Western Digital brags that the its My Cloud product and service will allow owners to “Save everything. Access anywhere”. Except when the service is down. Which it has been for almost a week. Read More
WD has unveiled a new external storage solution that offers access to lots of storage space. The device is called the My Cloud EX2. It’s designed to deliver advanced network … Continue reading
Performance-minded PC users frequently want both a fast solid-state drive for crucial apps and a regular hard disk for everything else, but that’s not always feasible in the tight space of a laptop. Western Digital is making that two-drive option a practical reality through its new Black2. The design puts both a 120GB SSD and a 1TB spinning disk into a single 2.5-inch SATA enclosure, offering more speed and capacity than you’d find in a typical hybrid drive. It’s potentially an ideal blend for gamers and small form factor PC builders, although they’ll pay for the privilege — WD is shipping the Black2 today for $300, or roughly as much as the two drives by themselves.
[Thanks, Metayoshi]
Source: Western Digital
Western Digital has rolled out a new storage device aimed specifically at Mac users. The storage device is the My Passport Air and it is fitted inside of a slick aluminum enclosure that makes it match well with Mac computers. The aluminum enclosure is 11mm thick making it very portable. Connectivity options for the My […]
HGST, a subsidiary of Western Digital, announced on Monday the launch of its first helium-filled hard drive. The new Ultrastar He6 drive comes with a 6TB capacity in a 3.5-inch drive enclosure.
According to HGST, having helium in the enclosure has significantly less friction than air, allowing for less energy needed to physically move platters around inside the drive resulting in more platters with an acceptable performance. More platters mean more drive space with a general increase by three quarters over a standard air-filled hard drive.
The challenge has been to create a chamber in the drive that was tight enough to avoid leaking the helium, and HGST assures us that it is a safe volume with “less helium than a balloon”. Pricing was not initially available, however the company stated that it will “…cost-effectively extend the capacity and cost-per-gigabyte curve for many product generations to come.”
Western Digital, a company that has long been known for its storage solutions – portable or otherwise, and has introduced their new My Cloud range of personal cloud solutions. Just what will the My Cloud from Western Digital be able to deliver? It is best described to be a complete solution for users to help them organize, centralize and secure the digital content from all of their computers and mobile devices, with the ability to access those files regardless of the device that you are using, from just about anywhere in the world. All you need to do is hook up a My Cloud personal cloud drive to the Internet, and you will be able to gain the anywhere, any-device access which you would enjoy from the public cloud. Not only that, there is also the added advantage of not having to fork out monthly fees or having to give up control of your personal data.
With personal cloud storage growing steadily to be the new standard, it would enable users to ensure that both media and files will remain safe and sound at home on your own physical drive, not to mention having the added advantage of being able to access such information via the Internet using any PC or Mac computer, or if you prefer, on tablets and smartphones through the use of mobile apps.
With the My Cloud drive, one is able to share files, stream media and access content from just about anywhere without the need for any monthly fees, not to mention having the peace of mind since you know that your personal cloud resides in your own home – and hence, how physically secure it is, depends on whether Fido is there to complement your home security system or not. Not only that, getting your personal cloud up and running takes just minutes thanks to WD’s rich web-based user interface.
My Cloud will arrive in 2 TB, 3 TB, and 4 TB capacities, and you also have the option of hooking up a compatible USB 3.0 hard drive directly to the USB expansion port on the My Cloud drive, letting you gain an instant increase in storage capacity. Prices range from $149.99 for the 2 TB model all the way to $249.99 for the 4 TB model.
Press Release
[ Western Digital My Cloud offers consumers their personal cloud space copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Better yet, because it’s a local network drive, there’s no need to format it for Mac or Windows, making it compatible with both from the get-go and leaving out the need for any unwanted software. To manage things like users, storage space and advanced settings, Western Digital has introduced the companion My Cloud Dashboard, which can be accessed via a desktop application. On the mobile side, there are apps for iOS and Android that allow users to upload photos, videos, documents and other type of files, as well as integrate with cloud services including Google Drive, SkyDrive and Dropbox. The WD My Cloud is now available starting at $150 for the 2TB model, while the beefier 3TB and 4TB variants are priced at $180 and $250, respectively.%Gallery-slideshow99587%
Filed under: Misc, Peripherals, Wireless, HD
Source: WD
If you’re looking for hard drives built to withstand the rigors of network-attached storage, Western Digital has a treat in store for you. The company just expanded its Red line of NAS-ready drives to include 2.5-inch models in 750GB and 1TB capacities; both disks fit into smaller enclosures while maintaining the Red series’ power and speed optimizations for always-on media servers. WD is offering a few perks for desktop users, too. The existing 3.5-inch range now includes a high-capacity 4TB drive, and every new Red model ships with NASware 2.0 technology that should improve reliability. All three Red variants are shipping today; the compact 750GB and 1TB disks respectively sell for $79 and $99, while the 4TB behemoth costs $229.
Filed under: Storage, Networking
Source: Western Digital
Move over, Seagate — there’s a new sheriff in slimtown. Not content to introduce the first 5mm thick 500GB HDD, Western Digital just announced that it’s shipping the world’s thinnest 1TB hard drive, the 7mm WD Blue. It features StableTrack which secures the motor shaft at both ends to reduce vibration and improve tracking, plus dual-stage actuators — electromagnetic for coarse displacement and piezo for fine movement. SecurePark keeps the heads clear of the disk surface and increases shock resistance. It’s the same HDD we caught in prototype form at IDF 2012 and we reckon the 7mm WD Black (hybrid) version we saw at CES 2013 can’t be far behind. The 1TB model (WD10SPCXX) is priced at $139 with a two year warranty and is available to OEMs, integrators and consumers right now. We fully expect this drive to appear in one of the laptops / tablets launching at Computex this week, so don’t miss our coverage.
If you’re looking for pure storage for the dollar, SSDs have nothing on good old hard disks. And WD subsidiary HGST has packed more gigabytes into a smaller space than ever before with the new Travelstar 5K1500. It’s a 2.5-inch, 9.5mm thin model packing 1.5TB, giving your notebook a huge shot of extra storage space while taking up very little physical space. The two platter drive boasts 694Gb per square inch and draws a mere 1.8W, though it must spin at a miserly 5,400 RPM. Still, it can absorb 400Gs of shock for 2ms and keep on ticking — so it should have no trouble surviving reentry. HGST’s targeting notebooks, external drives, gaming consoles and AIO PC markets with the model, and will also offer an enhanced availability (EA) version for power sensitive servers and other 24/7 systems. There’s no price yet, but it’ll be available in June — so you might be able to take that film editing project on the road after all.
Filed under: Storage
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