Flash Or Hard Drives For Laptops? Why Not Both, Manufacturers AskFlash Or Hard Drives For Laptops? Why Not Both, Manufacturers Ask

With Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system taking longer to boot up and flash drive providers nipping at their heels, several hard drive manufacturers have banded together to promote hybrid flash-hard drives for laptop computers.

The Hybrid Storage Alliance maintains that the hybrid flash-hard disk technology will speed up the boot process for Vista while still offering the high capacity of hard drives. The founding members of the alliance are Fujitsu, Hitachi, Samsung Electronics, Seagate Technology, and Toshiba, according to an announcement Thursday.

"Adding non-volatile memory to the hard drive brings about a host of mobility benefits that increase the value users want in notebook PCs—longer battery life, faster response, greater system durability," said Joni Clark, chairperson of the alliance.

The hybrid drives enable users to boot directly from a flash memory chip and also facilitate quick recovery from hibernation mode. By curtailing hard disk platter spin time, power usage is reduced and battery life is extended, the alliance noted.

Microsoft's Mobile and Tailored Platform Division has endorsed the goals of the alliance as it seeks to improve the user experience with Vista. Bill Mitchell, corporate VP of the Microsoft unit, said: "Hybrid drives will leverage 'Windows ReadyDrive' features in Windows Vista to enable a new generation of mobile PCs that boot up and resume from hibernation faster, optimize battery life, outperform standard hard disk drives, and are more reliable and robust."

Citing market research that predicts that 35% of laptops will use hybrid drives by 2010, alliance members said the combo drives are expected to begin appearing in high-end laptops by the end of the first quarter this year.