To the 2, 5-inch product line for notebooks and portable storage solutions, develop, Western Digital announced the introduction of the Scorpio mobile hard drives of next-generation. The new drives of the “WD Scorpio” series, which is now available with up to 120 GB capacity, are equipped with either an EIDE or serial ATA interface.

Despite the high performance of a 5400-RPM drive, is the power consumption of the “WD Scorpio” at the level of HDD 4200 RPM. The lower power hunger battery life on mobile devices and the durability of drives increases. The hard drives of the Scorpio series offer an access time of 12 ms and up to 8 MB of cache.

According to the research firm trend AUTOFOCUS grows the 2, 5-inch hard disk market expected to 19.1 percent of 68.6 million in 2005 to 81.7 million units in 2006. The annual growth rate of 2, 5-inch market from 2006 to 2009 is estimated at 19.3 per cent.

≪ blockquote > Jody Bradshaw, General Manager mobile storage

“Addressing this rapidly growing market, WD recollects his reputation as a manufacturer of high quality and highly reliable disk.” “The new WD Scorpio 120 GB drive convinces with its performance and the exclusive features, which form the basis for a real customer value.”

WhisperDrive-and SoftSeek technology is used, which is to reduce the volume of the drives in the Scorpio family. The ShockGuard technology combines firmware and hardware improvements to protect the drive mechanics and the sensitive surface of the platter. In this way, WD achieved a shock of 300 G in the operation and 900 G in the disabled state.

The “WD Scorpio 120 GB EIDE” (model wd1200beve) is already available in numbers and can be ordered from the online store by Western Digital for $ 234,99. Also here is the free standard shipping from an order value of at least $ 200.00. The “WD Scorpio 120 GB SATA” (model WD1200BEVS) is expected to be available from next month. Western Digital provides three year warranty.