Big Storage In A Small Package From Hitachi

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies announced that it has added two hard drives to its G-Technology series of storage devices. The new drives come in 1TB and 4TB sizes and are incorporated into the G-Technology G-Drive and G-Raid (redundant array of independent disks) ranges.

Hitachi GST is the subject of a takeover by Western Digital, which was announced last March, and has received the approval of anti-monopoly bodies in most countries. The move is currently being held back by China’s Ministry of Commerce which has expressed concern about the deal giving Western Digital almost 50 percent of the global disk drive market.

The drives bring impressive amounts of storage space to what are considered mobile or small-business storage devices. The 1TB Travelstar 5K1000 for G-Drive Mobile (pictured below right) and the 4TB Deskstar 7K4000 for G-Drive and G-Raid (pictured below left) have both been designed primarily for Apple Macintosh environments, but can be used for Windows systems, and should prove ideal for those working with large video or image files, as well as providing backup support and archival functions. The G-Raid and G-Drive products are formatted for Mac OS X systems right out of the box and are Time Machine-ready.

Raid or mobile

“Whether you’re looking for a Raid solution, desktop solution, or portable hard drive, G-Technology continues to deliver the most trusted external storage solutions available,” Mike Williams, vice president and general manager of Hitachi GST Branded Business, said in a statement.

“Our G-Raid and G-Drive products have been the cornerstone in many gear bags and post-production houses as content creators need big, fast and reliable storage,” Williams said. “Our new solutions with Hitachi Travelstar and Deskstar hard drives are a welcome addition to our family as they give our customers more tools with higher capacities to use in their digital environments.”

Although Fujitsu positions the drives for Apple Macintosh systems, the units also support Microsoft Windows environments. A simple initialisation is all that is required to prepare the drives for use with Windows devices. The drives are 7,200-rpm units and are housed in an all-aluminium enclosure for cool operation.

Hitachi GST will ship its Travelstar 5K1000 and Deskstar 7K4000 drives to OEMs, distributors and channel partners in Q1 2012.

The G-Raid is available with 8TB capacity (4TB Raid 1) for $900, while the G-Drive comes in four capacities, ranging from 1TB to 4TB, with prices ranging from $200 to $450. Meanwhile, the G-Drive mobile USB, which Hitachi ships configured for use with a USB port, comes in 750GB and 1TB capacities and is priced at $150 and $200, respectively.