Have you been wondering whether you should get a mechanical hard drive or a speedier (but pricier and smaller) SSD when Black Friday rolls around? How about both? That’s WD stance on the matter, at least.
WD just revealed the Black2 drive, which is the world’s first hard drive that combines an SSD with a tried and true mechanical disk. WD melded a 2.5-inch 120GB SSD with a 1TB hard drive, but don’t be fooled; no special cables or connectors are required. The drive sports SATA6 and is 9.5mm thin, despite the fact that it packs two drives into the same body. The Black2 differs from hybrid drives because you can use and view each drive as its own separate volume.
Here’s what Matt Rutledge, senior vice president of WD’s Storage Technology business unit, had to say about the WD Black2 announcement.
“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 WD Black2 is compatible with a range of operating systems, from Windows XP to Windows 8.1. You can snag it from wdstore.com and Newegg for $299.
