Hitachi,Toshiba,Fujitsu To Form New HDD Company

CNET News reports Hitachi, the Japanese conglomerate, is talking to Toshiba and Fujitsu about forming a new company dedicated to hard drives and storage systems.

The new company would combine the limping hard drive divisions of Hitachi and Toshiba as well as some of the storage systems technology from Fujitsu. Each would own a third.

The three-way deal is being proposed as an alternative to a private equity buyout. Hitachi has been in discussions with equity firm Silver Lake and others about spinning off its money-losing hard drive group, according to sources and news reports. Those talks, however, have not gone smoothly, sources familiar with the discussions said.

If a deal occurs, it will likely occur by April 1, the beginning of the new business year in Japan.

In December, Hitachi said that it wants to improve its hard drive business, but has not decided to sell it. It has not formally commented since. Toshiba and Fujitsu have yet to return requests for comment.

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Seagate 1TB HDD Expected In 1H'08

HDD Firm Seagate said it is releasing purpose built hard drives aimed at the digital video recorder market with capacities of up to one terabyte (TB)- as reported by the INQUIRER.

These drvies are called the Pipeline HD series and they’ve been designed with quietness and low power in mind, said Seagate.

The firm will start shipping them in the first half of this year with capacities ranging between 320GB to 1TB. They will have Vista Logo certificates, if that excites you.

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Hitachi's Two New 500GB 2.5'' HDD ,5K500 And E5K500

According to Engadget Hitachi has announced two new 500GB 2.5 inch hard drives, the 5K500 and the E5K500.

Even if it is a great success but there's one downside to this.This jump in storage didn't come from advancements in storage technology -- it came from Hitachi cramming another platter onto the stack. More platters equal more thickness, and the 5K500 and E5K500 are 3mm thicker than your industry-standard 9.5mm thick 2.5-inch drive. In other words, Hitachi copped out in the race to 500GB and created a non-standard sized drive that more than likely won't fit in your laptop or external enclosure.

They will start at a price tag of $400 (the E5K500 will likely cost a bit more, it's the enterprise drive with bulk data encryption and is rated for 24/7 access) and will be available in February.

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