TDK Corporation has announced that its Thailand-based HDD suspension assemblies subsidiary Magnecomp Precision Technology Public Company Limited ("MPT") concluded an agreement in October to acquire two HDD-related companies (EntroComponent Solutions, LLC and EntroComponent Solutions Singapore Pte Ltd) from U.S.-based specialty polymer and resin manufacturer entrotech Inc. MPT also inked a business alliance agreement with entrotech.

entrotech mainly manufactures and sells specialty polymers and resins. Products employing these materials span a wide range of fields, including automotive films, HDD-related components, aircraft paint, and medical products. The HDD-related product manufacturing and sales companies subject to this acquisition handle vibration dampening materials attached to HDD head suspensions, as well as filters, sealants and other products for HDDs. MPT specializes in the manufacture and sales of suspension assemblies for HDD heads, supplying products globally from its base in Thailand.

WD, a Western Digital company and storage industry leader, today announced the release of the WD Black2 dual drive, a unique storage innovation that fuses a 2.5-inch 120 GB solid state drive (SSD) with a 1 TB hard disk drive (HDD) to offer a powerful dual drive solution. Perfect for consumers and service providers looking to upgrade notebooks, small form factor desktops, and single-slot and all-in-one (AIO) systems with both SSD level performance and HDD capacity, the WD Black2 dual drive connects through a single cable and fits into a conventional 9.5 mm slot.

"Our customers told us they like our Solid State Hybrid Drive technology, but our tech savvy users asked for more control of where they store their data," said Matt Rutledge, senior vice president of WD's Storage Technology business unit. "The WD Black2 dual drives empower our customers to enjoy SSD performance and access high capacity storage in a no-compromise package. The WD Black2 dual drive is a direct result of our interaction with our customer base through WD Labs initiatives. WD devised its beta labs program to provide an exclusive testing arena for key customers and technology influencers of existing and emerging WD storage products."

Today, LaCie announced that its award-winning Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series hard drive is now available in a 2 TB version. With double the storage of its predecessor, the new LaCie Rugged is the highest capacity bus-powered storage solution with Thunderbolt technology on the market. Plus, the 2 TB model achieves speeds up to 127 MB/s, a 15 percent increase from the previous version. With these speeds users can transfer 750 RAW photos or one HD movie in less than one minute. Built for heavy data users who require complete mobility, the LaCie Rugged is the ideal sidekick to a new Mac or Ultrabook.

"With video and photo file sizes increasing exponentially, creative pros are generating more digital content than ever before," said Erwan Girard, Professional Business Manager, LaCie. "Today, we've addressed their number one demand by doubling the LaCie Rugged's capacity. This allows on-the-go pros to store more data on fewer drives and lets them stay in the field longer."

Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) today announced that its Samsung HDD division is shipping the new 2.5-inch Spinpoint M9T, which at 9.5 mm thin is the world's thinnest 2TB hard drive. Offered in capacities of 1.5TB and 2TB, the Spinpoint M9T mobile drive gives OEMs, channel system integrators and consumers a thin, high-capacity storage solution ideal for external storage, notebook integration and upgrades, desktop, and gaming system applications.

"The M9T combines the highest areal density shipping in a single storage device with an innovative design that fits into mainstream notebook applications. While other 2TB are solutions on the market are 15 mm thick, the vast majority of mobile devices are designed to use a 9.5 mm drive; with the M9T, those devices can now have 2TB of storage, enabling a richer computing experience," said Dave Frankovich, senior product line manager, Samsung HDD.

G-Technology, a leader in delivering premium storage solutions for consumers and content creators, today announced two new high-performance portable external storage solutions. The sleek and portable G-DRIVE slim and G-DRIVE mobile, already favorites among design-conscious users who need fast, reliable storage on the go, are now available with 7,200 RPM hard disk drives (HDDs). When compared to 5,400 RPM-based HDD models, these external drives deliver up to 20-40 percent faster data transfer rates for quicker access to photos, videos, music and documents.

