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Awhile ago Western Digital released its top-capacity laptop hard drive, the Scorpio Blue, which is the first 2.5-inch hard drive to offer 1TB of storage. On Tuesday, Toshiba announced its own largest laptop hard drive to date, the MKxx65GSX, which caps at 640GB.

One of Toshiba's new portable hard drives.

(Credit: CNET)

Though smaller in capacity, the new Toshiba hard drive has two advantages over the WD Scorpio Blue. First, it spins at 5400rpm as opposed to the 5200rpm of the WD, meaning it potentially has a faster throughput speed.

The new Toshiba drive also comes in the regular 9.5mm thickness and therefore will work in all applications where SATA 2.5-inch hard drives currently are used. The Scorpio Blue is 12.5mm thick and therefore only fits in laptops with a larger hard drive bay.

The new hard drive is built based on Toshiba's new 320GB-per-platter design which, according to the company, reduces power consumption and heat dissipation by more than 80 percent compared with 3.5-inch hard drives of the same capacity. This helps save energy and prolong the life span of the drive.

The new midnight blue eGo portable hard drive from Iomega.

(Credit: Iomega)

If you're impressed by the previous generation of Iomega's eGo external hard drive, you'll probably like this one better.

Iomega announced Monday the worldwide availability of its new generation of eGo portable hard drives that feature a new look, up to 500GB of storage, and multiple colors including ruby red, sparkling silver, midnight blue, and black.

All of the models have USB 2.0 and are bus-powered, meaning you only need to carry a single cable that works as both the data and power cord. The included cable is a Y-shape USB cable that lets you use two USB ports at a time for machines that can't power the drive from a single USB port.

These hard drives come in an anodized aluminum case that's a little more than half an inch thick and weighs less than 7 ounces. They sport Iomega's Drop Guard feature that protects data on the drives from drops of up to 51 inches, according to Iomega.

The Iomega eGo BlackBelt has even more impressive drop protection and comes with a black eGo Power grip belt and Drop Guard Xtreme that protects against drops from up to 7 feet.

All of these drives also come with backup software for Windows and Macs and have three-year warranties. Apart from the Iomega BlackBelt that's available in June, the rest of the new eGo portable hard drives are available immediately.

Prices vary depending on the capacity. The drives start at $85 for a 250GB version, and the 500GB BlackBelt model is $149.

Hitachi on Wednesday joined the crowd of green-storage vendors with its fourth generation of the CinemaStar hard-drive family.

The new CinemaStar hard drive.

(Credit: Hitachi)

The new drive features Hitachi's EcoTrac Classification. This means it's halogen-free and has very low power consumption. The new CinemaStar features a read/write power specification of 1.4W--a reduction of 22 percent compared to previous models.

Other that that, this is a 2.5-inch (laptop) SATA hard drive that has the spinning speed of 5,400 rpm, which is popular though slower than the 7,200 rpm of some higher-end drives.

According to Hitachi, its new CinemaStar hard drive is best suited for digital video applications that require compact design and low power usage, such as slim digital video recorders, set-top boxes, and surveillance systems.

This is because the new CinemaStar supports Hitachi's SmoothStream technology that enhances streaming functionality in digital video application and is designed for ultraquiet operation.

The new CinemaStar drive will be available in capacities ranging between 160GB and 500GB and is expected to ship during the second quarter of the year. For now, it's unclear how much the drive will cost.

Two weeks after announcing two new high-speed solid-state drives (SSD), Super Talent Technology on Tuesday announced it will release the MasterDrive LX as a budget solid-state drive later this week.

(Credit: Super Talent Technology)

The MasterDrive LX comes in 64GB and 128GB versions and will cost about $179 and $300, respectively. Both drives are SATA-II and use NAND flash technology. They will be compatible with computers that support the ever-popular 2.5-inch SATA hard drive.

The low prices do come with a shortcoming: the throughput speed. The new MasterDrive LX drives are significantly slower than other SSDs; it's even slower than some regular SATA hard drives. They support sequential read speeds of up to 100MB per second and sequential write speeds of up to 40MB per second. To put this in perspective, regular SATA hard drives can offer about 100MB per second, while the new Intel SSDs reportedly offer up to 240MB per second throughput speed.

However, the MasterDrive LX is still more desirable than regular hard drives in terms of battery life and durability. I hope this is just the beginning and soon you'll be able to buy SSDs for the same prices you currently pay for regular SATA hard drives.

