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Western Digital announces fast high-capacity laptop hard drive

Western Digital announces a new high-speed laptop hard drive that offers 750GB of storage.

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The new Scorpio Black laptop hard drive from Western Digital.
The new Scorpio Black laptop hard drive from Western Digital. Western Digital

LAS VEGAS--Western Digital announced today a new laptop hard drive that offers 750GB, the WD Scorpio Black 750GB. Though this drive's capacity isn't going to blow anybody's mind--laptop hard drives reached 1.5TB a while ago (though more are available in external form)--it's one of few consumer-grade drives that spin at 7,200rpm.

This is an upgrade to the company's WD Scorpio Blue drive, which was announced in early 2010, that offers the same amount of storage but spins at 5,400rpm.

Western Digital claims that the WD Scorpio Black is one of the fastest 2.5-inch hard drives on the market. The drive supports the standard 2.5-inch design, the SATA 3Gbps interface, and 16MB of cache memory. The new drive uses Advanced Format technology (PDF) and incorporates a variety of data-protection features to actively monitor and protect data. It's also said to consume the same amount of energy as a 5,400rpm drive.

Western Digital says that the WD Scorpio Black is designed for use in OEM notebooks and has been tested to work anywhere a hard drive of the same standard is used. It's available now, and at around $150, it seems as though it would make a good replacement drive for any laptops that still use a 5,400rpm drive.