Western Digital launches 2TB hard drive

Interesting times among hard disk manufacturers. Western Digital continues to solidify its role as a leader in the drive industry. Though the company is not normally known for being at the forefront of capacity jumps, today it became the first manufacturer to announce the jump to 2TB in a single drive. The previous capacity high-point was Seagate's Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB drive.

The drive packs four 500GB platters, with 400 gigabits per square inch areal density. The drive is also part of WD's Green Power line of hard disk drives. This line of drives first shipped a year ago, and was the first to actively bill themselves as environmentally friendly drives due to lower power consumption. The 2TB drive has several WD technologies inside that enable its combination of capacity and power performance. StableTrac reduces vibration by securing the motor shaft at both ends, which in turn allows for accurate head tracking during read and write operations; IntelliPower, which WD says adjusts the balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms for optimal balance between performance and power consumption; IntelliSeek, which optimizes seek speeds to enable lower power consumption, noise, and vibration; and WD's NoTouch ramp load technology, which keeps the recording head from touching the disk media.

WD notes that, according to market research firm Trend Focus, over 10 percent of the 3.5-inch hard drive market is already at 1TB or higher.