Two weeks after releasing the largest capacity 1.8-inch hard drive, Toshiba announced on Thursday its MKxx29GSG series of this small form factor storage device that's finally catching up with the regular 2.5-inch laptop hard drives in terms of speed and storage space.

Toshiba's 1.8-inch hard drive now spins faster.

(Credit: Toshiba)

For a long time, 1.8-inch hard drives' performance was limited to 4,200rpm and the old-school ATA interface, making them significantly slower than the currently popular 2.5-inch hard drives that spin at 5,400rpm (or even faster at 7,200rpm) and use the SATA standard. That discrimination has ended now with Toshiba's third-generation 5,400rpm SATA 1.8 hard-drive family. The new drive features 120GB and 160GB capacities and can take advantage of the SATA-II controller standard, of which the transfer rate reaches up to 3 gigabits per second.

Other than improved performance, the new MKxx29GSG series also comes with a freefall sensor option, which enhances protection from external shock and vibration. It also offers more quiet and more energy-efficient operation. PC vendors can now make ultraportable laptops without having to compromise much of their performance, battery life, and functionality.

Toshiba's new family of 1.8-inch hard drives will be available to PC manufacturers and distribution partners in December. Right now, it's unclear how much they will cost.

The MasterDrive OX SSD

Tuesday, Super Talent Technology introduced two "dangerously fast" solid-state hard drives, the MasterDrive OX and the MasterDrive PX.

The budget MasterDrive OX uses multilevel cell NAND flash and has data speeds of up to 150MB per second in sequential read and 100B per second in sequential write, according to the company. The MasterDrive OX comes in capacities up to 128GB and has a 1-year warranty.

The higher-end MasterDrive PX, on other hand, uses single-level cell NAND flash and focuses on the reliability and endurance, rather than capacity. It, too, is supposed to have lightning-fast sequential read and write speeds, up to 170MBps and 130MBps, respectively, according to STT. The MasterDrive PX SSDs are available in 32GB and 64GB capacities, and comes with a 3-year warranty.

Both drives use standard 2.5-inch SATA-II interface and will be available later this week. The 128GB MasterDrive OX has a street price of about $419, which is about the same as the new SSD that Intel released a few days ago. The MasterDrive PX, on the other hand, is much more expensive, costing $499 for the 32GB version and $849 for the 64GB version.

The internal of Toshiba's new dual-platter 1.8-inch hard drive

(Credit: Toshiba)

Toshiba announced on Tuesday two new 1.8-inch hard drives, including the single-platter 120GB (MKxx31GAL series) and the world's first dual-platter 240GB (MK2431GAH) internal hard drives. The single-platter version also includes an 80GB offering.

Generally speaking, 1.8-inch hard drives are small form factor portable hard drives, where the regular size is 2.5-inch--and used mostly in portable media players, camcorders and compact ultramobile PCs.

These two new hard drives use the Parallel ATA interface and feature the industry's highest area density at 344 gigabits per square inch. They incorporate the fourth-generation perpendicular magnetic recording technology, which Toshiba first introduced in 2005.

The new 1.8-inch HDD series uses a new mechanical and firmware design for enhanced durability, well-suited for slim mobile gadgets as well as PC applications. The new dual-platter 240GB product is especially suitable for lightweight mobile PC devices and high-end digital video camcorders.

Both new hard drives are designed to use up to 33 percent less energy than previous model and also spin faster at 4,200rpm (up from 3,600rpm). They also comes with 8MB of cache for better write and read performance.

While you might have no need to buy these new hard drives on your own, you will find likely find them incorporated into CE and mobile products shipping this holiday season. Maybe it's time you can start expecting a 240GB iPod. Now that would be really nice.

Fujitsu's 2.5-inch MHZ2 BT drives have capacities reaching 500GB and consume 1.8 watts of power.

(Credit: Fujitsu)

Fujitsu announced two new 2.5-inch hard drives Monday that push capacity up a big notch to 400GB and 500GB.

The models will begin shipping in May, and the company said it hopes to ship 20 million this fiscal year.

But the drives, part of the MHZ2 BT series, aren't the fastest models around, spinning at 4,200rpm. Many laptop drives spin at 5,400rpm, and some at 7,200rpm. But it does consume relatively little power--1.8 watts when reading or writing, according to the company.

Fujitsu also intends the drive for use in digital video recorders, set-top boxes, tape backup replacement systems, and external hard drives, the company said. Several of those devices aren't as demanding of fast response but do demand lower power consumption.