Fujitsu Portable 500GB External HDD

Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. introduced the HandyDrive MMH2 UB series of 5400 RPM external hard disk drives (HDDs), featuring an ultra-slim, lightweight and easy-to-hold 2.5-inch design with up to 500GB capacity. The new drives weigh less than six ounces, include a USB 2.0 interface, offer software support in 11 different languages, and provide both mobile and at-home users a dependable and secure option for data backup.

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"With the prevalence of data loss and theft, consumers now realize they need to backup their important data as much as businesses do," said Lorne Wilson, senior vice president, sales, corporate marketing and new products group, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. "Fujitsu designed the HandyDrive to respond to consumers’ requirements for convenient and secure storage of their important data."

Every year millions of PCs will experience data loss due to a variety of factors from hardware failure, file corruption, viruses, theft, natural disaster and human error. The Fujitsu HandyDrive MMH2 UB series, which is powered through the USB interface, is available in capacities of 500GB, 400GB, 320GB and 250GB in a portable 2.5-inch design. These capacity points are ideal for backup and supplemental storage for home PCs and laptops, and the drives’ dimensions (137.5mm x 83.5mm x 15mm) occupy significantly less desk space than alternative 3.5-inch external HDDs.

The advanced utility management achieves the creates an ecology-friendly 2.5-inch external HDD by reducing read/write power consumption by 30%, compared to earlier models, and by 35% in stand-by mode over normal operation.

The Fujitsu HandyDrive bundles utility software allowing users to manage partitions, a password lock tool that protects data if a drive is lost or stolen, even of the HDD is removed from the external enclosure, and Acronis True Image Personal HDD software, which provides fast and easy data backup.

The Fujitsu HandyDrive series is available starting in the first quarter of 2009 through retail and online stores.

Comments

All the current HDD manufacturers* have added external disk drives to their offering. Consequently, they all compete with the myriad of firms selling external HDDs in the world and obliged to buy the drive component to a competitor.

Why these HDD makers take the risk of this competition with their customers? It's a choice based on some calculations. Selling external HDDs, I get a higher margin than with internal units. Furthermore, I can eventually ship my external devices at a lower price than the firms that do not manufacture them. The choice of HDD makers to enter into this market is relatively new because the success of this business is also relatively recent, meaning that I can now take the risk to lose customers as the revenues I will get in this sector will compensate lower sales to integrators.

But now, all the HDD makers have entered in this field. The integrators have no more the choice to buy their units to a company refusing to enter in the external market, as it happens in the past.

* All of them: ExcelStor, Fujitsu, Seagate, WD as well as HGST and Samsung, these two latter companies pushing this activity with less efforts.