Western Digital rolls out 320GB 2.5-inch Scorpio hard drive

It's not the first to boast of a 320GB 2.5-inch hard drive, but Western Digital looks to be the first to actually ship one, with its new 320GB Scorpio SATA drive now available to anyone with a hankering for some spacious portable storage. In addition to cramming all those gigabytes into a laptop-friendly package, the drive is also said to be "one of the quietest 5400 RPM, 2.5-inch drives available," with WD's trademark WhisperDrive and IntelliSeek technology promising to keep the noise down and the power consumption to a minimum. Those looking to swap out their old drive for this one can expect to pay an even $200, although you can be sure you'll be seeing it as a pre-installed option before too long as well.

[KC Mac @ Jun 3rd 2008 2:40AM]

Fujitsu to Release World's First 7200-RPM 320 GB 2.5" Hard Disk Drive

http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/pr/archives/month/2008/20080324-01.html

Mmm, not really the first, but one to watch out for. Due end of June 2008.

[dariospa @ Sep 30th 2008 1:11AM]

I really dont know much about this... but I nead some assistance
I have a white macbook, currently an 80gb disk. Will this work ok? Do I need an instalation disk? where do I get it? thanks very much

[Concura @ Oct 31st 2007 12:30PM]

nice! my ps3 can use this. still have the old 20GBer in it

[Jevanzz @ Oct 31st 2007 12:35PM]

Just what I was thinking, it'd be sweeeeet in my PS3 :)

[Mike @ Oct 31st 2007 12:38PM]

Metal Gear Solid 4 got delayed until Q2 2008. I feel bad for you guys.

[Jevanzz @ Oct 31st 2007 2:00PM]

I couldn't care if they delayed it 'til Christmas next year, if it's not ready, it's not ready.

[matjet @ Oct 31st 2007 10:46PM]

how could it get delayed to q2 2008 when it was only coming out at q1-3 2008 anyway?

[paloooz @ Oct 31st 2007 12:34PM]

"9.5mm form-factor" so it should work in MacBooks and MacBook Pros, no?

[Nick Catalano @ Oct 31st 2007 12:42PM]

I see no reason why this would not work in MBPs and MBs.

Be careful though, the large-capacity WD 2.5" drives (160s+) are getting pretty poor reviews on Newegg. I believe there was a 200 on Newegg that had almost all reviews claiming SMART errors and failures.

These large drives are nice, and WD is great, but I'm gonna have to recommend you NOT buy these drives.

[Luigi193 @ Oct 31st 2007 1:59PM]

Just make sure to disable the macbook (pro)'s sudden motion detector (Via the command line or an app like cocktail). Apparently, the SMD in side of this drive conflicts some how with the one in the macbook possibly causing Kernel panics (aka Grey screens of panic and disarray)

Don't quote me cause I am no pro at this crap, but they do work, I have the 120 gb variety in my Macbook...but it makes this weird grinding sound sounds like its taking a drink of water....

[LikesGadgetsWillTravel @ Oct 31st 2007 4:33PM]

@Luigi -- if you're associating a "weird grinding noise" with "taking a drink of water", there's something wrong with your water.

If it's brown, drink it down; if it's black, send it back. -- Homer Simpson.

[Michael La Framboise @ Oct 31st 2007 6:57PM]

Yes, you could use it BUT -- from what I know Scorpio drives have a motion detector in them which freezes the hd in case of sudden movement -- however since MacBook/Pro's have their own sensor which does the exact same thing, you'd be getting ALOT of kernel panics when the drive would freeze itself.

[christapher @ Oct 31st 2007 12:41PM]

does anyone know if i would void my warranty but opening up and installing in my macbook pro?

[Tom @ Oct 31st 2007 12:47PM]

Yes, it would void your warranty.

[Sean D. @ Oct 31st 2007 1:12PM]

I believe you could have an Apple authorized service center install it for you without voiding your warranty... Might want to check in at a genius bar and ask them tho. The MacBook's hard drive (not the Pro), on the other hand, is user serviceable.

[DJBro @ Oct 31st 2007 3:32PM]

False. I've opened and replaced both original aluminum G4 PBs and MacBook Pro hard drives without voiding the warranty. took the same machine in for applecare and just told them the hard drive was replaced. As long as you don't maim the casing when you open it, you'll be fine. They really have no record who did the upgrade for you unless they did it themselves, and there are authorized repair centers other than Apple that can do this.

