WD Shipping 7mm 2.5-Inch HDD at 500GB ($100)

Western Digital Technologies, Inc. is shipping the Scorpio Blue 7mm hard drive, the latest addition to its mobile hard drive family and the 2.5-inch drive with the lowest power consumption on the market.

Specified to a best-in-class 400Gs shock tolerance, the new single-platter WD Scorpio Blue small form factor hard drives are available in 500GB and 320GB capacities and the drives’ compatibility with industry-standard 9.5mm slots make them storage options for mainstream notebooks as well as slimmer notebook and Ultrabook devices that require a 7mm drive height.

"Consumers want thin and light personal computers, but the limited storage capacity of SSD-based notebooks forces them to pick and choose what files to bring from their library," said Matt Rutledge, VP and GM for WD client storage products. "With the release of the new WD Scorpio Blue 7mm mobile hard drives, WD is able to offer capacity, reliability and data-protection features combined with excellent power management all in a slim form factor perfect for thin and light notebooks."

Features of WD Scorpio Blue 7 mm hard drives include:

• Low power consumption – Advanced power management features and algorithms optimize the way the drive seeks data, which improves power consumption.
• Shock Tolerance – ShockGuard technology, now increased to 400Gs shock specification, protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks.
• Quiet – WhisperDrive technology enables quiet performance.
• Reliable – SecurePark parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down, and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved reliability due to less head wear, and improved non-operational shock tolerance.
• Compatibility Tested – WD performs tests on hundreds of systems and a multitude of platforms in its FIT Lab and Mobile Compatibility Labs.

Price and Availability
Shipping through select distributors and resellers, the WD Scorpio Blue 7mm 2.5-inch mobile hard drives are covered by a two-year limited warranty. MSRP for the 500GB, model #WD5000LPVT is $99.99 and the 320GB, model #:WD3200LPVT is $79.99.