Western Digital Ships 320 GB Capacity 2.5-inch Hard Drives for Notebooks and Portable Storage Devices

Western Digital ships 320 GB Capacity 2.5-inch Hard Drives for Notebooks and Portable Storage Devices

WD's Continued Investments in Technology Result in Capacity Leadership for the Mobile Market
Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) today announced it is now shipping its new Western Digital Scorpio 320 GB 2.5-inch SATA (Serial ATA) hard drives for notebook computers and portable storage devices.

Western Digital uses advanced head and media technology to achieve the world's highest capacity 2.5-inch, slim, 9.5mm form-factor hard drive and includes proprietary features that make the drive extraordinarily quiet while running at cool operating temperatures. The Western Digital Scorpio 320 GB hard drives deliver high performance with 3 Gb/s transfer rate and are destined for use in OEM notebook platforms that offer the highest storage capacities to the worldwide market.

"Consumer demands for high capacity storage are stronger than ever. Western Digital is again leading the industry by delivering high quality, high capacity product to the market with the introduction of its new Western Digital Scorpio 320 GB hard drive," said Campbell Kan, vice president of mobile computing business unit, Acer Inc. "Western Digital understands the increasing storage requirements of the notebook market, allowing Acer to introduce high-capacity notebook solutions that meet our customer's ever-growing demands."

"In today's market, new notebook systems are increasingly targeting heavy duty applications in the office and home," said Jim Morris, Western Digital's vice president and general manager of notebook storage. "As system manufacturers improve performance and add data hungry features, high-capacity hard drives become a key ingredient that allows users to fully benefit from the latest computing technologies."

The Western Digital Scorpio 320 GB SATA hard drive is a direct result of the significant investments Western Digital has made in proprietary head technologies. With the introduction of its latest-generation Western Digital Scorpio drives, Western Digital continues to offer mobile computing and portable storage customers the same outstanding quality, reliability and performance that have earned the company a leadership position in the desktop PC market.

The new Western Digital Scorpio drive further expands the company's breadth of 2.5-inch, 5400 RPM, mobile hard drive offerings to capacity points up to 320 GB.

Western Digital Scorpio Exclusive Features

WhisperDrive - Western Digital's exclusive WhisperDrive technology combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms to yield the WD Scorpio 320 GB as one of the quietest 5400 RPM, 2.5-inch drives available.

ShockGuard - Leading-edge ShockGuard technology combines firmware and hardware advancements to protect the drive mechanics and platter surface to meet the highest combined shock tolerance specifications required for mobile and notebook applications.

IntelliSeek - Another unique Western Digital Scorpio 320 GB feature is its IntelliSeek technology, which calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration. For a demonstration on IntelliSeek, visit the Western Digital Web site at http://www.wdc.com/en/flash/index.asp?family=intelliseek.

Availability Western Digital Scorpio 320 GB drives (model WD3200BEVS) are available at Quest Network Services.

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.