There have always been fewer options in the enterprise-storage market than there have been in the consumer market. That's why it's significant that enterprise buyers now have another choice.
Western Digital announced Tuesday its entry into the enterprise market with the first shipments of its WD S25, 10,000rpm, 2.5-inch SAS interface hard drives.
The new WD S25 enterprise hard drive from Western Digital.
(Credit: Western Digital)While high-end consumer-grade 2.5-inch SATA hard drives can spin at 7,200rpm, at 10,000rpm the new hard drive from Western Digital is still considered entry-level. This is because in the enterprise market, vendors such as Seagate already offer SAS-based hard drives that spin at 15,000rpm.
Nonetheless, according to Western Digital, the new WD S25 drive is still suitable for high-performance storage for mission-critical enterprise server and enterprise-storage applications, such as high-I/O-driven applications, data centers, and large data arrays. Each drive offers up to 300GB of storage space.
The WD S25 supports both the 3Gbps and the 6Gbps SAS interfaces and offers a sustained sequential data rate of 128MBps. In addition to having the speed needed for enterprise needs, the WD S25 also provides a mean time between failures (MTBF) rating of 1.6 million hours.
The WD S25 drive is available now. You won't be able to buy one for yourself, but chances are you'll find them in your new enterprise-storage gear.
The new WD TV Live DH Media player shares the same shape and size with the previous model, the WD TV, but has a lot more to offer.
(Credit: Josh P. Miller/CNET)Awhile ago, Western Digital tackled the home entertainment arena with the WD TV, which turned out to be a success. Nonetheless, a lot of enthusiasts, including me, were turned off by the fact that the WD TV lacks support for networking and doesn't include the capability to decode DTS audio, which is popularly used in compressed high-def video formats.
It seems Western Digital took our complaints to heart as the company announced Tuesday the availability of the next generation of the device, the WD TV Live HD Media Player.
Outside, the WD TV Live has the same shape and size as the WD TV. However, on the back, apart from the USB, HDMI, and composite ports, you'll find the newly added 10/100 Ethernet port. This port opens the device to many possibilities, which, for now, include access to YouTube, Flickr, and Internet radio stations.
On the inside, the device now can decode both DTS and DTS 2.0 audio encoding and sports a faster processor.
Like the previous WD TV, the new WD TV Live supports playing back all kinds of video, audio, and photo formats, including the most popular high-def video formats such as Matroska (MKV) and DivX. In addition, it also has these new and improved features:
- Full-HD 1080p video playback with support for different sound tracks, subtitles (when available), and the capability to decode DTS audio
- Capability to play videos, music, photos, and radio from the Internet
- Ethernet port for wired connection to access digital content from other network devices
- Supports two USB mass storage devices at the same time, including external hard drives, digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players
I tried the unit out and it was indeed a much better experience than the WD TV.
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WD debuts new e-labels
(Credit: Western Digital)Western Digital just announced their newly redesigned line of external desktop and mobile storage drives, all flaunting a customizable "e-label" that gives users a clear description of their contents. The new My Book Studio, My Passport Elite, and My Book Elite also deliver continuous backup solutions right out of the box with WD's SMartWare software.
1. First up to the plate is the new My Book Studios. Designed with the Mac user in mind, the new external drives feature a FireWire 800 interface that make quick work of larger videos and photos. Since the majority of My Book owners are creative, digital professionals, Western Digital developed e-paper technology similar that shows the owner a customizable display. The e-label also works when the drive is unplugged and also shows how much space is left and security status as well. The new My Book Studio drives come with a three-year warranty and are available now in 500GB ($150), 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB ($300) capacities.
2. The new My Book Elite drives appeal to the user who simply needs more external storage on their desk space. Like the My Book Studio, these drives also come with the custom e-label as well as two levels of data security: 256-bit hardware encryption and password protection, and WD's SmartWare software. The unique back up software puts your data right in front of you with a visual interface that shows you exactly what is stored on your computer and on the drive. As you create back ups or restore data, the gauges will change color in real-time to show progress, and once you finish the process the first time, you'll never have to perform a complete backup again--the software will backup automatically every time the contents change. The My Book Elite drives come in 1TB ($170), 1.5TB, and 2TB ($280) capacities.
3. The last addition to the new WD offering is an upgrade to their My Passport Elite portables. Again, they come with all the same features, but you also get a convenient USB dock that can stay plugged into a USB port for quick docking. The drives are protected by WD's three-year warranty and will come in three colors: anodized red, anodized blue, and charcoal metallic. Retail prices for the My Passport Elites include the 320GB for $119.99 USD, $159.99 USD for the 500GB, and $169.99 for the 640GB.
