Western Digital Ships First 1 TB 2.5-inch HDD

While terabyte drives are readily available in 3.5-inch models, before today the 1 TB barrier hasn't been broken by any 2.5-inch drive. Western Digital changed that all today (somewhat) with the introduction of two new mobile hard drives – a 1 TB model made up of three 333 GB platters technology, and another 750 GB model presumably with three 250 GB platters.

Now before you think that you can put these drives in your notebook, they're of the 12.5 mm form factor rather than the 9.5 mm for most 2.5-inch drives. WD says that these thicker drives are ideally suited for use in portable storage solutions, such as the company's own My Passport Essential SE Portable USB Drives. Other applications include select notebooks and small form factor desktop PCs.

"The convergence of the growing mobile computing and digital media trends produces demand for desktop-like capacities in portable devices," said Jim Morris, senior vice president and general manager of client systems at WD. "Our new WD Scorpio Blue drives enable people to take even more of their digital collections with them wherever they go and, realizing the value of their data, back up their notebooks on their My Passport drives."

WD Scorpio Blue 750 GB drives (model WD7500KEVT) are available now through select distributors and resellers; the 1 TB capacity (model WD10TEVT) is available now configured into My Passport Essential SE USB drives. The MSRP for the WD Scorpio Blue 1 TB drive is $249.99 and for the 750 GB version $189.99.