LaCie's bright orange Rugged Hard Disk hasn't changed much externally since it surfaced over two years ago, but what used to buy you 160GB will now land you a full half-terabyte with dough left over for several In-N-Out runs. The latest Rugged drive packs Hitachi's 500GB Travelstar 5K500 and still maintains the scratch-resistant aluminum shell and shock-resistant rubber bumper. As for ports, you'll find a USB 2.0-only edition or a more versatile iteration that includes USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 sockets. Either flavor comes bundled with the company's Setup Assistant and backup software, and if you're tired of waiting for 1TB in your pocket, you can make do with this one for just $299.99 / $399.99 depending on your choice of interface(s).

In typical LaCie fashion, it's latest external hard drive isn't even mentioned on the outfit's own website, but nevertheless, it most definitely exists. The tried and true Neil Poulton HDD has been refreshed with two new ports to coexist alongside the USB 2.0 socket: FireWire 400 and eSATA. Outside of the two new holes flanking the rear, the drive looks essentially the same, and is available on the streets as we speak for $139.99 (500GB), $187.99 (750GB) or $276.99 (1TB).

[Via CNET]

Update: LaCie mounted these up on its website, after all. Thanks, bjrcboy!

Take that WD, Toshiba, and Hitachi. Fujitsu just returned from exile with a claim to the biggest fastest laptop-disk throne. The 3Gbps SATA-equipped MHZ2 BJ series measures in at a standard 9.5-mm and spins at 7,200rpm with a 16MB cache and 25dB idle noise level. Average seek times are listed at 10.5-ms for data reads and 12.5-ms for writes while drawing 2.3 watts of power. Oh sure, a couple of 2.5-inch 500GB disk drives have already been announced. But most of those measure in at a non-standard 12.5-mm making them unsuitable for the majority of laptops on the market today. Sales of the new MHZ2 BJ-series begins in June.

Update: Oops, almost forgot about Samsung's Spinpoint M6 which does hit the 500GB mark in a standard 9.5mm-height package.

[Via Impress]

Not quite a year after Samsung joyfully brought the Spinpoint MP1 into the world, the MP2 has arrived to rightfully take the baton. According to Sammy, the 2.5-inch drive is best suited in desktop replacement lappies, workstations and blade servers, and it's said to provide quicker read / write speeds than the 500GB M6 announced at CES. The 7,200 RPM drive is slated to land at $299, but an 80GB version will be available for a bit less cash, too. In less sluggish news, the firm has also restated its plans to deliver a 256GB SSD by 2009, and if you were looking for even more bulletin board material, Jim Elliott, vice president of memory marketing for Samsung Semiconductor, proclaimed that it was "trying to double SSD capacity every 12 months." Music to our ears? You bet.

Read - Spinpoint MP2
Read - Samsung's SSD plans

Hot on the heels of a pair of roomy 2.5-inchers comes Toshiba with a duo of even smaller drives likely destined for PMPs and cereal boxes of the future. The 120GB MK1216GSG and 80GB MK8016GSG are both designed to the latest SATA 2.6 specification and also feature the micro-SATA connector. Furthermore, the 5,400 RPM units weigh in at just 62 grams apiece and feature 8MB cache and a 489 Mbits/sec data transfer rate. Per usual, pricing on these buggers remains a mystery.

Considering that Fujitsu just unleashed a half-terabyte drive in the 2.5-inch form factor yesterday, Hitachi's 320GB Travelstar 5K320 seems a bit underwhelming. Still, it's pretty capacious in its own right, and does feature optional Bulk Data Encryption (BDE) and a 3Gb/s data transfer rate. The 5,400RPM SATA drive also includes "altitude-sensing Thermal Fly-height Control (TFC), an improved actuator latch and fourth-generation perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) head technology," and better still, only sucks down 1.8-watts of power when reading and writing. The good news? It's shipping to customers worldwide as we speak. The bad? Who knows how pricey it'll be.

Remember that 1.3-inch hard drive that Samsung cut loose at CES? Even if that somehow managed to get lost in the blur, you can refocus a bit now that LaCie has decided to slip it into its forthcoming Little Disk and USB Key Max. Reportedly, the devices will be available (as in, real soon) in 30GB / 40GB flavors, and yes, they'll now fit into even tighter jeans. We'll hand it to 'em -- that's quite a bit of space for Deep Purple jams, receipt scans and interoffice love letters, but you'll have to pony up at least $119.99 for the Little Disk (now with more little!) or $109.99 for the USB Key Max.

