Toshiba Stuffs 1TB Into 9mm 2.5" Hard Drive For Laptops

One terabyte hard drives aren't nearly as novel as they once were, but that doesn't mean that you still won't want one if it's plopped in front of you. On the mobile front, however, they're a bit more rare and special compared to the desktop side, where we're up to 3TB these days. While 1TB laptop hard drives have existed, most have existed in a non-traditional 12.5mm shell -- that means that you'd need a monster of a laptop to even have enough room to fit one inside. But if you aren't up for buying a Clevo or another one of those beasts, Toshiba has managed to stuff 1TB of space into a traditional 9.5mm form factor. That means that pretty much any notebook out there could accept one as an upgrade.


This also means a milestone for Toshiba; this is their first 2.5" HDD to use 500B/platter technology in this form factor. That's pushing a serious areal density barrier. The MQ01ABD series is available in capacities ranging from 1TB to 250GB, and should be ideal for high-end notebook and desktop PCs, mobile workstations, gaming consoles, DVR set-top boxes, external storage solutions, etc. The MQ01ABD drives also offer improved acoustic performance, emitting a maximum of 19dB at idle and 24dB during seek operations. Sales of these should start in August, but there's no public mention of pricing just yet.