RunCore recently announced it will soon begin shipping its RunCore Pro IV 2.5-inch solid state drives. The SATA II disks are unusual in their bundling a drive case, allowing users to backup their existing data or otherwise use the disks externally before removing their traditional hard drive. The SATA case can then be used together with the old hard drive as an external storage device.

Installation is said to be simple and involves plugging it into a PC or Mac computer's USB port, running the cloning software and then physically installing the RunCore SSD drive in the computer case. RunCore includes a 15-day free trial of Acronis True Image for PC versions of the SSD and Super Duper's imaging software for Mac users.

Retail prices are set at $180, $300, $600 and $1,000 for 32GB, 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities, respectively, though RunCore expects that street pricing will be lower, at $150, $250, $450 and $890. The range will be released on May 15th.