Storage Toolkit

Toshiba turbocharges tiny drive

John G. Spooner CNET News.com

Published: 05 Nov 2003 16:55 GMT

Toshiba has increased the capacity of its small hard drive for portable electronics devices.

The company's Storage Device Division said on Wednesday that it has revised its 1.8-inch hard drive in two models, one capable of storing 20GB of data and the other 40GB.

The 1.8-inch drive, which has been used in products such as portable music players, is very similar to 2.5-inch hard drives found in notebook computers, but at about the size of a credit card is thinner and lighter.

The smaller size and weight make the 1.8-inch drives useful for handheld devices like Apple Computer's iPod, as well as personal digital assistants, handheld GPS (Global Positioning System) devices and miniature notebook computers.

The 20GB and 40GB drives augment Toshiba's existing line of 1.8-inch drives, which are available in 5GB, 10GB, 15GB and 30GB sizes. The new 20GB drive replaces an earlier one with the same capacity.

"Toshiba continues to build on the 1.8-inch product line to deliver high-capacity drives capable of storing everything from digital music and photos to videos and presentations," Amy Dalphy, the manager of Toshiba's hard drive business unit, said in a statement. The company has also been expanding its manufacturing capacity for the drives in order to meet demand, she said.

But where Toshiba had been alone in selling 1.8-inch hard drives for more than a year -- it announced the drive family in January 2002 -- it now has some competition. Hitachi Global Storage offers a competing line of 1.8-inch hard drives, although it does not yet offer 30GB or 40GB devices.

Dell uses the Hitachi drives, which can hold 15GB or 20GB of data, in its new Digital Jukebox portable music player.

Meanwhile, even smaller hard drives are available. Startup Cornice has a created a 1-inch drive that can store 1.5GB of data, and it says a dozen companies have plans to use its drive in various devices.