WD starts to ship ‘skinny’ 2.5″ 1TB drive

Western Digital have now started to ship a new variety of the standard 2.5″ hard drive designed for the more ‘anorexic’ of notebooks.

Western Digital are a leader in the desktop mobile, high-capacity enterprise and consumer markets for hard drives. The recently launched WD 1TB Scorpio Blue is a two platter design, each being 500 GB, but is only 9.5mm thick.

WD Scorpio Blue mobile hard drives are designed with ruggedness, reliability and data-protection features that actively watch over valuable data.

“With the release of the 1 TB WD Scorpio Blue notebook drive in a 9.5 mm package, WD is able to offer the greatest storage capacity available for use in portable computing environments,” said Matt Rutledge, vice president and
general manager of Client Storage for WD. “Mobile users no longer need to choose maximum capacity over thin and light, WD is ready with storage options, achieved without compromise to performance and reliability, that
prove ideal for mobile digital devices of all kinds including PC and Mac notebook computers; external storage; and digital media players.”

WD Scorpio Blue Features:

• Low power consumption – Advanced power management features and algorithms optimise the way the drive seeks for data, which significantly improves power consumption.
• Cool and quiet – In a notebook drive, silence is golden. WD‘s exclusive WhisperDrive(tm) technology yields one of the quietest 2.5-inch hard drives on the market.
• Reliable – WD‘s SecurePark(tm) parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down, and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved long term reliability due to less head wear, and improved non-operational shock tolerance.
• Shock Tolerant – WD‘s ShockGuard(tm) technology, now increased to a best-in-market 400Gs shock pecification, protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks.
• Advanced Format (AF) – Technology being adopted by WD and other drive manufacturers to continue growing hard drive capacities. New drives featuring AF are optimised for operation with the following operating system software: Windows® 7, Windows Vista(tm) and Mac OS X Tiger®, Leopard®, Snow Leopard® (PVT models only).
• Tested for compatibility – WD performs tests on hundreds of systems and a multitude of platforms in its FIT Lab(tm) and Mobile Compatibility Lab to give customers confidence that drives will work in specific systems.