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Solid State Drives and Data Loss

I was just looking at an announcement of the HP Mini 2140 netbook, and came across this gem:It features an 80GB solid state drive, a feature we're seeing more and more in netbooks these days, which means ultra fast start up times and quick processing of applications. They've bundled this in with the HP 3D Driveguard which contains a three axis digital accelerometer chip that automatically shuts down your screen when it gets knocked, protecting it from unexpected data loss.
Written by J.A. Watson, Contributor

I was just looking at an announcement of the HP Mini 2140 netbook, and came across this gem:

It features an 80GB solid state drive, a feature we're seeing more and more in netbooks these days, which means ultra fast start up times and quick processing of applications. They've bundled this in with the HP 3D Driveguard which contains a three axis digital accelerometer chip that automatically shuts down your screen when it gets knocked, protecting it from unexpected data loss.

Ok, one of us is confused here... I've read that paragraph over and over again, and I can't get it to make any sense. Admittedly, I got my degree in Electrical Engineering a LONG time ago (we were still soldering individual transistors on circuit boards, I swear...), but exactly what is the HP 3D Driveguard going to "shut down", either in the solid state drive or the screen (I can't tell from the way it is written which of those is being "protected"), and exactly what kind of data loss could result from it getting "knocked", anyway? The more I read it, the more it sounds like they are talking about the screen - are the things you are looking at likely to fall off and scatter on the floor around you?

I went back and checked the HP product web page, and eventually found what I expected to be the case:

160 GB 5400 rpm SATA, 160 GB 7200 rpm SATA; with HP 3D DriveGuard (supported on Windows models only); 80 GB Solid State Drive

So the DriveGuard is for the standard rotating mechanical drives, and has nothing to do with the solid state drive (or the screen). Oh, and I am mildly saddened to see the note about "Windows only"; my HP 2133 Mini-Note also has the DriveGuard with windows, and I had just though last night that I should check to see if they have something similar for the factory-loaded Linux version. Sigh.

jw 30/1/2009

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