WD Slashes HDD Warranties By A Third – But You Can Buy Them Back

Way back in 2008, we reported that Seagate was lowering warranties of its hard disk drives from 5 years to 3. This trend quickly spread throughout the HDD industry and unsurprisingly, wasn't something that customers were too happy about. Now, Western Digital is lowering the warranty on some of its HDD lines from 3 years to a mere 2, with the affected lines being the Caviar Blue, Caviar Green and Scorpio Blue. Lines not affected are the Caviar Black, Scorpio Black, A/V drives and externals. Also, as the stock feeds through the channel, there will be a transition period where the same model in a store will have either a 2 or 3 year warranty, depending on its serial number, which can be checked on WD's support site. It will be interesting to see if retailers will clearly differentiate to customers which drives have which warranty, as it might be rather convenient for them not to.

Channel partners have received a letter from SelectWD about this:

This new warranty policy will be effective for drives shipped from January 2nd, 2012. It is important that you take a moment to update your website(s) and collateral to reflect this change for effected drives shipped after January 1st, 2012.

All drives shipped to distributors prior to Jan. 2nd 2012 will retain the current warranty terms. Because of existing inventory in the distribution channel there will be a short period of time when some drives with a 3-year warranty will be sold at the same time as drives with a 2-year warranty.

If you have any doubt about the warranty of a drive you purchased, you can go to support.wdc.com, select Warranty and RMA Services and proceed to the Warranty Check page.

The letter goes on to say "In the near future we will be unveiling an extended warranty offering with special pricing." At this time, there's no explanation why WD is reducing its warranty term.

So now, hard drive prices are very high across the board due to the Thailand flooding, which will be compounded by rubbish warranties that one can "buy back" the missing period by giving WD even more money. Does anyone sense a money grab here? It would be surprising if Seagate didn't follow WD's lead on warranties. SSDs are looking more attractive every day, aren’t they?

Source: The Register

Seagate Ships World's Slimmest, Portable, External Hard Drive

Seagate today announced the availability of its new GoFlex Slim portable hard drive –– a svelte, 9mm, 2.5–inch external drive designed for the latest trend of portable, thin, stylish laptops and netbooks. Initially showcased at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics show in January of this year, the new GoFlex Slim performance drive is now available on Seagate website, in–store and at select online retailers. A 320GB version of the GoFlex Slim drive can be purchased for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $99.99 USD.

At an ultra–sleek 9mm—38 percent leaner than the current GoFlex ultra–portable drives—the new GoFlex Slim drive is roughly the width of a pencil. Sliding effortlessly into a pocket, purse or messenger bag, the GoFlex Slim portable drive enables transport, access and enjoyment of personal digital content from anywhere, making it the perfect complement to today’s mobile lifestyle. Equipped with a 7200RPM drive and a USB3.0 interface to accelerate transfer speeds up to 10x faster than USB2.0, this attractive super–slim drive delivers quick access to large, multi–media files such as HD movies and video games. The faster drive speed takes full advantage of the included plug–and–play USB 3.0 interface, while still maintaining compatibility with USB 2.0 ports. The GoFlex Slim portable drive also allows for use between Windows and Mac computers, interchangeably, without formatting or performance loss. Additionally, the drive’s included p remium backup software provides automatic and continuous backups and encrypts files and folders.

“The continued growth of personal digital media stores, our increasingly mobile lifestyles and the continued proliferation of mobile devices are driving the demand for slimmer, more portable storage solutions,” said Patrick Connolly, vice president and general manager of Retail at Seagate. “Netbooks and slim laptops are great for consuming media, but are limited when it comes to creating and storing high–definition films and photos. With the benefit of using Seagate’s Momentus Thin drive, the 9mm GoFlex Slim ultra–portable hard drive breaks through these boundaries—delivering a beautiful, ultra–slim, lightweight storage solution to complement existing mobile computing devices so they can enjoy even more of the content they love, anywhere they want.”

The GoFlex Slim portable drive will also be available in a version for use specifically with Mac OS X computers. The GoFlex Slim for Mac portable drive will be HFS+ formatted out–of–the–box, making it fully compatible with Apple Time Machine backup software, while maintaining the ability to work across both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X computers. To deliver a fresh look that fits seamlessly with today’s Apple product line, the GoFlex Slim for Mac drive will feature a durable, soft–touch, metallic finish, which is also designed to withstand scratches, fingerprints or other marks incurred from travel. A 320GB version of the GoFlex Slim for Mac drive will be made available in May at Apple retail outlets nationwide for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $99.00 USD.

“Consumers have a desire to have digital content available at their fingertips. However, in some cases, personal libraries of digital content are exceeding the storage capacity available in notebook PCs,” said John Rydning, IDC’s research director for hard disk drives. “USB attached HDD storage that is capacious, affordable, lightweight, and in a slim form factor will be appealing to many of these consumers.”

According to IDC, tablets, mini–laptops and netbooks are largely seen as secondary PC devices and are primarily used for information “grazing,” or as vehicles of content consumption. Additionally, tablets, mini–notebooks and netbooks have very limited on–board storage requiring them to have access to additional storage, whether it is local attached, networked or from the cloud¹. The GoFlex Slim and GoFlex Slim for Mac drives enable people to easily sync files between their computer and the drive, so that they can easily store, transport and enjoy hundreds of DVD–quality movies, hours of digital video, and multiple–thousands of photos or digital music while on–the–go.

