Hitachi Global Storage Technologies unveiled a line of 3TB internal and external hard disk storage drives for business and home applications.
The external drive has enough storage for both Mac and PC users to store or backup their digital photos, music libraries, and movie collections, Hitachi said.
"Our 3TB offerings are a perfect addition to our family as it supports our strong following of channel partners, creative professionals and end users who require reliable, high-performance, high-capacity storage," said Mike Williams, vice president and general manager of Hitachi Branded Business.
The Hitachi XL Desktop External Drive comes in 1TB, 2TB and 3 TB capacities, with prices ranging from $99.99 for the smallest model and $249.99 for the largest, said Hitachi. The drive is wrapped in a smooth black finish and can be placed either vertically or horizontally, the company said. With USB 2.0 connectivity, the XL Desktop Drive can be connected to both Macs and PCs, the company said.
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The announcement on Dec. 14 also included new Deskstar internal hard drives, the Desktstar 7K3000 and 5K3000. The Deskstar 7K3000 hard drives have a spin speed of 7200 rpm, 64MB buffer, and a 6G bps SATA interface, Hitachi said. The drives are designed for video RAID arrays, home and business computers, high-performance workstations and gaming systems, said Hitachi.
Hitachi reduced thermal emissions and made the new Deskstar 7K3000 drives more power efficient, the company said. The 7K3000 has an idle power draw of 6.8 watts, according to the specifications sheet.
Compared to the previous generation of Deskstar drives, Hitachi claimed a 27 percent performance improvement and power savings of nine percent during idle state for the new 7K3000.
Hitachi focused on power improvements for the new 5K3000 family. The drives feature Coolspin technology, enabling them to run cooler and require less power, Hitachi said. The company claimed the 5K3000 consume 29 percent less power and are 14 percent quieter than the 7K3000.
Both the 5K3000 and 7K3000 drives are available in 1.5TB, 2TB, and 3TB capacities through OEMs and select distribution partners around the world, the company said. The 7K3000 drives have been available since November, and the 1.5TB and 2TB 5K3000 drives will ship in December. The 3TB 5K3000 will not ship until early 2011, Hitachi said.
"With our new 3TB solutions, we're delivering huge capacity to a broad base of users to help them meet today's--and tomorrow's--data storage needs," said Williams.
Hitachi also announced an internal hard drive kit for users looking to add more storage capacity to the desktop computer. The kit offers a software download that allows users to use the full 3TB of space on the Deskstar 7K3000 for "one big massive data drive," said Hitachi. The software supports Windows, Apple, and Linux operating systems, but computers running 32- or 64-bit Mac OS X or Linux should be able to use the drive without downloading, according to the company. Certain Windows systems have a 2.2TB limit, so Windows Vista and Windows 7 users should consult Hitachi's 2.2 TB Website for system compatibility guidelines, the company said.
Even with the software, computers with BIOS-based motherboards will be able to use these drives only as secondary hard drives. Only computers with EFI-based motherboards would be able to use the drive as its main boot drive.
The kit is available with either 3TB or 2TB 7K3000 drives and sell for $249.99. The drives have a 64MB buffer and a 6G bps SATA interface, said Hitachi.
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