Toshiba Shrinks Hard Drives Down to Size

Who says you need a large space to store a lot of data? Toshiba has begun shipping samples of a new 2.5-inch hard drive that boasts a storage capacity of 30GB--the highest yet in this form factor, according to the company.

The new drive has an areal density of 26.7 gigabits per square inch. This means 15GB of data can be crammed onto a single 2.5-inch disk platter, two of which are fitted into the 30GB drive. A companion single platter 15GB drive is also shipping in sample quantities, Toshiba says in a statement.

Because of their high capacity and small size, Toshiba is targeting the drives at use beyond the desktop or notebook computer markets. The company said the drives could bring increased functionality to PDAs, digital music players, video cameras, and other products that make use of audio-visual data.

The drives are expected to be available commercially from March this year, a spokesperson says. Pricing, either for the sample or commercial product, was not available from the company.

Although higher-capacity hard drives are available, they are generally based on 3.5-inch platters and are larger in overall size than the new Toshiba products which are .4 inches high, 3.9 inches long, and 2.8 inches wide.

The drives feature an average seek time of 13 milliseconds and a data transfer rate of 100M bits-per-second, while rotational speed is 4,200 rpm. They weigh under 3.5 ounces. Additionally, the drives can withstand 175 times the force of gravity (G) of operational shock and 800G of non-operating shock, the company says.