âہ“We are proud to launch the worldâ€â„¢s highest capacity 2.5â€Â External HDD product into the marketplace at a time when consumers are demanding more storage, compact designs, and features that advance the level of data security,â€Â said Lorne Wilson, senior vice president, sales and marketing, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc.

Fujitsu Intros 300GB External Drive is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

To use it you simply pair it to any device that needs more storage. Check out the video below.

Seagate D.A.V.E. Wireless External Storage for Mobile Devices is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

“There is no backdoor to this device. It’s virtually impervious to other people accessing it,” said John Lumb, Seagate’s Senior Director for Product Line Management. “Changing the password makes it unreadable, if a burglar bags this thing they can use it as a paper weight.”

A 160GB version of the BlackArmor will be available the second quarter of the year for $150.

“Over time your probably going to see FDE become a standard part of devices,” Lumb said.

Seagate Intros Maxtor BlackArmor, First External Drive with Full Disk Encryption is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

This brings data protection to a whole new level. The waterproof hard drive can be completely submerged in water and can withstand 1550-degree heat for up to 30 minutes. Sentry will help you recover your data in case your home is flooded or burns to the ground. They’ll even send you a new unit if it’s damaged.

$339 is a lot to pay for a 160GB drive, but it’s the most durable external drive I’ve ever seen. If you are serious about protecting your data from physical damage it’s a small price to pay.

I keep a 500GB Seagate Free Agent Pro with a backup of all of my photos and critical documents in a Sentry safe already, but these are going on my wish list.

Fireproof, Waterproof Hard Drive from Sentry and Maxtor is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

The highest capacity single-platter notebook drive is currently 320GB. Hitatchi says the Travelstar 5K500 is geared for “slim desktops, full-featured notebooks, gaming consoles and other advanced applications for consumers on-the-go.”

The company should’ve added “fat laptops” to this list. It’s nice to see a 500GB 2.5-inch drive, but what’s the point if it can’t even fit in most notebooks?

Hitachi will also offer an enhanced-availability (EA) version, called the Travelstar E5K500 — also available in both 400GB and 500GB capacities — which is designed for applications requiring 24×7 operation in lower transaction environments, such as blade servers, network routers, point-of-sale terminals and video surveillance systems.The Travelstar 5K500 will be available worldwide in February. The Travelstar E5K500 will be available by the end of the second quarter, 2008.

Technical Specifications:

Travelstar 5K00400/500 GB(a)12.5 mm in height

5400 RPM260 billion bits per square inch maximum areal density glass disk platter(s)6 TMR recording head(s)

1000G/1ms non-operating shock400 G/2ms operating shock

5.5 ms average latency

12 ms average read time

0.95 W active idle

0.7 W low-power idle

1.8 W idle power (EA version only)

Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s, 1.5Gb/s encrypted

148 grams in weight

2.2 Bels typical idle acoustics

2.4 Bels typical operational acoustics

Hitatchi Announces 500GB ‘Notebook’ Drives is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

The WD Passport comes with syncronization and search software preloaded for Windows users. The Western Digital Passport will work on MacBooks, but the bundled software is not Mac friendly.

Western Digital will continue selling the Passport 120GB and Passport 160GB drives. The Passport weighs less than four ounces and is just over half an inch thick.

Western Digital claims the 320GB Passport can store:

Up to 91,000 digital photos
Up to 80,000 songs (MP3)
Up to 8,000 songs (uncompressed CD quality)
Up to 24 hours of Digital Video (DV)
Up to 100 hours of DVD quality video
Up to 38 hours of HD video

WD Passport Portable Drive 320GB Announced is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

The MHZ2 BH series hard drive utilizes Perpendicular Magnetic Recording to cram more capacity into the compact form factor.

“The Fujitsu R&D team is dedicated to improving performance across the entire product line, and in light of many customersâ€â„¢ green initiatives, we are excited to deliver mobile HDDs with best-in-class power consumption,” said Joel Hagberg, vice president, marketing and business development, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. “The new MHZ2 BH series makes it possible for customers to build systems with industry-leading capacities, without sacrificing system performance, ensured reliability and energy conservation.”

