WD introduces 2.5-inch dual-drive with 120GB SSD + 1TB HDD

WD, a Western Digital company that manufactures storage solutions, has launched the WD Black2 dual drive, a storage device that integrates a 2.5-inch 120GB solid state drive (SSD) with a 1TB hard disk drive (HDD), offering a new dual drive solution.

The WD Black2 can be used for notebooks, small form factor desktops, and single-slot and all-in-one (AIO) systems with both SSD level performance and HDD capacity. The dual drive connects through a single cable and fits into a conventional 9.5 mm drive slot.

According to the company, the WD Black2 is free of caching algorithms and benefits from SATA 6 Gb/second interface speed. It is packaged in a standard 9.5 mm, 2.5-inch form factor with a legacy SATA connector, making the WD Black2 dual drive compatible with popular PC operating systems ranging from Windows XP to Windows 8.1.

“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.”

The company says that the WD Black2 dual drive offloads data usage from the SSD to the HDD, which increases endurance and life of the SSD, allowing end users to utilise the benefits of both flash and magnetic disks.

WD has said that it will announce the availability and pricing details for India soon. WD Black2 dual drives are covered by a five-year limited warranty.

It’s not the first time that we’re seeing a hybrid drive. Companies like Samsung and Seagate have been making fusion drives with a small SSD drive that can be used to store the operating system and apps and a hard disk that can be used to store data. This decreases the boot time and helps in accessing system software, faster. Apple had also introduced a Fusion drive for its late 2012 iMac and Mac Mini computers pairing a 1TB or 3TB hard drive with 128GB flash storage.