Releases

posted on 02 April 2008 14:44

WD® (NYSE: WDC) today introduced its My Book® Studio Edition(tm) II high-performance dual-drive storage systems which are designed to seamlessly work with Mac® computers and provide an ideal blend of power savings and high performance.

Available now at select retailers, the new My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive storage systems are available in capacities of 1 TB and 2 TB.
 
The new eco-friendly¹ dual-drive My Book Studio Edition II external storage systems use WD's GreenPower(tm) hard drives for power savings and cool and quiet operation. The system's dual-drive, RAID 0 configuration and high-speed interfaces deliver high performance for creative professionals, workgroups, small offices and anyone looking for fast data transfer.

Formatted² for Mac computers, these new storage systems feature:

- extra-fast performance with four interfaces (FireWire® 400/800, eSATA, USB 2.0);f

- factory-shipped in RAID 0 (Striped) configuration [RAID 1 (Mirrored) configurable];

- cool, eco-friendly operation with WD GreenPower drives that consume approximately one-third less power than standard dual-drive external storage systems and efficient convection cooling architecture and power-saving mode; designed without a fan to run quietly;

- 5-year limited warranty; automatic and continuous backup software;

- capacity gauge to see at a glance how much space is available on the system;

- intelligent drive management features, including automatic power-up, Safe Shutdown(tm) and LED status and activity lights³ ;

- user serviceability, enabling owner to open the enclosure and replace the drive inside;

- elegant silver metallic finish that perfectly complements other Mac products.

"WD developed the My Book Studio Edition II external drives to satisfy the needs of Mac enthusiasts and creative professionals who require extra-fast performance, but also want it to be as environmentally friendly aspossible," said Jim Welsh, vice president and general manager of WD's branded products and consumer electronics groups.

"Configured with RAID 0 out of the box, photographers, graphic artists, videographers, and others who require large amounts of storage will experience high performance combined with power savings and quiet operation when they use the new My Book Studio Edition II storage system."

Extra-fast Performance with RAID 0
Lightning-fast eSATA or FireWire 800 interfaces combined with RAID 0 (Striped) yields the speed users need for: fast, smooth video editing; rendering complex 3D objects or special effects; and saving huge blocks of data in record time. With RAID 0, users can have 2 TB of storage in an elegant, small footprint design that offers plenty of room to store an entire digital photo library and hundreds of hours of HD movies or digital video (results will vary based on file size and format, settings, features, software and other factors).

Pricing and Availability
My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive storage systems are available now at select retailers. MSRP for My Book Studio Edition II with 1 TB is £219.99; MSRP for My Book Studio Edition II with 2 TB is £429.99.

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 produces reliable, high-performance hard drives that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. WD applies its storage expertise to consumer products for external, portable and shared storage applications.

WD 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.

^{1 My Book Studio Edition II dual drive systems consume approximately one-third less power than standard dual-drive storage systems. Tests based on comparison between a 1 TB dual-drive system using 7200 RPM drives and a 1 TB dual-drive system using WD's GreenPower drives.
2 Includes a CD for PC formatting.
3 Works with USB and FireWire connections only.}

^{[Formatted by Paul Warren.]}