Freecom, a Mitsubishi Kagaku Media company and award-winning manufacturer of external hard drives and portable storage devices, today announced the ‘Hard Drive XS 3.0’ – the first external hard drive in the world to offer ‘SuperSpeed USB’ technology. Using USB 3.0, Freecom is offering transfer speeds of approximately 130 MB/s – significantly faster than existing solutions – enabling users to back up and upload information in a matter of seconds.

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Ideal for both home and professional users who want to transfer large files quickly and carry their data on the move, the Hard Drive XS 3.0 is also the smallest 3.5” desktop hard drive available, allowing users to reliably expand their storage capacity with a product that is not only the fastest, but is also compact, portable and easy to use.

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Seagate Technology today announced worldwide availability of the Seagate Secure™ Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) option across its portfolio of enterprise-class hard drives. Products with the Seagate Secure option include: Savvio™ 15K.2, Savvio 10K.3, Constellation™ and Cheetah™ 15K.7 drives.

These enterprise-class products are an extension of Seagate’s first-to-market leadership with Seagate Secure Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) technology, designed to deliver data-at-rest security for servers and storage systems.

“Self-Encrypting Drives are one of the easiest, most cost-effective security measures companies can implement,” said Eric Ouellet, vice president at Gartner. “The use of SEDs provides businesses with complete data-at-rest protection against information breaches that can occur in drives and systems that have been repurposed, decommissioned, disposed of, sent for repair, misplaced or stolen. Because all disk media eventually leaves a company’s control, the use of SEDs ensures that data is protected at these critical stages of a system’s life cycle.”

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Seagate Technology today began global shipments of the world’s fastest, largest-capacity mainstream desktop hard drive – Barracuda® XT, a 7200RPM product featuring 2TB of storage capacity and a blazing fast Serial ATA (SATA) 6Gb/second interface. The 3.5-inch desktop drive, the industry’s first to feature a SATA 6Gb/s interface, meets the capacity demands of gaming, digital video-environments and other storage-hungry desktop computing applications while delivering the highest performance in its class.

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The introduction of the Barracuda XT drive marks the shift to the next generation of desktop computing speed as Seagate doubles the storage bandwidth of current computers.

“Capacity and performance remain the defining attributes of hard drives for PC gamers, digital multimedia content developers and many other customers requiring high-end systems at home and in the office,” said Dave Mosley, executive vice president of Sales and Marketing at Seagate. “Seagate is meeting these requirements with the first 7200RPM desktop hard drive to combine 2TB of storage capacity with the fastest Serial ATA interface to date.”

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Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. and the pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced a new family of high-performance 7,200 RPM 2.5-inch HDDs, including a top-end half-terabyte capacity.

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The four-model line-up delivers more than a 13 percent performance improvement in disk operations compared to Toshiba's previous 7,200 RPM family, while decreasing environmental impact by eliminating or reducing the use of certain toxic and hazardous chemicals. The series also carries the SATA-certified 3Gb/s logo, which indicates successful completion of stringent interface compliance testing defined by the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry body responsible for setting the standards for Serial ATA interface technologies.

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wd my book essential.pngWD®, the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its new, smaller, sleeker My Book® Essential™ and My Book for Mac® desktop external hard drives equipped with the new WD SmartWare™ software and hardware-based encryption. The new appliances visually present consumers' data in a software control center, providing them peace of mind that their precious photos, videos and files are securely protected. Available now at select retailers and the WD online store (shopwd.com), the new My Book Essential and My Book for Mac drives are offered in capacities ranging from 500 GB to 2 TB.

According to research firm Parks Associates, the average U.S. broadband household currently has over 120 gigabytes (GB) of digital media and files, which is expected to grow to over 1 terabyte (TB) of data by 2013. The accelerating shift from physical media (such as photo negatives, CDs and DVDs) to digital media (such as digital photos, videos and downloads) means that consumers' real lives and digital lives are increasingly overlapping. And while 70 percent of consumers back up their content, the majority of these people are using manual, cumbersome methods such as copying and pasting to multiple CDs and DVDs, and less than 18 percent use software that automatically and continuously backs up their content. As a result, many consumers' digital lives are unprotected and at risk.

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Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., the industry pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today introduced a new line of 1.8-inch HDDs with up to 160GB of capacity in a single-platter, five-millimeter-high design targeted for next-generation portable media players, digital video cameras and other consumer electronics products.

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Toshiba's new MKxx34GAL family of 1.8-inch HDDs offers consumer electronics manufacturers a thin and light package with the industry's highest storage capacity, best power consumption efficiency, most durability and quietest seek operation of any HDD on the market.