Check out the slideshow for more in-depth pictures of the new WD offering, and look for full reviews on CNET.com coming soon!
Another day, another external hard drive. I thought by now, storage vendors had exhausted ideas for new external hard drives. I was wrong.
Western Digital announced on Thursday its new and refreshed lines of My Book external hard dives, including the My Book Essential and My Book for Mac. Both hard drives are for desktops, and most importantly, they come with the new WD SmartWare software that's designed to ease the job of backing up your data.
The new My Book Essential external hard drive from Western Digital.
(Credit: Wetern Digital)Both new external hard drives are available in capacities ranging from 500GB to 2TB and feature user-selected password protection combined with military-grade 256-bit hardware encryption, which scrambles files before they're stored. Prior to these drives, these security technologies have been available mostly in much more expensive storage systems.
The two new drives also use WD's GreenPower Technology that helps lower the power consumption of the internal drive, according to WD, by up to 30 percent. They both sport an illuminated capacity gauge that gives you a quick glance of how much space is available on the drive.
The My Book Essential drive is a budget product and comes with only one USB 2.0 connection and is preformatted for Windows. The WD SmartWare software will launch by itself the first time the drive is plugged in and offers a real-time visual interface of the backup process. After the first backup, users' files are backed up automatically every time they change or add a file. This is similar to how HP's SimpleSave external hard drive works, with the exception that it requires a bit more user interaction than HP's solution.
The My Book for Mac is essentially the same as the My Book Essential with the exception that it's preformatted for Macs and comes with the Mac version of the WD SmartWare software. It also is compatible with OS X's built-in Time Machine backup solution.
The two new external hard drives are available immediately and are estimated to cost between $100 and $250, depending on the model and capacity.
After releasing relatively low-performance 2TB hard drives a few months ago, Western Digital announced Tuesday that it's now shipping high-performance versions of these top-capacity drives.
The WD RE4 drive
(Credit: Western Digital)The new drives are the WD Caviar Black and the WD RE4. According to the company, the former is designed for desktops while the latter is suited for servers and network storage devices.
These two new hard drives are based on WD's 500GB-per-platter technology. They both combine 7200rpm spin speed, 64MB cache, dual-stage actuator technology, SATA 2 (3Gb/s) interface, and an integrated dual processor.
(Dual actuator technology is a head-positioning system with two actuators that improves positional accuracy over the data track. The primary actuator provides coarse displacement using conventional electromagnetic actuator principles. The secondary actuator uses piezoelectric motion to fine tune the head positioning to a higher degree of accuracy.)
Other features of the two drives include:
- IntelliSeek, a technology that calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise, and vibration.
- StableTrac, a mechanism that makes sure the motor shaft is secured at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking during read and write operations.
- NoTouch, a ramp-load technology that keeps the recording head from ever touching the disk media to significantly reduce the wear and tear of the recording head and media as well as provide better drive protection in transit.
In addition, the WD RE4 2TB enterprise drive features 1.2 million hours mean time between failures (MTBF) and other power-saving, speed-enhancing, and fail-proofing technologies.
The WD Caviar Black 2TB (model WD2001FASS) drive is available now for $299. The WD RE4 2TB (model WD2003FYYS) drive is currently being qualified by OEMs. Both drives are covered by a five-year, limited warranty.
The WD TV Mini has a list price of $99.99 but can be found online for $80.
(Credit: Western Digital)We reviewed Western Digital's WD TV HD media player several months ago and generally liked what we saw. Now the company is back with a less expensive--and smaller version--that's called the WD TV Mini. The unit costs $99.99 and is allegedly available now.
Like its big brother, the Mini is designed to read a wide assortment of audio and video file formats from an external storage device, whether it be one of Western Digital's own external hard drives or just a simple thumb drive, and play it back on your TV.
The WD TV HD media player offers an HDMI connection and 1080p playback capabilities, but this model goes with component video (as well as S-video) and tops out at 1080i playback. Interestingly, the WD TV HD is selling for $99.99 right now at some online outlets and the Mini is going for $80 at Amazon, though it's listed as "not yet been released."
It's also worth noting that some photos of a networked version of the WD TV HD have surfaced. That unit includes an Ethernet port, as well as HDMI connectivity and an optical output. No word on when that model will be released, but we suspect we'll hear more about it soon.
To see the full press release on the WD TV Mini, click here.
