Toshiba Corporation today announced the launch of nine new 2.5-inch hard disk drives (HDD) that employ the company’s latest advances in HDD technology. The new drives include the MK3252GSX, which achieves an industry-leading capacity of 320GB, and the MK2049GSY (200GB), which improves performance with a 7,200rpm rotational speed. Toshiba will mass produce the drives in turn, starting from November.
The MK3252GSX uses an improved read-write head and enhanced magnetic layer to boost areal density and achieves a storage capacity of 320GB. The high-speed MK2049GSY offers a rotation speed of 7,200rpm and also integrates a large capacity 16MB buffer memory, supporting high-speed processing of large volumes of data: the drive improves the maximum internal data transfer rate by approximately 46% and increases the average random access time by some 8%.
The new drives will provide product manufacturers with a broad line-up supporting many and diverse applications, including high density storage of multiple data sources, such as movies and digital photos, on high-end notebook PCs, and improved overall system performance from high-speed data transfers.
Both models support an optional Free Fall Sensor function, which detects falling HDD and parks the head before it crashes.
The new drives also comply with the EU’s RoHS directive, which came into force in July 2006.
Toshiba will feature the new drives at the IFA 2007, one of the worlds’s largest consumer electronics trade fairs, which will be held in Berlin, Germany, from August 31 to September 5. The Toshiba booth will be located at Hall 21a/Stand 101. The drives will also feature at DISKCON USA 2007, organized by The International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association (IDEMA), which will be held in Santa Clara, California, from September 19 to 20.
More info and specs here.
OOOHHHH!
Gimme gimme gimme
That 200Gb x 7200 rpm drive I just popped into my MacBook Pro feels kinda small right now… I’m a-gonna cry…………
Wow! Looks like it’s time to bump up my TV again, from its current 120GB. Even more movies can go unwatched for months!
Great. More stuff to lose when the drive ultimately fails. What’s Toshiba done to enhance the long term robustness and reliability of this drive. I work tech support and spend much of my time dealing with the consequences of drive failures. Yet it seems the manufacturers mainly focus on bringing capacity up and cost down.
Raymond from DC…
With 500GB quad-interface external drives going for less than $190, just plug your MacBook Pro into the FireWire 800 and let SuperDuper! do it’s thing a couple times a week.
That’s what I do with my LaCie 250GB external drive and MBP. No problems.
I can’t wait to see how Leopard’s TimeMachine handles auto-backup!
@Raymond
That’s an interesting comment. I find the reliability of hard drive quite phenomenal. They normally operate for years and years. Could it be that, as a tech support guy, your focus is on the failures vs the normally operating drives? This is common in many professions: doctors see the world in health related hazards, firemen see the world in fire hazards.
Has anyone used both the 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm drives side by side? Is there really a noticeable difference in system performance? (Enough to give up the extra capacity of the 5400?)
why are major players not intro-ing SSD instead of Old World HD.
why do you think it’s called HARD drive?
@Spark,
I have to agree with Raymond. I have had many hard drive failures, the last one costing me the loss of critical data. I was actually in the process of backing up when — click, click … the f***ing drive failed. This is one reason I bought an external USB drive hooked up to my Airport Extreme. I know a lot of IT guys who tell me that drive reliability has been going down for years.
You just have to back up. I can hardly wait for Leopard and Time Machine to make it simple and transparent.
Linux Guy and Raymond…
Hey, you guys are certainly right about the inevitability of drive failure. There is no doubt that they wear out and backup/duplication is critical. I’ve just never seen any empirical evidence that drive reliability is has been on the wane.
@SSD … It’s only a matter of time before SSD takes over, certainly in portables. But the reality is that rotating disc storage is hugely cheaper than solid state. The cost/reward argument still favors conventional discs.
While I appreciate the increases in HD space and faster spin rates, what usually slows me down is the time it takes for a connected Hard Drive to spin up, not the write speed. It seems the faster the drive, the slower it takes to spin up. I just wish HD makers would disclose the ramp-up time so I could choose ones that allow me faster access to my content.
Of course flash drives would solve that issue.