Equipped with a PATA interface, 4,200 RPM rotational speed and acoustic-reduction features, Toshiba's MKxx34GAL HDD is ideal for audio and video playback applications that require high-capacity in a small footprint with quiet operation to maximize the entertainment experience of the host device. Leveraging Toshiba's long history of technology expertise in miniaturization and the 1.8-inch HDD form factor, the MKxx34GAL is the quietest hard drive produced because of its size and the advanced acoustic management techniques that Toshiba has incorporated into all of its recent mobile HDD platforms.

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WD®, the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its smaller, smarter and more secure My Passport™ Essential™ and My Passport for Mac® ultra-portable external hard drives featuring WD's new WD SmartWare™ software and equipped with hardware-based encryption. The new My Passport drives are more than 20 percent smaller than the previous generation My Passport.

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The new portable drives with WD SmartWare software visually present consumers' data in a control center, providing them peace of mind that their precious photos, videos and files are securely protected. Available now at select retailers and the WD online store (shopwd.com), the new My Passport Essential and My Passport for Mac drives are offered in capacities ranging from 320 GB to 1 TB and come in a range of colors including Pacific Blue, Real Red, Cool Silver and Midnight Black.

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Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today rolled out the red carpet for the newest members of its celebrated CinemaStar™ family of 3.5-inch hard disk drives (HDD). Based on 500GB per platter technology, the new Hitachi CinemaStar product line-up consists of the 7200 RPM, 1TB CinemaStar 7K1000.C and its 1TB, CinemaStar 5K1000 CoolSpin™ companion.

Both product families are built to handle the most demanding high definition (HD) video streams and offer reliable performance, large capacity, quiet operation, advanced AV features, and low power and temperatures that help manufacturers meet design, price and performance objectives for their consumer electronics devices. Along with these benefits, these 1TB performers are able to store nearly 250 hours of MPEG-41 HD video and can handle multiple streams of video simultaneously, making the CinemaStar 7K1000.C and the CinemaStar 5K1000 the perfect drives for consumer electronics applications such as HD DVRs, DVD/HDD recorders, DVR-enabled TVs, media centers, and video surveillance systems.

Now with an expanded capacity range of 160GB to 1TB, the new CinemaStar 5K1000 family features innovative Hitachi CoolSpin Technology, which relies on motor speed optimization to provide a unique balance of performance, power utilization and acoustics. By tuning the motor to make the drive spin slower, thereby reducing harmonic resonance, the CinemaStar 5K1000 is nearly silent at 2.4 bels during operation, draws 3.3 watts or less idle power and generates less heat, which are all critical factors when designing environmentally friendly digital video solutions.

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WD® today announced that it has commenced volume shipments of its 9.5 mm high, 2.5-inch notebook hard drives with 640 GB capacity. The WD Scorpio® Blue™ 640 GB hard drives utilize 320 GB-per-platter technology and are designed for mainstream notebook computers. The WD Scorpio Blue 640 GB is the highest capacity 2.5-inch hard drive available today in the industry-standard 9.5 mm, 2-disk form factor.

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The new WD Scorpio Blue 640 GB drive has a 30 percent reduction in overall power consumption from the previous generation WD Scorpio Blue drive to achieve best-in-class power and performance1, making it an ideal solution for notebook computers and other portable devices that require extended battery life and cool, quiet operation.

"WD continues to provide the market with industry-leading capacity points so consumers and business professionals can take advantage of the ever increasing need to store rich media content, such as high resolution photos, HD videos and music," said Jim Morris, WD's vice president and general manager of client systems. "Our industry-leading power efficiency, achieved without compromise to performance, is a further example of the added features and value that our customers have come to expect from WD."

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Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, today announced its new 640-Gigabyte (GB) 2.5-inch Spinpoint M7 internal hard disk drive. The new 640GB hard drive, now the top-density drive of the popular M7 family, has an areal density of 516-Gigabit per square inch for each 320GB platter, which is a 28 percent increase per platter over Samsung’s previous density-leading 500GB hard drive. Samsung’s new Spinpoint M7 model is designed for high-end mobile computing applications requiring greater shock resistance without a compromise in performance.

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“With the addition of the new internal drive to the M7 series, our customers will get the best viable combination of density, performance and reliability that is essential for high-end notebooks and mobile applications,” said C.H. Lee, vice president, Storage sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. “Samsung maximizes the density level of its platters to enhance the reliability and stability of its internal hard drives.”

Increasing the areal density of 516-Gigabit per square inch raises the total drive capacity without adding additional platters. By maximizing capacity without increasing mechanical parts, the two-platter 640GB drive has lower power consumption levels and higher operational stability compared to drives with a higher number of platters.

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