[craig @ Apr 23rd 2007 10:16AM]

"faster boot times? lower power consumption?"

...which could be added conventionally rather than through a hybrid hard drive. Doing so would cost little and would allow you to choose a conventional hard drive without capacity limitations.

I say again, why would anyone pay extra for a hard drive *downgrade* in order to get a lousy 256MB of flash. Far more flash could be added cost effectively without changing the hard drive at all.

[Kev50027 @ Apr 23rd 2007 12:12PM]

you don't understand, obviously. Just any flash memory won't do, they're not just attaching a 256 MB thumbdrive to the hard drive and calling it a day, they're using very quick flash memory that will drastically speed up applications, and allow the hard drive to shut down so that the computer runs entirely off flash and RAM.

After saying that, I don't see much of a future in hybrid hard drives. I think flash memory will come down in price soon enough that we will just toss an old hard drive for a same size, same interface flash storage device.

Hybrid drives are a step in the right direction.

[craig @ Apr 23rd 2007 12:28PM]

"Very quick flash memory" could be added anywhere in the system--there's no reason to assume that you can only put it in a hard drive or attach it via a slow connection like USB. Adding flash inside a hard drive is the worst place to put it since it's the furthest away from the CPU. Furthermore, flash doesn't need to be added in the hard drive to allow the drive to spin down. All that's necessary for that is to have enough. It's unlikely that 256MB of flash, like this solution provides, is "enough" for very many applications.

There is plenty of flash that is large enough, fast enough, and cheap enough to beat this solution and not require comprimises in drive capacity in order to obtain it. Hybrid drives exist because that's all drive manufacturers can do; not because they make technical sense. The sad thing is that there are people who believe that hybrid drives are somehow magically better and that I disagree because I "don't understand". Microsoft understands, they are the ones driving this solution, and they are not pushing hybrid drives.