Put a terabyte in your pocket

Yesterday, Western Digital announced a one-terabyte hard drive for notebook computers.

The WD Scorpio Blue SATA 2.5-inch hard drive — 12.5 mm, 5200 RPM, 1TB, $249 — blows my mind. It was only in April 2007 that the industry first saw a one-terabyte desktop drive in the 3.5-inch format. (Andrew Binstock and I had a wager whether we’d see one by the end of 2006. He lost.)

Only one week ago, I put a 1.5TB Seagate 3.5-inch drive into an old iMac. And now you can put a 1TB drive into a standard notebook or a server blade.

Western Digital also offers a USB-connected external version you can put into a briefcase, pocketbook or pocket for $299. And I thought my 500GB external drive (also from Western Digital) was impressive.

Once upon a time, a terabyte was a lot of storage. I remember how excited I was after adding up all the drives in all the servers in my test lab, and realizing that there was more than a terabyte there. And now you can put that much into your notebook, or your pocket. Wow.