"In this digital world, we all need reliable, fast storage to protect the photos, videos and music that mean the most to us," said Mike Williams, vice president and general manager, G-Technology. "Whether you're a professional photographer needing to store and protect content in the field, or a consumer needing a simple storage and backup solution, our new portable external drives are the solution. Each external drive delivers performance, reliability and style in a sleek, portable design."

HGST, a Western Digital company, today announced that it is shipping the 6 TB Ultrastar He6 hard disk drive (HDD). Key OEM, cloud and research leaders working closely with HGST to qualify the drive include HP, Netflix, Huawei Unified Storage, CERN, Green Revolution Cooling and Code42, as well as some of the world's largest social media and search companies.

Revealed in September 2012, HGST's cutting-edge HelioSeal platform provides a path for higher capacity storage for decades to come while significantly lowering customer total cost of ownership (TCO). Leveraging the inherent benefits of helium, which is one-seventh the density of air, the new Ultrastar He6 drive features HGST's innovative 7Stac disk design with 6 TB, making it the world's highest capacity HDD with the best TCO for cloud storage, massive scale-out environments, disk-to-disk backup, and replicated or RAID environments.

Buffalo Inc. today unveiled a new family of portable hard drives which are known as the HD-PNFU3 Series and come in a variety of colors including black, white, red, pink, blue and yellow. Seen below, the HDDs measure 115 x 79.5 mm (thickness varies by capacity - 13.5 mm for 500 GB, 16 mm for 1 TB and 21.5 mm for 2 TB), and have USB 3.0 connectivity, a shock-absorbing internal frame, plus support for the TurboPC EX2 software and its save mode which allows data stored on the drives to be automatically compressed.

The HD-PNFU3 Series drives are backed by a one-year warranty and are set to arrive around the end of November priced at 11,130 yen (~113 USD), 15,015 yen (~ 153 USD) and 28,770 yen (~293 USD) for the 500 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB units, respectively.

I-O Data announced the HDPF-UT line of portable hard drives. The drives are build with metal main frame and plastic panels, with reinforced edges, and cushioning for the internal drive. Available in matte black and matte white color options, the drives are available in 500 GB (HDPF-UT500) and 1 TB (HDPF-UT1.0) variants. The drives take advantage of USB 3.0 interface, and rely on a single cable for both power and host connectivity. Installers for I-O APP, a data-migration tool, comes pre-loaded. Measuring 76 mm x 113 mm x 14 mm (WxDxH), the drives weigh about 160 g. Slated for market availability in mid-November, starting with the Japanese market, the 500 GB variant is expected to be priced at 9,450 JPY (US $97), and the 1 TB variant at 13,335 JPY (US $137).

Xilence, a specialist in power supplies, cooling and noise reduction solutions for PCs and notebooks, announced that their famous internal SSD/HDD docks are back in portfolio. "We had a very good feedback in the past regarding the internal removable storage media device and decided to sale it also in new portfolio because of the customer feedback," told Michael Albes, chairman of Xilence GmbH.

The SSD-/HDD-Dock can be easily integrated in the 5.25 bay of a PC and offers space for two 2.5 SSDs that will be connected via Hot Swap - when the system is running. The SSD-/HDD-Dock offers two additional USB 3.0 ports that can be used via the control panel if the 19 pin USB 3.0 plug is connected to the motherboard.

Toshiba announced two additions to its Canvio family of external storage solutions, with the Canvio Connect and Canvio Slim Mobile series. Canvio Connect is line of colorful, high-capacity external HDDs, which take advantage of USB 3.0, and are bus-powered. The drives come in capacities of 2 TB, 1 TB, and 500 GB. The drives measure 79 x 111 mm (WxD), with 15 mm thickness for the 1 TB and 500 GB variants; and 20.5 mm for the 2 TB variant. The Canvio Connect series includes a remote-access software that lets you access its contents over the Internet.

The Canvio Slim Mobile, on the other hand, is all about keeping things slim. It isn't too different from the Canvio Slim II series launched this June, featuring a brushed aluminium body garnish, in silver and graphite trims, 75 x 107 mm (WxD), with 9 mm thickness for the 500 GB, and 12.5 mm thickness for the 1 TB variant.

