Western Digital releases its first 1.5TB mobile drive

Western Digital's HGST subsidiary today announced what it is calling the industry's densest mobile hard-disk drive, with capacities of up to 1.5TB in a 9.5mm (.37-in.) high form factor.

The 2.5-inch-wide disk drive contains three platters—a first for the company in that form factor and an achievement in shock resistance.

Currently, the highest capacity for slimmer 7.5mm and 5mm height mobile drives are 500GB.

The new Travelstar 5K1500 is being targeted at a variety of market segments, including notebooks, external hard drives, gaming consoles and all-in-one desktop PCs.

Brendon Collins, vice president of product marketing for HGST, said the drive is mainly targeted at the prosumer (professional-consumer) market.

"That portion of market values the higher capacity drives. Today, the highest capacity on mobile drives is 1TB on two disk platters," Collins said, adding that higher areal density disks will require more development before reaching the 1.5TB mark.

"We just thought we could get there sooner by adding third disk," he said.

:story: PCWorld