their liability for any data loss of that kind that may occur. Nevertheless, we expect the core features of SATA technology to be implemented in SATA devices.

Speaking of emerging technologies, an interesting thing to note popped up in some of the documentation that Hitachi provided our labs. Specifically, in a reference manual on drive operation under different OS environments, Linux was listed before OSX, though of course still after Windows. We were surprised to see the OSS software not only referenced in the manual, but referenced before what is usually considered a major technology corporation. We applaud Hitachi for providing some support to free software technologies and hope to see other hardware manufacturers do the same with their production of drivers, firmware upgrading mechanisms, and manuals/documentation.

So the final question is, should you buy this drive? With proper comparison being made to other ATA drives as opposed to SCSI, the answer is muddled. The decreased heat production and noise, along with less cable clutter makes the drive extremely attractive. However, ATA drives, while not necessarily getting quite the same performance as this model, are extremely cheap expressed in terms of US$/GByte. If you are in the market for massive, cheap storage, you can do better than this drive. However, if you are looking for a more reliable, long-term product that won't fail on you and will be with you for many motherboards into the future, this is a great choice.

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