Shuttle Computer Handels GmbH, the European subsidiary of Shuttle Inc., one of the leading developers and manufacturers of compact PC solutions such as the world-renowned XPC Mini-PC Barebones, now also offers models compatible with the fourth generation of Intel Core processors ("Haswell") for socket LGA 1150.

Shuttle provides high-quality, powerful cube-shaped PCs for all platforms of the Intel Core processor family. And Haswell is no different. With the XPC Barebone SH87R6 and XPC Barebone SZ87R6, the manufacturer presents two solutions based on this processor type that are suitable for a wide variety of applications. The Mini-PCs are not only intended to be used as powerful and energy-efficient desktop PCs, but also as high-performance workstations or mini-servers. Thanks to their compatibility with a wide range of removable graphics cards, gamers are also happy to use these machines as easy-to-carry gaming rigs.

Corsair, a worldwide designer of high-performance components for the PC hardware market, today announced the new Graphite Series 230T mid-tower PC case. Available in three colors, Battleship Grey, Rebel Orange, and Black, the new case combines dramatic, angular styling and the builder-friendly features, expandability, and flexibility that Corsair cases are known for.

The Graphite Series 230T case features a sculpted, aggressively styled steel exterior with color coordinated LED intake fans and a tinted side panel window. Inside, the matte black interior has plenty of room for multi-GPU configurations and mass storage with seven expansion slots along with four 2.5", four 3.5", and three 5.25" drive bays. The case also includes dual 120mm LED front intake fans and a rear 120mm exhaust fan, and has mounts to add two 120mm or 140mm fans on the top and a 120mm or 140mm fan on the bottom.

HGST, a Western Digital company, today announced that it is shipping its new MegaScale DC 4000.B, a 3.5-inch, 4 TB, 6 Gb/s SATA hard disk drive (HDD). As the company's second-generation MegaScale drive, the new MegaScale DC 4000.B has been further optimized based on customer feedback to meet the explosive growth of infrequently accessed data, while balancing the right mix of power, capacity, performance and reliability. As part of a tiered storage strategy, the MegaScale DC 4000.B is designed for low-workload applications such as bulk storage for unstructured or big data, disk-to-disk backup, online archives, or long-term data retention where cost-per-GB, watt-per-GB and GB-per-square foot are critical parameters.

"With the explosive adoption of free email, social networks and Internet services, the capacity requirements for cloud and hyperscale data centers are growing astronomically. These environments are constantly looking for ways to improve their storage infrastructure costs and the bottom line," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing, HGST. "As a leading drive supplier to some of the world's largest cloud data center providers, we understand the demanding storage requirements for low workload applications in these hyperscale environments. With the MegaScale DC 4000.B, we're delivering massive capacity in a low-power, performance-optimized drive to help customers achieve superior capital savings, operational efficiencies and energy conservation in the data center."

Buffalo has today announced the HD-LCU3 Series a new line of external hard drives that goes up to 4 TB in terms of capacity. Coming in black and white (the white models top 3 TB, while the black ones reach 4 TB), the fresh drives measure 187 x 120 x 39 mm, they weigh about 1 kg, and feature USB 3.0 connectivity, an internal anti-vibration system, no active cooling, and a casing that allows both vertical and horizontal installation. Moreover, using the TurboPC EX2 software, users can activate the HDD's 'Save Mode' which compresses the data transferred to it so as to fit in more content.

The 1 TB, 2 TB, 3 TB and 4 TB HD-LCU3 Series drives will arrive at the end of this month priced at 13,125 yen (~ 134 USD), 16,485 yen (~ 169 USD), 22,050 yen (~ 225 USD) and 38,850 yen (~ 397 USD), respectively.