Source

Western Digital to Acquire Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

Western Digital and Hitachi, Ltd. announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement whereby WD will acquire Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $4.3 billion. The proposed combination will result in a customer-focused storage company, with significant operating scale, strong global talent and the industry’s broadest product lineup backed by a rich technology portfolio.

Under the terms of the agreement, WD will acquire Hitachi GST for $3.5 billion in cash and 25 million WD common shares valued at $750 million, based on a WD closing stock price of $30.01 as of March 4, 2011. Hitachi, Ltd. will own approximately ten percent of Western Digital shares outstanding after issuance of the shares and two representatives of Hitachi will be added to the WD board of directors at closing. The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is expected to close during the third calendar quarter of 2011, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. WD plans to fund the transaction with a combination of existing cash and total debt of approximately $2.5 billion.

WD expects the transaction to be immediately accretive to its earnings per share on a non-GAAP basis, excluding acquisition-related expenses, restructuring charges and amortization of intangibles.

The resulting company will retain the Western Digital name and remain headquartered in Irvine, California. John Coyne will remain chief executive officer of WD, Tim Leyden chief operating officer and Wolfgang Nickl chief financial officer. Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer of Hitachi GST, will join WD at closing as president, reporting to John Coyne.

“The acquisition of Hitachi GST is a unique opportunity for WD to create further value for our customers, stockholders, employees, suppliers and the communities in which we operate.” said John Coyne, president and chief executive officer of WD. “We believe this step will result in several key benefits: enhanced R&D capabilities, innovation and expansion of a rich product portfolio, comprehensive market coverage and scale that will enhance our cost structure and ability to compete in a dynamic marketplace. The skills and contributions of both workforces were key considerations in assessing this compelling opportunity. We will be relying on the proven integration capabilities of both companies to assure the ongoing satisfaction of our customers and to bring this combination to successful fruition."

“This brings together two industry leaders with consistent track records of strong execution and industry outperformance,” said Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. “Together we can provide customers worldwide with the industry’s most compelling and diverse set of products and services, from innovative personal storage to solid state drives for the enterprise.”

Hiroaki Nakanishi, president, Hitachi, Ltd. said, "As the former CEO of Hitachi GST, I always believed in the potential of Hitachi GST to become a larger and more agile company. This is a strategic combination of two industry leaders, both growing and profitable. It provides an opportunity for the new company to increase customer and shareholder value and expand into new markets. Additionally, it is important to us that WD shares common values with Hitachi GST to create a more global company that is well positioned to define a broader role in the evolving storage industry."

WD’s exclusive financial adviser on the transaction is Bank of America Merrill Lynch; its lead legal adviser is O'Melveny & Myers LLP. Goldman, Sachs & Co serves as financial adviser to Hitachi, Ltd. and Hitachi GST. Legal advisers to Hitachi, Ltd. and Hitachi GST are Morrison Foerster LLP and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates, respectively.

Source

Samsung Launches its First 1TB Spinpoint MT2 2.5" Mobile Hard Drive

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, today announced that it has started shipping its new Spinpoint MT2 1 terabyte (TB) 2.5″ internal mobile hard disk drive. It is ideally suited for use in portable storage solutions, such as the newly released Samsung S2 Portable 1TB USB Drives. Other applications include digital TVs, home media systems and set-top boxes, where quiet and cool operations are important.

Employing industry-leading 333GB per-platter technology, the new Spinpoint MT2 drive offers up to an enormous 1TB for personal digital collections such as photos, music, video and work files. Running at 5400rpm speed, the MT2 has a 12.5mm form factor and utilizes Samsung’s proprietary SilentSeek and NoiseGuard technologies to minimize noise levels during drive operation.

“The new Spinpoint MT2 drive offers the largest capacity in what has previously been offered as an option for portable digital devices,” said I.C. Park vice president, storage marketing, Samsung Electronics. “As the total storage solution provider, Samsung is committed to offering products that features exceptional performance and value across a wide range of computing and consumer electronics markets.”

The performance and reliability features of the Spinpoint MT2 have been enhanced with an optimized design and improved suspension for multidisc. The new MT2 drive delivers about 20% increased read/write performance and 4% lower power consumption compared with competitive drives, and it features shock resistance levels of 400G (2ms) in operation mode and 800G (1ms) when the power is off. Equipped with Samsung’s exclusive dynamic balancing technology, the drive’s overall stability and reliability is optimized as a high-performing solution.

The halogen-free drive complies with the European Union’s Directive on the Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS).

The Spinpoint MT2 features 5400rpm speed rotation, SATA 3.0 Gbps interface and Native Command Queuing functions for advanced performance.

The Spinpoint MT2 drive has an 8MB buffer memory and is available in 750GB and 1TB capacity. Initial shipments are available now.

Source:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/news/storage-news/samsung-launches-1-tb-spinpoint-mt2-25-mobile-hard-drive/