SmartDisk HDD : Verbatim Releases their New SmartDisk HDD

Yesterday Verbatim announced their new Half-Terabyte 2.5’’ portable HDD. It's available in two versions, one with just a USB interface, the second with a combo FireWire/USB interface. Transfer speed is of 480 Mbps when connected to USB 2.0.

This HDD is made of three 166GB platters utilizing Advanced Perpendicular Magnetic Recording technology (PMR). The drives feature a 5400rpm spindle speed.

CHARLOTTE, NC (April 29, 200 – Verbatim® Americas, LLC, a global leader in digital storage solutions, announced today the world’s first half-Terabyte 2.5” Portable Hard Disk Drive (HDD) featuring an industry standard 9.5mm Z-height drive. The PDA-sized drive joins Verbatim’s highly rated SmartDisk line of portable HDDs, which currently offer capacities ranging from 120GB to 320GB. Scheduled to begin shipping in Q2 2008, the sleek new HDD will enable Windows® and Mac® users to add up to 500GB of removable capacity to their laptop or desktop systems for less than US$300.00.

The demand for higher-capacity portable storage devices at both the consumer and corporate levels is being driven by the growing number of users who are creating and downloading volumes of digital content.

IDC research shows that the digital universe — information that is either created, captured, or replicated in digital form — will increase from 281 Exabytes in 2007 to nearly 1,800 Exabytes in 2011, or 10 times that produced in 2006. Between 2008 and 2011, the compound annual growth rate is expected to be almost 60 percent. In addition to the higher capacity requirements, today’s more mobile consumers and businesses are becoming more reliant on moving their digital content from one system to another. As a result, IDC sees greater opportunities for smaller devices such 2.5” HDDs.

Verbatim’s 500GB 2.5” SmartDisk HDD meets the capacity, portability and convenience these users need with a simple, easy solution for storing, enjoying, sharing and protecting their music, photos, video and personal files wherever they go. Business people can use the drive to share files between co-worker and partner office systems or to transfer files between office and home systems.

“Being able to add half a Terabyte of storage to a PC or Mac with such a small, easy to carry device is a new milestone in the portable storage industry,” said Charles Klinker, Verbatim Director of Marketing for SmartDisk products. “Imagine the convenience of being able to store, transport and backup all of your digital content without having to span disks or carry multiple storage solutions.”

Weighing less than 6 ounces and measuring only 3.38 in. X 5.38 in. X 0.63 in., Verbatim’s new 500GB 2.5” SmartDisk HDD is easy to carry when traveling with a laptop and requires minimal desk space when
connected to a desktop system. Inside its rugged, ultra-modern case there are three 166GB platters that utilize advanced Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) technology to deliver breakthrough storage capacity in a small form factor. To optimize performance, the drive features a 5400rpm spindle speed and includes 8MB of cache memory.

Like Verbatim’s complete family of 2.5” SmartDisk HDDs, the 500GB drive will be available with a choice of a USB interface or a Combo FireWire®/USB interface. With the Combo FireWire/USB interface, the device also becomes interoperable and enables users to transfer files between a Mac and a PC. The bus-powered, drives deliver transfer speeds of up to 480MB per second (MB/sec.) when connected with USB 2.0 and up to 400MB/sec. for FireWire connections without requiring an AC power adapter.

When plugged in to the USB or FireWire port of a computer, the drive can be accessed and used like a computer hard drive. Users can drag files to the portable HD’s icon to copy them, navigate to their HD in Open or Save dialog boxes and can delete files stored on the HD.

Verbatim 2.5” SmartDisk Portable HDDs support the “Time Machine” backup feature in Mac OS X Leopard. Included in the USB-only models is CMS’ award-winning BounceBack Express backup software, an easy-to-use backup utility that incorporates scheduling, backup sets, automatic launch options and a quick restore feature.

Pricing and Availability
Verbatim 500GB 2.5” Portable HDDs will be available in Q2 2008 through retailers and leading etailers with suggested retail pricing beginning at less than US$300.00 for the USB version.