discover free extra gigs on your hard drive!

[ToiletDuck]

A typical 700MB CD does not have an extra 100MB hidden away on it, like you said.

You're right it doesn't. That wasn't the point. The point was that there ARE some out there that do. I have a whole stack of disk with 850mb+ on them right here on a spindle. Find media that works and you can always just buy more of it. So saying typical 700mb disk is just revelent to what you buy. All i get are the disk that do the 900mb so all the disk i come across do it. The point of the story was that sometimes there are ways of getting more out of something and it is a sport getting it to do so. *small hint* "Overclocking CPU's, motherboards, GPU's, watercooling, freon cooling; all of these are not practicle. But people do them anyway. This whole forum, this whole entire group of people come here because we enjoy doing all the things we supposidly "aren't capable of doing". It is fun and interesting. We try it and come here to talk about it. Not bash others that want to believe in it and get a big enough pair to go find out. Reading other posts and relying on that as proof for your argument means absolutely nothing. I'm looking at two partitions right now that are writing. Maybe when the otherone gets full it will start writing over my new one. But at what point? If i still manage to put 15-20 extra gigs on a drive before rewriting it then mission accomplished. There are those that try and those that "comment" having not tried at all. The later has no ground to stand on in my book. Be a pioneer.

 

[zachj]

I suggest that if you're trying it out, have VERY large files on both partitions, so it's easy to find out when something's corrupted. If you're trying on a drive using a bunch of documents and random files and music and what not, it's probably going to be impossible to find out when stuff gets overwritten.

Z

 

[skahtul]

Hmmmmm I'll look around for the harddrive. However InPhase has an 800GB CDrom drive right now.

Why don't you provide the link where you can actually buy one of these, I couldn't find it. I did see that they were going to ship a "first generation" 200GB drive in 2006 however...
Sounds like a REALLY COOL technology though.

 

[ToiletDuck]

you can download the video on their main page. The show a working 800gb model.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

I don't think it was my intent or anyone else's to bash anybody. It's just that our hobby of getting more out of PC hardware is based upon the established knowledge that draws baselines of what is and is not possible.

Is the inphase technology the same thing as the holographic media thing? I remember a while back hearing about some sort of holographic media that had somewhat ridiculous storage capacity potential.

 

[ToiletDuck]

download the video it's worth it

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Whats the file size on that? I'm on dial-up and fairly picky about what I bother to download.

 

[makaka]

i cant find the video any direct link?
THANKS

 

[Cjwinnit]

I suggest that if you're trying it out, have VERY large files on both partitions, so it's easy to find out when something's corrupted. If you're trying on a drive using a bunch of documents and random files and music and what not, it's probably going to be impossible to find out when stuff gets overwritten.

Z

Might be worth investigating MD5 Checksums. Reads a file and chucks out a 128-bit hex result. if even one bit is changed the entire result changes dramatically.

While this sounds very compelling, I'd like to point out that the Inquirer is a tabloid in the UK. On the other hand, the results from the other forum can't be ignored.

Really? Not seen it in a paper shop here..

 

[zachj]

That would be even easier (of course I was thinking 700MB+ files, so it's not that many files depending on drive size)

Z

 

[Cjwinnit]

I have a great checksum program called wXChecksums, definately worth a try (It's free software.)

If anyone wants an idea of the output, the MD5 to the file "Overclockix3.4-2_29_2004.iso" is:

f9fd999afe04bfdc2f3a09068ae6c3f7

Cross-checked with Ploaf's copy so it's reliable. The chance of two different files having the same checksum is 1/ 2^128 so it's really low.

For example, the MD5 sum to the string "mary had a little lamb" is:

fa198d47557433b6b99e8ac6d3cca6eb

the MD5 sum to the string "Mary had a little lamb" is:

e946adb45d4299def2071880d30136d4

Just changing one character totally altered the checksum.

If anyone wants the (PHP) script I used for this PM

 

[ToiletDuck]

http://www.inphase-technologies.com/ 3.9mb right on their front page on the left.

Holographic Storage Video
See how holographic storage works and the benefits it can provide in markets from consumer to enterprise.
InPhase Video
File format: Quicktime
File Size: 3.9MB
Length: 3:57

 

[makaka]

downloading know thanks for info

 

[upstreamcurrent]

As far as the question about disabling part of the memory to make a, lets say, 100GB HDD out of a 120GB HDD, it seems that they would use a single surface of the platter for that. The 120GB HDD would have 6 20GB surfaces on 3 platters while the 100GB HDD would have 5 20GB surfaces on 3 platters.

I could always be wrong in my interpretations, but that's the way I understand it and the link is here so that anyone can feel free to read and draw there own conclusions about.

http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/op/mediaNumber.html

At least according to this webpage and the guy seems to know a little bit about hard drive.

 

[Cjwinnit]

The way some places get more psace is by "un-shortstroking" a drive, but this does not add a large fraction of space, certianly not more than 50%.

 

[pulsarnx]

one would think that it would be a physcial limitation on the drive.

Now im not an expert by any means, but heres my 2 cents.


Notice that most manuf. dont have abstract drive sizes. So if you have a 80gb drive that came off the line that goes to 120gb, perhaps they would remove one of the 3 platters of 40gb, saving in material costs per drive.

Another thought, perhaps the platter is there but disable in the rom memory or some other form of physical restriction. Leaving the TRUE over clockers to dissasemble their hard drives and tweak them to recover the disabled platter/area/memory.

One more thought, I have a 36.7gb WD Raptor 10000rpm sata hd, and the 74gb version RAPTOR is EXTACTLY THE SAME PHYSICAL DIMENSIONS SAME WEIGHT !!! Which suggest thats this entire thread is based on some truth.. I belive someone else in this thread posted something about weighing drives

EDIT : heres his post

For instance, I have a 40GB IBM 120GXP 7200rpm drive. That series goes up only to 120GB. Thus, assuming that the idea behind the mod is at least *partially* true, then I should be able to get "up to" 120GB, though I think that is not likely at all. The way I see it is this: go out and weigh an 80GB drive and then a 160GB drive or even a 120GB drive in the same series. If the manufacturer is really only disabling part of the space, then they should weigh the same.

Z

here are the links

74GB

36GB

oh by the way, you all need a raptor.. trust me... 2x preformace over 7200 rpm drives, see my HDtach results below

AVERAGE READ is better than MAX BURST on the 7,200rpm

80gb WD 7,200RPM

 

[ToiletDuck]

wow

 

[bchur83]

That is some sweet info pulsarnx, and the weight thing, that is very true, if they weigh the same, then they must be teh same, physically. Cuz if you think of it, if there is an extra platter to make the 74GB vs the 36GB, then that would add weight, but if they weight the same, then they must have the same stuff internally, but the extra space is disabled. WOW, I wish we could see more results on this being able to be "unlocked".

 

[ToiletDuck]

There is no doubt in my mind that there is space that isn't being used. Just like how batch of processors are made and some may be 2.4 ghz while others 2.6 ghz. makes manufacturing much cheaper to produce a lot of one. The thing that bothers me is how once it writes to the end of the disk it it starts overlapping the other partition.

 

[zachj]

I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that the 74GB Raptor is the same drive as the 36GB Raptor, because they AREN'T in the same series. It might well be true, but I think in this particular case, if WD could have marketed a larger drive to begin with, they certainly would have, since one of the few MAJOR drawbacks over SCSI was size. My comment was directed at drives like the 120GXP and 180GXP which all come in different sizes, but are of the same model run. As far as I'm aware, new Raptors are not in the same model.

Z