[Via Tech-On]

Apparently, this one's been on a few store shelves already, but LaCie didn't even bother trumpeting its release to the world. Fret not, as the LaCinema Premier can hide no longer. This USB 2.0 "multimedia hard drive" arrives in 500GB, 750GB and 1TB flavors, packs 7,200RPM hard drives within and outputs via composite / S-Video / component (rear shown after the break). Furthermore, it supports 1080i upscaling and provides S/PDIF optical and coaxial digital audio outputs, and just in case you're curious, it'll handle MPEG1/2/4, ISO, IFO, VOB, MP3, WMA, AC3, OGG, JPEG, BMP, TIF and PNG file formats. Yeah, it also touts that played out "one-touch backup" feature, but we know it's the bundled remote that really turns you on. Apparently, the trio starts at around £149.99 ($299) and tops out at £324.99 ($648) for the 1TB edition.

[Via Gizmos]

We're all for bulking up the storage in our notebooks and portable gear, so naturally we're quite thrilled that Toshiba has developed a quintet of new 1.8-inch PATA hard drives that promise higher capacity and better performance for the gadgets we hold so dear. Three of the drives offer up 60GB on a single platter: the 4,200 RPM MK6028GAL for laptops and UMPCs, along with the 4,200 RPM MK6014GAL with 2MB buffer and 3,200 RPM MK6015GAA with 160KB buffer, both of which employ so-called "long data sector" technology to bring "format efficiency, improved error correction capability and enhanced storage capacity" to portable consumer electronics devices, according to ol' Tosh. Also destined for lightweight PCs are the dual-platter 120GB MK1214GAH and single-platter 80GB MK8025GAL, both 4,200 RPM drives with 2MB and 8MB buffers, respectively. Expect the new models to start appearing in consumer products sometime early next year. [Warning: PDF link]

[Via Slashgear]

Now we're talking! Meet the PC and Mac compatible USB 2.0 SATA HDD Stage Rack. The value of this 2.5- and 3.5-inch compatible dock is obvious if like us, you've got gigs of unused storage laying around after years of SATA disk updates. Just pop in that old disk for instant expansion without having to first wrap the drive in a clumsy enclosure. Available now for €33 / $47. If you still don't get it, check the video after the break... you too will believe.

[Via Akihabara News]

It seems like hard drive manufacturers are all about the bold claims this week -- hot on the heels of Hitachi's promise to deliver 4TB drives in 2011, Western Digital is doing a little chest-thumping over its "successful demonstration" of a drive with a storage density of 520 gigabits per square inch. That's more than double today's max of 200Gb per square inch, and WD says cramming bits in that tight will result in 3TB 3.5-inch drives by 2010. Hmm, 1TB less one year sooner? Storage fanboys, to the comments!

When Hitachi -- the first disk manufacturer to go perpendicular and subsequently break the 1TB consumer disk drive barrier -- speaks about advances in hard disk technology, you'd be wise to listen. Today they're touting the world's smallest read-head technology for HDDs. The bold claim? 4TB desktop (3.5-inch) and 1TB laptop (2.5-inch) drives within the next 4 years. The new recording heads are more than 2x smaller than existing gear or about 2,000 times smaller than a human hair. Hmmm, Samsung may have to update their SSD vs. HDD graph after this, eh?

While we're sure some folks were just fine with WD's glossy black 250GB Passport, the firm is looking out for those who like their external drives a bit more flashy. Western Digital is now offering up its quarter-terabyte Passport in vibrant green, glossy white and metallic red, but aside from the hues, everything else looks to be staying the same. No official word on price just yet, but it should line up pretty evenly with the black iteration already out.

[Via CNET]

Just try naming a major player in the hard drive biz not touting some sort of stupendous breakthrough to boost HDD capacity, and you're likely to come up fairly empty. Nevertheless, TDK is hopping on the ever-growing bandwagon, as it has reportedly "developed the technology to more than double the data storage capacity of hard-disk drives compared with the most advanced products now available by modifying the design of magnetic heads and disks." Notably, we've heard of similar processes before, but TDK is suggesting that its method can offer up the capability to "read and write 602-gigabits of data per square inch" while producing drives up to 3TB in size. Best of all, this all seems to be a bit beyond the drawing board, as the outfit hopes to mass produce the heads sometime in 2010. [Warning: read link requires subscription]

Apparently, releasing one external hard drive with 500GB of storage isn't enough for one week, as LaCie has now introduced its half terabyte Ethernet Disk mini Home Edition Personal Media Server. As with previous iterations, this drive is meant to "save, show, sync and share" your media, and it boasts the ability to "stream multimedia files through DLNA-compatible UPnP media players and act as an iTunes music server." Additionally, users can setup "free remote access to their personal information via LaCie's media portal," and aside from the gigabit Ethernet port and USB 2.0 socket, you'll also find an additional USB jack for backing up data to another external HDD. This one's slated for an October launch and should carry a $199 pricetag.