WD Announces 2.5-Inch, 10,000 RPM Enterprise SATA Hard Drives

LAKE FOREST, Calif., July 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- WD(R) (NYSE: WDC) announced today the WD VelociRaptor(TM) 10,000 RPM enterprise SATA hard drives in an enterprise-class 2.5-inch form factor for blade servers and 1U and 2U rack servers. The newest WD VelociRaptor hard drive is built for business-critical applications with enterprise-class mechanics and packs up to 300 GB of capacity into the enterprise small form factor bays, while consuming 35 percent less power than the previous-generation WD Raptor(R) drive.

"WD is bringing to enterprise customers what PC enthusiasts already appreciate about the WD VelociRaptor: a combination of high performance and high capacity for hard drive storage," said John Rydning, IDC's research director for hard disk drives. "WD's new WD VelociRaptor, designed specifically for the enterprise in an energy efficient 2.5-inch form factor, gives system OEMs and end users a new storage option to consider to meet growing storage requirements."

WD VelociRaptor 2.5-inch hard drives are designed and manufactured to enterprise-class standards to provide high reliability in high duty cycle environments, resulting in the highest available reliability rating of any SATA drive at 1.4 million hours MTBF.

"In the server market, demand for high performance drives continues to shift from the 3.5-inch form factor to the enterprise 2.5-inch form factor," said Tom McDorman, vice president and general manager of WD's Enterprise Storage Solutions business unit. "The new 2.5-inch WD VelociRaptor drive is the only drive available that can offer server customers the flexibility of integrating SATA technology while benefiting from server-class performance and reliability."

Features of the new WD VelociRaptor hard drives include:

Killer Speed -- 10,000 RPM, SATA 3 Gb/s interface and 16 MB cache deliver enterprise-class performance.

Rock-solid Reliability -- WD VelociRaptor drives are designed and manufactured to business-critical, enterprise-class standards to provide high reliability in high duty cycle environments. The design results in
the highest available reliability rating of any SATA drive at 1.4 million hours MTBF.

Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward (RAFF(TM)) technology -- Optimizes performance when the drives are used in vibration-prone, multi-drive chassis.

Ultra-cool operation -- WD VelociRaptor drives consume 35 percent less power than the previous generation of WD Raptor drive.

NoTouch(TM) ramp load technology -- The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit.


Availability

WD VelociRaptor 2.5-inch hard drives (model WD3000BLFS) are under evaluation with OEM customers and will be available through select commercial distributors by the end of the month. More information about WD VelociRaptor hard drives may be found on the company's Web site at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=494.

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(R) 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. This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning availability and expected shipping
dates for WD VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM enterprise SATA hard drives in an enterprise-class 2.5-inch form factor.

These forward-looking statements are based on WD's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking
statements, including: delays in manufacturing and delivery schedules, supply and demand conditions, business conditions generally and other risks and uncertainties listed in WD's recent Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on May 6, 2008, to which your attention is directed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, and WD undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Western Digital, WD, the WD logo and WD Raptor are registered trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. WD VelociRaptor, RAFF and NoTouch are trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. As used for storage capacity, one megabyte (MB) = one million bytes, one gigabyte (GB) = one billion bytes, and one terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment. As used for buffer or cache, one megabyte (MB) = 1,048,576 bytes.

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