11/11/2008, 7:15am, EST
Tuesday, November 11thHitachi intros 500GB encrypted notebook drive
Hitachi is releasing a new family of Travelstar 2.5-inch drives with improved security features, and reduced power use for longer battery life. The Travelstar 5K500.B line will be available in several sizes ranging from 160 to 500GB operating at 5400RPM with an 8MB cache. Hitachi says it expects the 5K500.B will be the first hard drive line to comply with the new Storage Security specification being finalized by the Trusted Security Group. The optional Bulk Data Encryption feature encrypts data as it is written to the drive and reverses this as information is retrieved, preventing casual data theft online.
The TCG standard likewise uses pre-boot authentication, making it easier for administrators to monitor the security of laptops connected to a network.
The Travelstar line has the lowest read/write power specification in the industry with no significant performance penalty, according to Larry Swezey, Hitachi's Director of Consumer and Commercial HDD. He says the 3GB/s SATA drives have an average seek time of 12ms with a read/write power specification of 1.4 watts. The company says the "eco-friendly" drives are also halogen-free to reduce pollution.
The 5K500.B will be shipping worldwide beginning next month in its various sizes. A heavy duty version for servers and routers will be released early next year. Pricing has not yet been released.
Filed under: upgrades/storage
Other story tags: Hitachi, Travelstar
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Impressive but
5400 is waaaay too slow. I think Ill wait until 7200 rpms come out. In the meantime, encrypted disk images work just fine and are more customizable.
Green factor
But 5400rpm is more green. C'mon we need to save the planet! You planet ruiner!