The MHZ2 BH series is designed to produce less heat and use less power than other drives.The new drive uses just 0.6W of power when idle and 1.9W when it’s reading or writing data.

The 320GB Fujitsu drives will be available early 2008. Expect to see this drive in several entertainment notebooks and Fujitsu’s own lines.

Note to Fujitsu- Could you please brand your drives with an actual name?

MHZ2 BH Specs:

* Capacity: 40GB/80GB/120GB/160GB/200GB/250GB/320GB
* Rotational Speed: 5400RPM
* Interface: SATA 3.0 Gb/sec
* Read/Write Seek Time: 12ms/14ms typ
* Track to Track Seek Time: 1.5ms typ
* R/W Power Consumption (Best-in-Class): 1.9W typ
* Idle Power Consumption (Best-in-Class): 0.6W typ
* Standby/Sleep Power Consumption (Best-in-Class): 0.13W typ
* Acoustic (Idle): 2.4 bels typ
* Operating Shock: 325G (2ms)

Fujitsu Intros 320GB Laptop Drive, Biggest to Date is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

The Vaulter Disk will allow manufacturers to offer the benefits of Solid State Drives, along with the low cost of hard disk drives. The OS and applications will benefit from the speed and reliability of solid state memory, while user generated content such as music and video can be stored on the hard disk drive.

âہ“This system solution brings SanDiskâ€â„¢s flash performance benefits to the price-sensitive consumer who needs high-capacity storage,â€Â said Doreet Oren, SanDisk director of product marketing for the computing solutions division. âہ“While we make other products for the PC market, Vaulter allows us to expand our offerings,â€Â she added.

The Vaulter Disk

SanDisk Vaulter Disk is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

“In today’s market, new notebook systems are increasingly targeting heavy duty applications in the office and home,” said Jim Morris, WD’s vice president and general manager of notebook storage. “As system manufacturers improve performance and add data hungry features, high-capacity hard drives become a key ingredient that allows users to fully benefit from the latest computing technologies.”

The new drive can hold up to 100 hours of DVD quality video.

The 320GB WD Scorpio drive has the same features as the rest of its 5400RPM Scorpio line including:

WhisperDrive – WD’s exclusive WhisperDrive technology combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms to yield the WD Scorpio 320 GB as one of the quietest 5400 RPM, 2.5-inch drives available.

ShockGuard – Leading-edge ShockGuard technology combines firmware and hardware advancements to protect the drive mechanics and platter surface to meet the highest combined shock tolerance specifications required for mobile and notebook applications.

IntelliSeek – Another unique WD Scorpio 320 GB feature is its IntelliSeek technology, which calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration.

WD Scorpio 320GB Product Page

Western Digital Intros 320GB Scorpio Notebook Drives is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

Called current perpendicular-to-the-plane giant magnetoresistive1 (CPP-GMR) heads, Hitachiâ€â„¢s new technology is expected to be implemented in shipping products in 2009 and reach its full potential in 2011.

“Hitachi continues to invest in deep research for the advancement of hard disk drives as we believe there is no other technology capable of providing the hard driveâ€â„¢s high-capacity, low-cost value for the foreseeable future,â€Â said Hiroaki Odawara, Research Director, Storage Technology Research Center, Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. âہ“This is an achievement for consumers as much as it is for Hitachi. It allows Hitachi to fuel the growth of the â€ËÅTerabyte Eraâ€â„¢ of storage, which we started, and gives consumers virtually limitless ability for storing their digital content.”

Hitachi believes CPP-GMR heads will enable hard disk drive (HDD) recording densities of 500 gigabits per square inch (Gb/in2) to one terabit per square inch (Tb/in2), a quadrupling of todayâ€â„¢s highest areal densities.

Hitachi May Quadruple Notebook HDD Capacities to 1TB is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.