Western Digital Shipping in Volume - Western Digital CAVIAR GREENPOWER 500 GB Hard Drives

Western Digital Shipping in Volume - Western Digital CAVIAR GREENPOWER 500 GB Hard Drives
New Member of the Most Power Efficient 3.5-inch Hard Drive Family is Industry's Coolest and Quietest Running, Eco-Friendly 500 GB Drive

Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) today announced an addition to its popular and environmentally friendly GreenPower™ family of Western Digital desktop hard drive products with its Western Digital Caviar GP 500 GB model. Consuming only 3.3 watts in idle mode and 6 watts during seek mode, Western Digital Caviar GP 500 GB 3.5-inch SATA hard drives support quieter, cooler-running desktop PCs and external storage devices, with power usage 30 percent lower than any other announced 500 GB hard drive in the industry.

"Cooler and quieter operation are key benefits of the Western Digital Caviar GP line of hard drives, which has created a strong following among desktop and external HDD customers," said Don Bennett, vice president and general manager of Western Digital's desktop business unit. "When a hard drive requires 30 percent less power to operate, heat generation is significantly reduced, enabling greater long-term reliability in all applications."

Built on Success
The Western Digital Caviar GP 500 GB is built using the same fundamental technologies as the Western Digital Caviar GP 1 TB. Consistently ranked well in overall performance, with exceptional quietness, Storagereview.com1 said, "it is easily the quietest ever at idle, eerily silent even outside of a case." When ranked by ExtremeTech2, the Western Digital Caviar GP drive received 9 out of 10 points, ranking higher than competitive drives.

Enabling Eco-friendly PC'sWestern Digital Caviar GP 500 GB drives yield average drive power savings of 4-5 watts over competitors' drives making it possible for our energy-conscious customers to build systems with higher capacities and the right balance of system performance, assured reliability, and energy conservation. This power savings equates to reducing CO2 emission by up to 13.8 kilograms per drive per year - the equivalent of taking a car off the road for 3 days each year3. By equipping environmentally-conscious PCs with Western Digital Caviar GP drives, large organizations with many desktop computers can minimize their carbon footprint and save real money on electricity costs.

Coolest, Quietest Hard Drives:

• IntelliPower - A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance. Additionally, GreenPower drives consume less current during startup allowing lower peak loads on systems as they are booted.

• IntelliSeek - Calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise, and vibration.

• IntelliPark - Delivers lower power consumption by automatically unloading recording heads during idle to reduce aerodynamic drag, and by disabling read/write channel electronics.

Availability and Pricing
Western Digital Caviar GP 500 GB hard drives (model WD5000AACS) may be ordered through Quest Network Services. Estimated pricing for the Western Digital Caviar GP 500 GB is $149.99 USD. More information about Western Digital Caviar GP desktop drives may be found on the company's Web site at http://wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=338

About Western Digital
Western Digital, one of the storage industry's pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company produces reliable, high-performance hard drives that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. Western Digital applies its storage expertise to consumer products for external, portable and shared storage products.

Western Digital was founded in 1970. The company's storage products are marketed to leading systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company's Web site (http://www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.