Ergasiophobia's Journal: 50 terabyte flash drive made of bug protein

A prototype USB drive using bug protein to store data in the neighborhood of around 50 terabytes worth of data could be here in less then 18 months. This idea first started out by coating DVDs with a layer of protein so that one day solid state memory could hold so much information that storing data on your computer hard drive will be obsolete, says Professor V Renugopalakrishnan of the Harvard Medical School in Boston while reporting on his findings at the International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Brisbane this week.

The whole story is available here. This brings up an interesting question. With USB ports getting faster and faster, and the storage space of small portable storage devices getting bigger and bigger, will the hard drive ever be phased out for personal use?