WD ships 1TB drive in 9.5mm notebook configuration

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 04 August 2011 12:21

Your IT - Mobility

With 1TB hard drives normally 12.5mm and too big for most notebooks that can only take 9.5mm drives, Western Digital's slim and trim HDD fits that 9.5mm mould, giving road warriors more space to store.

Space. It's the final frontier, and when you're on the go, the last thing you need is more fiddly external drives to cart around and weigh you down.

Expanding those spatial frontiers is hard drive maker Western Digital, or WD, which has finally start 'volume shipments' of its WD Scorpio Blue hard disk, a 2.5-inch drive that is only 9.5mm in height.

This 9.5mm height is crucial, because it's the height of most 2.5-inch notebook drives, and while 1TB drives have been available in the past, they've been 12.5mm in height, making them far too tall for the slim and trim notebooks most expect to see and buy.  

WD says its new Blue is 'designed for mainstream notebook computers', and packs 500GB per platter, with the 1TB drive naturally having two 500GB platters to deliver the storage goods.

WD also says its Scorpio Blue drives are 'designed with ruggedness, reliability and data-protection features that actively watch over valuable data', while achieving 'excellent power and performance, making it an ideal solution for notebook computers and other portable devices that require extended battery life and cool, ultra quiet operation.'

Matt Rutledge, the VP and GM of Client Storage at WD said: '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.

'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.'

Please read on to page two for the Scorpio Blue's features, pricing and a photo.