Addressing the needs for the growing enterprise market for high-capacity, highly-reliable storage, Western Digital Corp. today announced it will be shipping its WD RE2 (RAID Edition) 750GB hard drive this month. With 3.0Gb/s data transfer rate, WD RE2 hard drives feature Native Command Queuing (NCQ) and 16 MB cache for high system performance."WD has continued to leverage its extensive experience from previous RAID Edition drives, to develop a hard drive perfectly suited for a variety of high-capacity enterprise applications. These drives demand high capacity, reliability, performance and advanced features," said Tom McDorman, vice president and general manager of enterprise storage, WD.

Addressing a growing high-capacity enterprise market, WD RE2 drives are reliability-rated at 1.2 million hours MTTF (mean time to failure) in high duty cycle environments. Combined with a new 750GB capacity, this provides enterprise-class drives with reliability and other required attributes for demanding server and network-attached storage environments, such as file servers, e-mail servers and Web servers. Other proven features incorporated in the new WD RE2 750GB hard drives include:

• SecurePark for improved shock characteristics
• StableTrac for improved vibration performance
• IntelliSeek to reduce power consumption, noise and vibration

WD RE2 750GB hard drives include the company's SecurePark technology, which parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down and when the drive is not operating. Unlike drives without SecurePark, the feature improves non-operational shock tolerance by ensuring that the recording heads never touch the disk surface, reducing head and surface wear and enhancing long-term reliability.

Used on WD high-capacity hard drives and to further ensure reliability, WD's StableTrac technology was incorporated. StableTrac's motor shaft is secured at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking during read and write operations. Most current hard drive designs feature motors that are only attached on the bottom of the hard drive, which can cause missed read revolutions. StableTrac allows end-user data to be retrieved fast without missing revolutions.

With IntelliSeek, the actuator's movement is controlled so the head reaches the next target sector just in time to read the next piece of information, rather than rapidly accelerating and waiting for the drive rotation to catch up. This smooth motion reduces power usage by more than 60 percent compared with standard drives, as well as quiets seek operation and lowers vibration. Lower power leads to a reduction in heat generation, resulting in greater long-term reliability.

For a demonstration on IntelliSeek, visit the WD Web site at www.wdc.com/en/flash/index.asp?family=intelliseek

Price and Availability
WD RE2 750GB (model WD7500AYYS) hard drives will be available on the company's online store and through select distributors and resellers. Manufacturer's Suggest Retail Price (MSRP) for the WD RE2 750GB is $265 USD. More information about WD RE2 enterprise drives may be found on the company's Web site at www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=335.