Western Digital launches 160 GB mobile hard drives for notebook and portable storage applications

The drives employ perpendicular magnetic recording technology (PMR) to achieve the high capacity in the small form factor. WD Scorpio drives deliver the specifications and features that meet demands specific to notebook PCs and portable storage devices, such as WD Passport®: quiet operation, high shock tolerance and low power consumption.

The new WD Scorpio drives expand the company's breadth of 2.5-inch mobile hard drive offerings to capacity points ranging from 40 GB to 160 GB. The company entered the mobile hard drive market in October 2004.

"The new WD Scorpio 160 GB drives deliver the high capacity that many mobile computing users demand with WD's implementation of PMR technology, as well as exclusive features that result in meaningful end-user benefits," said Hafeez Khawaja, WD's Senior Regional Director, Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

"With the introduction of our latest-generation WD Scorpio drives, WD offers mobile computing and portable storage customers in the Middle East, the same quality, reliability and performance that has earned WD a leadership position in the desktop PC market around the world."

With PMR technology, the magnetization of each data bit is aligned vertically to the spinning disk, rather than longitudinally as has been the case in hard drive technology for decades. This enables more data on a given disk than is possible with conventional longitudinal recording, and provides a platform for future expansion of hard drive densities.

WD's exclusive WhisperDrive™ technology with SoftSeek™ algorithms helps make WD Scorpio the quietest 2.5 inch drive available on the market regardless of spin speed. Its leading-edge ShockGuard™ technology combines firmware and hardware advancements to protect the drive mechanics and delicate platter surface to meet the highest combined shock tolerance specifications required for mobile and notebook applications.