WD® Introduces New Family Of 7200 RPM 2.5-Inch Hard Drives For Fast Notebook Systems And Portable Storage Devices

<p></p>
New WD Scorpio® Black Drives Offer up to 320 GB High-performance, Low-power
Storage for Space Hungry Systems<br/>
<br/>
Sydney, Australia – June 13, 2008 - Western Digital today announced it is
now shipping its new line of WD Scorpio® Black 7200 RPM 2.5-inch SATA (Serial
ATA) hard drives for high-performance notebook computers and portable storage
devices. Available in capacities up to 320 GB, WD Scorpio Black hard drives are
designed with ruggedness, reliability, and data-protection features that actively
monitor and protect valuable data.
The WD Scorpio Black family of hard drives is destined for use in OEM notebook
systems as well as by users who want to upgrade the speed and performance of
their current notebook system. As one of the fastest and most efficient hard
drives on the market, WD Scorpio Black drives combine desktop-class 7200 RPM
spin speed with a SATA 3 Gb/s interface and 16 MB cache to deliver maximum notebook
performance.
<p>In today’s busy and on-the-go lifestyle, notebook systems play an increasingly
pivotal role in the home office and are relied upon to efficiently run sophisticated
applications,” said Jim Morris, WD's vice president and general manager
of mobile storage. “High performance, high-capacity hard drives are a
key ingredient to notebooks as system manufacturers continue to add data-hungry
features that allow users to fully benefit from the latest computing technologies.”</p>
<p>With the introduction of its latest-generation WD Scorpio drives, WD further
expands the company's portfolio of 2.5-inch hard drives and continues to offer
mobile computing and portable storage customers the same outstanding quality,
reliability and performance that have earned the company a leadership position
in the desktop and notebook markets.</p>
<p>WD Scorpio Black Exclusive Features<br/>
<br/>
IntelliSeek™ - IntelliSeek technology calculates optimum seek speeds to
lower power consumption, noise and vibration.<br/>
<br/>
SecurePark™ -WD's 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 long term reliability
due to less head wear, and improved shock tolerance.<br/>
<br/>
ShockGuard™ - WD's ShockGuard technology protects the drive mechanics
and platter surfaces from shocks during shipping and handling and in daily operation.<br/>
<br/>
Free-fall Sensor -As an added layer of protection, if the drive (or the system
it’s in) is dropped while in use, WD’s free-fall sensor detects
that the drive is falling and, in <br/>
less than 200 milliseconds, parks the head off the disks to help prevent damage
and data loss.<br/>
<br/>
WhisperDrive™ - WD's exclusive WhisperDrive technology combines state-of-the-art
seeking algorithms that result in one of the quietest 2.5-inch drives on the
market.</p>
<p>Product Summary<br/>
Manufacturer: Western Digital<br/>
Product Name: WD Scorpio Black<br/>
RRP for 320GB: A$319, NZ$349<br/>
RRP for 250GB A$259, NZ$289 <br/>
RRP for 160GB A$189, NZ$209<br/>
Warranty: Industry leading 5-year limited warranty<br/>
Website: www.westerndigital.com<br/>
Product link and Photos: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=482<br/>
Australian Distributors: Achieva, Synnex Australia, Today Tech, Westan<br/>
New Zealand Distributors: VST, Ingram Micro NZ, Synnex NZ</p>
<p>About WD<br/>
WD, one of the storage industry's pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products
and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital
information. The company produces reliable, high-performance hard drives that
keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. WD applies its storage expertise
to consumer products for external, portable and shared storage applications.
WD was founded in 1970. The company's storage products are marketed to leading
systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital
and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company's Web site (www.westerndigital.com)
to access a variety of financial and investor information.<br/>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/>
Western Digital, WD, the WD logo, and WD Scorpio are registered trademark in
the U.S. and other countries and ShockGuard, WhisperDrive, IntelliPark and IntelliSeek
are trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks herein
are property of their respective owner.<br/>
<br/>
PR CONTACT<br/>
Renato Catalan<br/>
Gap Marketing and Management Pty Ltd<br/>
Website: www.gapmarketing.com.au<br/></p>
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