(Via Engadget)
On Sale Now: $119.99
View the latest prices for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player
(Credit:
HP)
Backing up a computer can be tricky for many people, especially those who access data via the software applications without knowing where the actual data files or folders reside on the hard drive. I have some friends who used to believe that you could back up all your office documents just by dragging and dropping the icons of Microsoft Excel, Word, and Outlook over to an external hard drive.
This is where products such as the SimpleSave external hard drive series, like the SimpleSave Portable that Hewlett-Packard made available Monday, comes into play. (The other drive in the series, the SimpleSave desktop, will be available in September.)
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The storage-capacity gap between laptop and desktop hard drives just shrank significantly.
Western Digital announced Monday two laptop drives that offer "extreme" amounts of storage: the Scorpio Blue 1TB and the Scorpio Blue 750GB. Prior to this announcement, the largest laptop hard drive available was 500GB.
Scorpio Blue
(Credit: Western Digital)Currently, the largest desktop hard drive on the market is 2TB. The Scorpio Blue 1TB drive, though half the capacity, is still very impressive, considering the fact that a 2.5-inch laptop drive is much smaller than a 3.5-inch desktop drive. The new WD laptop drives are the first that use 333GB per platter technology.
The Scorpio Blue hard drives support the SATA2 (3Gbps) standard but have a thickness of 12.5 millimeters, as opposed to 9.5 millimeters in other 2.5-inch drives. This means the new drives will not fit in all 2.5-inch slots in laptops.
For this reason, WD designates them as a perfect fit for portable storage solutions and they'll be in WD's new My Passport Essential SE Portable USB drive.
Other than capacity, the new Scorpio Blue drives also feature a set of advanced storage technologies, including:
- WhisperDrive, which is WD's technology that uses seeking algorithms to produce one of the quietest 2.5-inch drives available
- ShockGuard, which helps the drive withstanding shock, such as accidental drops, and vibrations better
- SecurePark, which is a mechanism that parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up and spin down and when the drive is off. This ensures that the recording head never touches the disk surface to improve long-term reliability
Both new drives come with 8MB of buffer memory and spin at 5,200rpm, which is slightly slower than the 5400rpm speed of mainstream laptop drives.
The Scorpio Blue 750GB drive (model WD7500KEVT) is available now and costs $190. The 1TB version (model WD10TEVT) is, for now, only available configured into the My Passport Essential SE USB drive, but it will be available as an internal hard drive in a few weeks. It will cost $250.
The My Book Studio II.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)A while ago, Western Digital announced new lines of My Book single volume external hard drives that offer 2TB of storage. It was only a matter of time before the company introduced its new dual-drive My Book Studio Edition II external hard drive with 4TB of storage.
The new drive, like its previous versions, is designed to work with Mac computers and comes with most connection options found in an external hard drive. The My Book Studio Edition II comes with USB 2.0, FireWire, and eSATA and is preformatted for Macs and compatible with Time Machine, the automatic backup solution of OS 10.5 or later.
The My Book Studio Edition II's internal hard drives are configured in RAID 0, which offers high performance and a large amount of storage. There's a catch though, with this configuration: if one of the hard drives fails, you'll also lose data on the other drive. WD is, however, very sure about its product and back the My Book Studio Edition II with a generous five-year warranty. The warranty, of course, only covers the hardware, not the data stored on it.
For this reason, the external drive works better as a backup drive or a drive that contains data backed up somewhere else. According to Western Digital, thanks to its performance, the My Book Studio Edition II is best used for video and photo-editing work.
The two internal hard drives (2TB each) used in the My Book Studio Edition II are the WD's GreenPower drives that use less energy than other hard drives and offer quiet performance. The My Book design includes a nice storage gauge to show how much storage space has been occupied. The chassis can be opened in a snap, making servicing or replacing the internal hard drives an easy job. You can only use WD's GreenPower hard drives with the My Book Studio Edition II.
The My Book Studio Edition II is available now for an estimated $650.
(Credit:
Western Digital)
Western Digital has been busy customizing its hard drives.
A month ago, the company introduced what it called the first green 2TB enterprise hard drive aimed at data centers. Now it's making another drive specifically for audio and video applications, and also the surveillance market.
The company announced Tuesday the new 2TB WD AV-GP. It incorporates Western Digital's AV Intelligent Drive Technology, which makes it a good choice for AV applications such as DVRs, media centers, media servers, and surveillance video recording.
The drive is designed to better withstand high temperatures for long periods of time while remaining quiet during operation. The new drive's features also include:
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