[nikster @ Oct 31st 2007 6:27PM]

You don't void your warranty except of you screw up when installing. If you break something during the install, you are out of luck. But if you get the HD inside, and close the case successfully - it's not that hard, there are very good instructions manuals online - then your warranty is not voided.

Not under warranty:
- Damage done during the install
- The new hard disk

Still under warranty:
- The rest of the MBP

[Mark_42 @ Feb 4th 2008 4:20PM]

It works great in my MBP! the Xbench drive numbers more than doubled. Very fast and very quiet.

[Jeff @ Oct 31st 2007 12:54PM]

you guys took the words out of my mouth... 1st thing I thinking about was my PS3... Put this in it and make the 60GB that I have in to an external drive :)

[Kevlar @ Oct 31st 2007 12:59PM]

The 2.5-inch link appears to lead nowhere.

[Kirby Yau @ Oct 31st 2007 1:03PM]

My old 120gb WD Scorpio on the other hand had rampant issues with the sudden drop sensor in my MBP. But I have regained my confidence in WD since I've had a 250gb WD Scorpio in my MBP for about six months now and its run swimmingly without issue.

[lightimagination.net @ Oct 31st 2007 1:30PM]

I was thinking about upgrading my drive in latest MACBOOK PRO 2.4GHz - i actually already have the 250GB version of this drive but i'm always hungry or more space. ONE THING that came to my mind - i believe i saw somewhere that there might be a limit of the size of a drive this laptop can support? Can anyone clarify if this is true - i thought the 250GB is the max. MACBOOK PRO can support.

[DJBro @ Oct 31st 2007 3:38PM]

Yeah it should support larger than 250. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't.

[lightimagination.net @ Oct 31st 2007 1:29PM]

I was thinking about upgrading my drive in latest MACBOOK PRO 2.4GHz - i actually already have the 250GB version of this drive but i'm always hungry or more space. ONE THING that came to my mind - i believe i saw somewhere that there might be a limit of the size of a drive this laptop can support? Can anyone clarify if this is true - i thought the 250GB is the max. MACBOOK PRO can support.

[Chow7 @ Oct 31st 2007 1:34PM]

I was going to get the 250gb now I think I will get this!!

[pstelman @ Oct 31st 2007 6:22PM]

Does this one have the evil "anti-shock" feature that some of the other recent WD drives have that make them crash the MacBook Pro? (It apparently doesn't play well with the MBP's built-in anti-shock feature.) If so, I'll wait for Hitachi's 320. (I've had the best luck with Hitachi in my MacBook Pros and PowerBooks.)

[John @ Oct 31st 2007 3:15PM]

I've had the 250GB version in my mini since June, works great

[Groat @ Oct 31st 2007 3:24PM]

I'd like to point out that this is NOT the first 320 GB 2.5 inch notebook drive to ship. I've got a brand new Dell XPS 1330 with a 320 GB drive listed as "SAMSUNG HM320JI" in device manager.

[DJBasic @ Oct 31st 2007 4:51PM]

Your Dell XPS 1330 has 2 160gb hard drives in it...not a single 320gb drive.

[Groat @ Oct 31st 2007 9:09PM]

DJBasic, I'm glad you regard me as too dumb or unknowledgeable to realize the difference between a single drive and multiple drives. It's a single drive. Even a quick google search of the string I typed in yielded a picture of the thing: http://picasaweb.google.com/pandagalleries/SamsungHM320JI/photo#5127146384276714306

[KC Mac @ Jun 3rd 2008 2:57AM]

The Samsung HM320JI is a 1.5 Gb/s interface SATA I device as opposed to WD Scorpio Black
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=482
and Fujitsu's upcoming as yet unnamed 2.5" drive:
http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/pr/archives/month/2008/20080324-01.html

which both use the faster 3.0 Gb/s SATA II interface.

For those of you who just said "whu?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

[lightimagination.net @ Oct 31st 2007 4:39PM]

Just realized - this drive is SATA 3.0 by the specs. i see:

Intel ICH8-M AHCI:

Vendor: Intel
Product: ICH8-M AHCI
Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported

it support ONLY 1.5 interface - so again, could you use SATA 3.0 drive in the MACBOOK PRO ???

[sam @ Oct 31st 2007 6:13PM]

Once again, yes. Chill out.

[nikster @ Oct 31st 2007 6:31PM]

Make it 7200 RPM and you got yourself a new customer... ;)

This topic seems to attract MacBook Pro modders, I have a Hitachi 7K200 in mine.