WDLabs With Third Generation PiDrive for Raspberry Pi Users

WDLabs, a business growth incubator and accelerator of Western Digital Corporation (WDC), announced availability of the PiDrive Foundation Edition products, which combine microSD card and USB drive functionality with OS installation software to provide the Raspberry Pi community an integrated and affordable storage system solution for project creation.

“It is similar to about 30 years ago when HDD drives went mainstream in PC’s – no more swapping floppy disks in and out to load the OS, applications and data“, said Dave Chew, chief engineer, WDLabs. “This third generation WD PiDrive solution uses a USB HDD or USB flash drive to run the OS and host multiple Raspberry Pi projects instead of having to do this on a collection of microSD cards. We have combined our technologies to work as a team.“

Custom software, based on the Raspberry Pi Foundation‘s Raspbian OS and NOOBS OS installer, is included with the new system and provides easy installation of OSs on the USB drive. The large capacity of the drive enables an exclusive ‘Project Spaces’ feature, which allows installation of multiple instances of the core OS, creating independent spaces for project creation or support for multiple users with isolated work spaces.

“Raspberry Pi fans will absolutely love the WD PiDrive Foundation Edition“, said Matt Richardson, product evangelist, Raspberry Pi Foundation. “Not only is it a fantastic storage solution, but its Project Spaces feature is an innovation that will empower users with more possibilities for creation, experimentation, and fun with Raspberry Pi.“

“We’re excited that WDLabs is tapping into Western Digital’s full portfolio of storage technology to support the growing needs of this market,” said Steve Campbell, EVP and CTO, Western Digital. “This community’s focus on education, invention and new product creation makes it an important segment to seed with new tools and scalable building blocks.“

Range of products:
The PiDrive Foundation Edition device is offered in three capacity versions: a 375GB disk drive, a 250GB disk drive and a 64GB flash drive. The 375 and 250GB products include a PiDrive cable that ensures powering of the HDD and Raspberry Pi. All versions include a microSD card preloaded with the custom NOOBS OS installer. Raspberry Pi’s official OS, Raspbian PIXEL, can be installed directly from the microSD card (no Internet connection required), in addition to up to five Project Spaces, depending on capacity available. Raspbian PIXEL provides a familiar desktop environment and includes a web browser, productivity applications, programming tools, games and other features typically provided on desktop computers. Project Spaces are independent portions of the drive with Raspbian Lite, a minimal OS for building efficient yet sophisticated solutions via command-line programming.

MSRP for the PiDrive Foundation Edition is $37.49 for the 375GB version, $28.99 for the 250GB version and $18.99 for the 64GB flash drive version.

The PiDrive Foundation Edition (375GB and 250GB version) products come with a two-year limited warranty and the 64GB flash drive version comes with a one-year limited warranty and, along with PiDrive accessories, and are available online at company’s webstore.