Cooler Master, a leading creator, innovator and manufacturer of desktop components and more, today proudly launches the newest addition the ultimate line of premium cases, COSMOS SE. Built and inspired by the spirit of the COSMOS and COSMOS II and their supercar design origins, COSMOS SE comes loaded as a more aggressive and more nimble sports car in a decidedly more compact form. Driven by this aesthetic, COSMOS SE features the trademark curved aluminum handles and sleek outer exterior that fans have come to love. Its divergent styling comes from a more forceful, road hugging, and compact sports car feel.

Contained within the desirable exterior of the COSMOS SE is the support for truly exceptional system builds. COSMOS SE comes capable of supporting up to 8 fans with four being preinstalled. Two 120mm blue LED fans in the front with LED on/off control, one 140mm fan in the top, and one 120mm fan in the rear to provide strategically placed cooling for all of a user's systems components. Superior liquid cooling support is built in for 120, 240, 280, and 360mm radiators with users being able to install a 120, 280, and a 360mm radiator all at once.

Buffalo has this week announced a new addition to its storage offer, the Mini Station Turbo PC EX2 portable hard drive. Seen below, the HDD is 115 by 76 mm (thickness differs by capacity - 11.5 mm for 500 GB, 14 mm for 1 TB and 19.5 mm for 2 TB), it has USB 3.0 connectivity, it comes in two color versions - black and white, and includes a power saving mode that lowers standby consumption to just 0.95 W, and a transfer mode that will compress data on the drive, so as to fit in more content.

The Mini Station Turbo PC EX2 is backed by a one-year warranty and is set to ship early next month, priced at 9,975 yen (~ 100 USD) for the 500 GB drive, 13,860 yen (~ 139 USD) for the 1 TB model, and 27,720 yen (~ 279 USD) for the 2 TB unit.

Toshiba Europe GmbH (TEG), Storage Peripheral Division, has today announced the addition of a new 2 TB hard drive (HDD) to its travel friendly STOR.E Plus external HDD range. The STOR.E Plus range has been developed by Toshiba to provide a simple storage solution with a portable travel design. The new STOR.E Plus not only comes with a sizable 2 TB storage capacity, but it also has SuperSpeed 3.0 USB connectivity and plug and play technology, for quick and easy use whilst on the go.

With remote working becoming increasingly popular, especially for the thousands of people who spend an average of 75 minutes a day commuting to and from work, the need to secure and back up valuable data whilst on the move has never been more important. With unsecure Wi-Fi connections available in most public spaces and occasional weak spots with 3G coverage, consumers run the risk of losing or corrupting precious data files viewed or edited on the move, which can be prevented with a portable back up capability.

Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced it has shipped over one million drives using shingled magnetic recording (SMR). SMR is the next generation in storage technology and is critical for continued improvement in areal density (the amount of data that can be stored on a single disk) to support global growth in cloud and mobile usage. The SMR generation of storage technology is expected to power gains of up to 25 percent.

"With nearly 7 billion inhabitants on earth we are creating an astounding 2.7 Zettabytes of data a year and as such are rapidly approaching the physical limits of how much can be written on a single conventional hard disk drive," said Mark Re, Seagate's chief technology officer. "With SMR technology, Seagate is on track to improve areal density by up to 25 percent or 1.25 TB per disk, delivering hard drives with the lowest cost per gigabyte and reaching capacities of 5 TB and beyond."

Seagate Technology plc., a world leader in storage solutions, today took the wraps off the new Seagate Ultra Mobile HDD designed exclusively for mobile devices. Integrated with the Seagate Mobile Enablement Kit which includes Seagate's Dynamic Data Driver software technology, the new storage solution delivers up to 7x the storage capacity of a traditional 64GB tablet with the same power, performance and reliability of a flash device.

"Coupling an ultra-thin, high-capacity HDD with software designed to optimize integration into tablets at a value-add price has allowed us to deliver a truly ground-breaking solution, enabling our partners to reimagine the mobile device," said Steve Luczo, president, CEO and chairman of Seagate. "By empowering our OEMs with this revolutionary new technology, we have invited the industry to re-think the mobile market making this offering a true game-changer in the world of storage."

