WD External Portable HDD at World Record 2TB

Western Digital Technologies, Inc. announced the next generation of its My Passport line of portable hard drives, offering consumers a new enclosure design and the first-ever 2TB capacity in a portable drive.

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Now available in five colors (white, black, silver, blue, and red) with a capacities beginning from 500GB, the new My Passport portable drives offer digital consumers an array of storage options. Additionally, the new they offer WD SmartWare automatic backup software and WD Security for password protection and hardware encryption.

Specially-engineered to make the outer shell more resistant to scratches and fingerprints, the new My Passport external drives feature:

USB 3.0 connectivity;
USB 2.0 compatibility;
continuous, automatic backup software; and
password protection with hardware encryption.

The included software offers the flexibility to customize the drive to a user’s storage preferences: installing all features, just the components needed, or using the drive without the software.

Given the small form factor and portability of My Passport drives, the built-in security features of password protection and hardware encryption help protect files from unauthorized use, making the drives safe data repositories for data while offering peace of mind to busy consumers on the go.

"More than money, jewelry and other valuables, the item most missed if ever lost or stolen is one’s computer – and everything on it – so our goal in launching the next-generation of the popular My Passport drives is to encourage more consumers to protect their data before something happens," said Jim Welsh, EVP and GM of WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups. "The new My Passport makes backing up and preserving one’s digital life easier, reliable and more secure than ever – it’s the perfect blend of monstrous capacity, reliability and user-friendly technology in a sleek form factor, now in five colors."

Pricing and Availability
My Passport drives come with a 2-year limited warranty and are available online at the WD store and at select retailers and distributors. MSRP is $129.99 USD for 500GB, $149.99 USD for 750GB, $179.99 USD for 1TB, $199.99 for 1.5 TB and $249.99 USD for the new 2TB edition

Comments

Nobody ever built before a magnetic disk drive with such a capacity, 2TB, even if this My Passport WDBY8L0020BBK is offered only as an external device. To reach this milestone, WD is using four 500GB disk platters and eight heads for a portable unit with a comfortable z-height of 21mm and weighing 230 grams. Z-height of the internal drive is 15mm, too much to be inserted into laptops that require 9.5mm.

The other WD 1TB model uses three disks for a smaller 18.5mm height.

Today 500GB per platter is the ultimate capacity reach inside 2.5-inch HDDs. Seagate was one of the first company to reach this record in October 2010 with an external unit, the FreeAgent GoFlex LE, at 1TB, followed by Hitachi GST two months later with the internal Travelstar Z5K500 at 500GB on one platter with only 7mm z-height. Samsung arrives in June 2011 with 1TB Spinpoint M8 on two disks, now the proprietary of Seagate. In August 2011, Toshiba launches its 1TB MQ01ABD and WD its 1TB Scorpio Blue the following month, both of them also based on two platters.

All these HDDs have disks rotating at 5,400rm.

Historically, WD was the first with a 2.5-inch device at 1TB in July 2009, with z-height of 12.5mm and three disks. 1.5TB has been reached by Seagate in September 2010 with four 375GB platters in a 15mm unit.