Western Digital has begun shipping high-performance versions of the relatively low-performance 2TB hard drives it introduced in May.
The new 2TB drives, announced on Tuesday, are the Western Digital Caviar Black and Western Digital RE4. According to Western Digital, the Caviar Black is designed for desktops, while the RE4 is suited to servers and network storage devices.
The drives are based on Western Digital's 500GB-per-platter technology. They both come with 7,200rpm spin speed, 64MB cache, dual-stage actuator technology, a Sata 2 (3Gbps) interface and an integrated dual processor.
Western Digital's dual-actuator technology is a head-positioning system with two actuators that improves positional accuracy over the data track. The primary actuator provides coarse displacement using conventional electromagnetic actuator principles. The secondary actuator uses piezoelectric motion to fine-tune the head positioning to a higher degree of accuracy.
Other features include IntelliSeek, a technology that calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration. The drives also benefit from StableTrac, a mechanism that makes sure the motor shaft is secured at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilise platters for accurate tracking during read-and-write operations.
In addition, the drives come with NoTouch, a ramp-load technology that keeps the recording head from ever touching the disk media. This is designed to significantly reduce the wear and tear of the recording head and media, as well as provide better drive protection in transit.
The WD RE4 2TB enterprise drive features 1.2 million hours mean time between failures (MTBF) and other power-saving, speed-enhancing and fail-proofing technologies.
The WD Caviar Black 2TB (model WD2001FASS) drive is available now for £232. The WD RE4 2TB (model WD2003FYYS) drive is currently being qualified by hardware makers. Both drives are covered by a five-year, limited warranty.