So you're planning on building a NAS system. You've already selected your NAS unit (a Thecus, of course), but you're wondering what drives to put inside. SSDs? Nah, too pricey and a little small. So HDDs it is. But which ones do you buy? Are they all made the same? What speed RPM and what buffer size would be best for a NAS environment? If only HDD manufacturers would start building custom drives for network storage!

It just so happens, dear user, that today is your day. Western Digital has officially announced the release of its latest NAS-specific Red HDDs: the RD1000M and the RM500M. Designed specifically for Network Attached Storage systems, these latest members of the Red family feature 4TB of storage in a 3.5" enclosure (RD1000M) and 1TB or 750GB of storage in a 2.5" enclosure (RM500M).

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it will expand its family of small form factor 2.5-inch HDDs with a new series that packs up to 500GB of data storage into a unit with a height of just 7mm. The new "MQ01ACF" series will start shipping from August 30.

The "MQ01ACF" series is Toshiba's first 7,278rpm, 2.5-inch product with a 7 mm height. The series offers two models: the "MQ01ACF050" with a recording capacity of 500 GB and the 320 GB "MQ01ACF032". A maximum internal transfer rate of 1,850 Mbit/s is realized by improvement to linear recording density and the 7,278 rpm rotational speed. Implementation of the 6 Gbit/s SATA interface also boosts data transfer rates over those of current models.

ASUS plans to expand its VivoBook series with a new AMD-powered member, the X102BA. This 10.2-inch ultra-portable should bring Windows 8 experience to the masses, with its cost-effective innards, including an AMD A4-1200 dual-core APU with Radeon HD 8180 graphics, 2 GB of RAM, and 320 GB of HDD storage. Its software bundle includes not just Windows 8, but also Office Home and Student 2013. ASUS reportedly plans to price the X102BA at 330 Euros, when the notebook hits stores some time next month.

Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of Serial ATA (SATA) technology, today announced the ratification of its revision 3.2 specification. The latest specification includes SATA Express, a new specification that enables the coexistence of SATA and PCIe storage devices, as well as enhancements in power management, new SATA form-factors, and optimizations for solid state hybrid drives (SSHDs).

"SATA technology continues to evolve to accommodate ever-changing storage industry requirements," said Mladen Luksic, SATA-IO President. "The updates featured in the revision 3.2 specification, such as SATA Express and enhancements for emerging solid state hybrid drives, are driven by current market trends. These new features demonstrate SATA-IO's ongoing commitment to providing low-cost, high-performance storage solutions."

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, has made another advance in ultra-slim external hard drives with the launch of the DashDrive Elite HE720 in 1 terabyte capacity. The HE720 offers high speed data transmission through a USB 3.0 interface, and has a thickness of only 8.9 mm.

The chassis of the HE720 is made of highly reflective stainless steel and provides 9H grade scratch resistance, which prevents damage and marring even after long-term use. A gleaming LED indicator indicates power and data transfer status, accentuating the modern metallic lines of the drive body. The USB 3.0 interface offers transfer efficiency up to three times that of older USB 2.0 devices, but retains full backward compatibility with earlier versions.

Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in storage solutions, today unveiled two new enterprise-class hard disk drives (HDD) optimized for emerging cloud infrastructures and large scale data centers- the Seagate Terascale HDD and the Seagate Enterprise Performance 10K HDD v7. Ideal for system builders, the Terascale HDD and Enterprise Performance 10K HDD v7 provide high-capacity storage in low-power configurations making them perfect for efficiently and affordably storing the ever-growing amount of unstructured data typically stored in the cloud.

"Over the next eight years, the capacity shipped into the cloud will double and by 2020 personal and enterprise clouds will account for greater than 60 percent of the total storage capacity shipped. With this huge shift of capacity to the cloud, storage providers will need to deploy more storage quickly all while increasing capacity and lowering energy costs," said Scott Horn, Seagate vice president of marketing. "Engineered with this mind, these new drives deliver on all fronts providing high capacity-to-power ratios and ensuring consistent performance at an affordable cost- making them an ideal solution for the cloud."