Western Digital releases 1TB drive for laptops, external USB devices

Computerworld - Western Digital Corp. today unveiled what it said is the industry's highest capacity 2.5-inch mobile hard disk drive, the 1TB WD Scorpio Blue.

The Scorpio Blue, which also comes in a 750GB version, uses three 333GB platters to achieve its high capacity. The drive is mainly aimed at the external portable storage market and will be used in Western Digital's recently released My Passport Essential SE Portable USB drive. But the company said the Scorpio Blue will also be used by "select" laptop and small form-factor PCs.

The company did not elaborate on which computer manufacturers are considering using the new drive.

"Our new WD Scorpio Blue drives enable people to take even more of their digital collections with them wherever they go and, realizing the value of their data, back up their notebooks on their My Passport drives," Jim Morris, senior vice president and general manager of client systems at Western Digital, said in a statement.

Both the 1Tb and the 750GB drives have 8MB of cache and spin at 5,200 rpm.

WD Scorpio Blue features Western Digital's noise-reducing WhisperDrive technology and ShockGuard, which increases shock tolerance for mobile and notebook applications. The new drive also uses the company's SecurePark, which parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down and when the drive is off to ensure the recording head never touches the disk surface. That should lead to improved long-term reliability due to less head wear and improved shock tolerance.

The WD Scorpio Blue 750GB drive (model WD7500KEVT) is available now through select distributors and resellers, and the 1TB capacity (model WD10TEVT) is available now configured into My Passport Essential SE USB drives. The suggested retail price for the 1TB model is $249.99; the 750GB version is priced at $189.99.

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