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Verbatim has undoubtedly come a long way from all those floppy disks of yesteryear. The latest addition to their portable storage line up is the world’s first 2.5-inch half-terabyte Portable HDD featuring an industry standard 9.5mm Z-height drive. Costing only $300, it’s as straightforward as portable HDD’s can get, and is compatible with all the latest Windows and Mac systems. It features a spindle speed of 5400rpm, includes 8MB of cache memory, and weighs less than 6 ounces at only 3.38×5.38×0.63 inches. So if you’re looking to allocate 500 more GB’s of space for your data, I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that it’s slated for a Q2 2008 release. How you fill this baby up is entirely up to you.

Read [Business Wire]

LaCie has upgraded its most popular product - the all-terrain Rugged Hard Disk with some 500GB of storage goodness. If you will recall, this external hard drive was recently upgraded to 320GB, but it seems LaCie will not stop upgrading its capacity until they hopefully pack in one terabyte or more.

But for now, you will have to be satisfied with 500GB of storage. If you’re not so much into photography and music, 500GB is already a lot, and possibly more than you would need. With 500GB you can store around 710 movies, 135,000 songs or 550,000 photos. And with the hard disk’s scratch-resistant aluminum shell as well as its shock resistant rubber bumper, you are assured that your data files are secured from everyday bumps, bruises and hard knocks. This ruggedized data storage package is available with USB 2.0, Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 versions and was designed to interface smoothly with any computer.

The 500GB LaCie Rugged Hard Disk is now available and retails for $299.

Read [LaCie]

Buffalo has just announced the latest addition to their LinkStation NAS line-up, the LinkStation Mini which offers 1TB of storage in a device that fits in the palm of your hand. The LinkStation Mini, for a small device is packed with features and offers web access so users can access their data from any web browser and the Navigator Software which includes a remote power feature to power up the hard drive remotely. In addition the LinkStation Mini includes an extra USB port to add extra storage, Ethernet port, support for active directory as well as RAID 0 and RAID 1, and includes two 5,400 RPM 2.5-inch hard drives.

The 1TB LinkStation Mini will retail for $699 and is expected to be available beginning in May. Buffalo also has a smaller 500GB LinkStation Mini in the works, but as of now no mention of pricing or availability for that model.

Read [BuffaloTech]

Buffalo’s latest, the MiniStation TurboUSB is now sporting 500GB of storage space. The 500GB MiniStation TurboUSB drive, also know as the less exciting HD-PS500U2 offers quite a bit of storage in a very small size. The MiniStation measures in at just 5 x 0.8 x 3.3-inches which basically means it can fit just about anywhere.

The 500GB MiniStation is a 5400RPM USB drive that offers automatic setup with no drivers required, is USB powered and has a “shock resistant chassis” to protect against drops and those bound to happen mishaps. The drive will retail for $329 and is compatible with Windows and Mac. And just in case 500GB is a little more storage (or money) for you, the MiniStation TurboUSB drive also comes in 120, 160, 250 and 320GB storage options.

Product [MiniStation TurboUSB] Read [Buffalo Technology]

Samsung’s latest announcement means they are getting closer to putting 1TB of storage with a single drive into notebooks. The newly announced Spinpoint M6 hard drive is the “world’s first” 2.5-inch 500GB notebook drive.

The 500GB hard drive was produced by combining three 167GB platters into the hard drives small frame which achieves the 500GB total capacity. Despite its storage capacity, the Spinpoint M6 still boasts a 5,400 RPM capability. Fast enough for most everyone’s mobile computing needs. Samsung has announced the drive is currently shipping, however they have not yet announced which PC maker will be carrying the hard drive.

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