Western Digital has unveiled the Black2 “dual drive”, which combines a 120GB solid-state drive with a 1TB hard disk.
Despite the name, the Black2 doesn’t fall into the hybrid drive category, which combines a spinning disk with a small amount of flash storage. Instead, the two drives appear separately on the user’s system.
“Our customers told us they like our [hybrid] technology, but our tech-savvy users asked for more control of where they store their data,” said Matt Rutledge, senior vice-president of Western Digital’s Storage Technology arm.
The drive will be available this week through Western Digital’s site and Amazon for £250 including VAT.
The company defended the £250 price tag as “attractive” to anyone looking to upgrade. “It’s more expensive than a single 1TB HDD, but considerably less expensive than upgrading to a 1TB SSD,” a spokesman told PC Pro.
The spokesman added that the drives are targeted at anyone looking to boost the storage and capacity for a notebook or PC with a single drive bay.
The Black2 measures 2.5in and tucks into a conventional 9.55mm slot. It’s only compatible with Windows for now, though a Mac-compatible version will arrive early next year.
WD said the drive would be compatible with “popular” versions of Windows ranging from Windows XP to Windows 8.1.
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