Toshiba shows 160GB 1.8-inch SATA drive

Toshiba this morning introduced one of the largest hard drives in its class with the MK1617GSG. The drive measures just 1.8 inches across but holds 160GB; the storage is more than the 120GB of an earlier Toshiba drive as well as any other small drive using a Serial ATA connection. There is also no sacrifice performance, the company says. The 160GB drive spins at the same 5,400RPM as most 2.5-inch notebook drives and much faster than the 4,200RPM of most disks at the smaller size. Packing more data into the drive also improves speed by reducing access time.

The extra speed is said to have no harmful effect on battery performance, which ultimately improves by 25 percent compared to the previous 120GB disk. The drive is also more shock-resistant than a larger disk with the same capacity, Toshiba claims.

Both the 160GB model and a very lightweight 80GB sibling, the MK8017GSG, will start production in August and should arrive in shipping products soon afterwards. Toshiba declines to name customers but notes that either drive is just over 0.3 inches thick, potentially ruling them out for portable media players or other very thin devices.