WD Introduces 6 TB External Hard Drive to Support Increased HD Content Creation by Creative Pros and Mac® Enthusiasts

IRVINE, Calif., March 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Western Digital® (NYSE: WDC), the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its My Book® Studio Edition™ II dual-drive storage system with a massive 6 terabytes (TB) of storage to meet the capacity needs of today's creative pros and Mac® enthusiasts who create, store, edit and archive large HD video and photo files. The new capacity provides users 33 percent more storage than the previous capacity, while maintaining the same footprint.

Combining its extended 6 TB storage capacity and compatibility with Apple® Time Machine®, the new My Book Studio Edition II drive becomes an instant storage solution for a variety of professions including art and design, photography, legal and medical, and a host of other small businesses.

The system offers a quad interface providing maximum performance and flexibility including eSATA and FireWire® 800 when maximum performance is essential, and FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 when system flexibility is most important.

"Thanks to advancements in HD video devices including digital SLR cameras and HD video cameras, the quality and quantity of video content being produced by professionals and enthusiasts alike has grown at an astounding pace," said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD's branded products group. "The My Book Studio Edition II drive now available with 6 TB of storage provides creative individuals with the expanded storage and bandwidth they need to effectively shoot, edit, and safely store their video productions without the need to compress their videos or reduce the overall quality of them for the sake of available space."

Extra-fast Performance and RAID Supported Configurations

Fast eSATA or FireWire 800 interfaces, combined with RAID-supported configurations, will yield the speed and responsiveness users need for a variety of tasks including fast, smooth video editing; rendering complex 3D objects or special effects, and saving/transferring enormous blocks of data in a fraction of the time it once took.

Formatted for Mac computers(1), these new storage systems feature:

• Massive 6 TB capacity;
• Extra-fast performance with four interfaces (FireWire 800/400, eSATA, USB 2.0);
• Cool, eco-friendly operation with WD's drives with WD GreenPower Technology that consume approximately one-third less power than standard dual-drive external storage systems and efficient convection cooling architecture and power-saving mode and designed without a fan to run quietly;
• Automatic and continuous backup software;
• User serviceability, enabling the user to open the enclosure and replace the drive inside;
• Capacity gauge to see at a glance how much space is available on the system; and,
• 5-year limited warranty.

Pricing and Availability

My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive storage systems are available now at WD's online store (www.wdstore.com). MSRP for the My Book Studio Edition II 6 TB drive is $549.99 USD.

About WD

WD, 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 designs and produces reliable, high-performance hard drives and solid state drives that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. Its advanced technologies are configured into applications for client and enterprise computing, embedded systems and consumer electronics, as well as its own consumer storage and home entertainment products.

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

Western Digital, WD, the WD logo and My Book are registered trademarks; My Book Studio and WD GreenPower Technology are trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Other marks may be mentioned herein that belong to other companies. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies. One gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes. One terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment.

(1)  Requires reformatting for Windows® Vista® or Windows 7. Windows XP does not support drives with capacities greater than 2 TB.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20000711/WDCLOGO)

SOURCE Western Digital Technologies