Hitachi releases high-performance 500GB laptop hard drive

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies today announced it's shipping the fifth generation of its 7200-rpm, 2.5-inch laptop hard disk drive that, at 500GB, has more than twice the capacity of its predecessor and is 16% faster.

The Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 SATA drive is designed for notebooks, gaming systems and professional external storage enclosures, according to Hitachi.

The company also said the drive provides operating shock resistance and advanced power management capabilities for "sturdy, unplugged notebook performance."

"Hitachi's new 500GB mobile 2.5-inch HDD with a 7,200-rpm spin-speed provides PC OEMs an opportunity to differentiate PCs with both capacity and performance." John Rydning, research director for hard disk drives at IDC, said in a statement.

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