Western Digital Ships 250GB Hard Drives for Notebooks

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Western Digital is shipping its 250 GB WD Scorpio 2.5-inch Serial ATA hard drives. The drives employ perpendicular magnetic recording technology to achieve the highest capacity available in a small form factor drive and have WD proprietary features that make the drive quiet, use less power and run at cool operating temperatures. According to market research firm, IDC, adoption of PMR technology in mobile 2.5-inch hard drives will sustain an increase in the average capacity shipped close to the average growth rate of 32 percent for the past five years. The firm states that by 2011, shipments of mobile 2.5-inch hard drives will more than double 2006 shipment volumes.

Demand for 2.5-inch hard drives continues to increase at a rapid pace, driven by notebook computers, portable storage devices and consumer electronics products. Users of these applications need high capacity drives to manage storage-hungry content. WD Scorpio drives deliver the performance and features to meet demands that are specific to notebook PCs and portable storage devices, such as WD Passport portable drives: quiet operation, high shock tolerance and low power consumption. The new WD Scorpio drive further expands the company's breadth of 2.5-inch mobile hard drive offerings to capacity points ranging from 40 GB up to 250 GB.

WD's exclusive WhisperDrive technology combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms to yield it one of the quietest 5400 RPM, 2.5-inch drives available. ShockGuard technology combines firmware and hardware advancements to protect the drive mechanics and platter surface to meet the highest combined shock tolerance specifications required for mobile and notebook applications.

Another unique WD Scorpio 250 GB feature is its IntelliSeek technology, which proactively calculates an optimum seek speed to eliminate hasty movement of the actuator that produces noise and requires power, which is common in other drives. With IntelliSeek, the actuator's movement is controlled so the head reaches the next target sector just in time to read the next piece of information, rather than rapidly accelerating and waiting for the drive rotation to catch up. This smooth motion reduces power usage by more than 60 percent compared with standard drives, as well as quiets seek operation and lowers vibration.

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