New My Book Studio Edition Dual-drive External Storage Systems Deliver a Perfect Blend of High Performance and Power Conservation

LAKE FOREST, Calif., June 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its new 4 terabyte capacity My Book® Studio Edition II dual-drive storage systems, which are designed to seamlessly work with Mac® computers and provide an ideal blend of high performance and power conservation. The new My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive storage systems are available now at select retailers and the WD online store (www.shopwd.com).

Compatible with Apple® Time Machine automatic backup feature and formatted for Mac computers(1), the new 4 TB My Book Studio Edition II external storage system's dual-drive RAID 0 configuration and high-speed interfaces deliver high performance for creative professionals, workgroups, small offices and anyone looking for fast data transfer. The system offers four interfaces: eSATA and FireWire® 800 for maximum performance as well as FireWire® 400 and USB 2.0 for maximum flexibility. The eco-friendly(2) system uses WD's hard drives with WD GreenPower Technology for power savings and cool and quiet operation.

"Whether in the studio, at home, or on the road, I backup all my photographs and files on WD drives," says Peter Read Miller, a staff photographer for Sports Illustrated magazine. "I use the My Book Studio II drive and WD ShareSpace network drive at home and in the studio and always have at least one My Passport® portable drive when I'm on the road. The bottom line is they're safe, fast and reliable.  In my business I need to rely on products that will protect my livelihood.  WD's line of products perform that task exceptionally well," Miller added.

"The new My Book Studio Edition II is the best choice for creative professionals who require massive capacity and extra-fast performance," said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD's branded products group. "With 4 terabytes of capacity, photographers, graphic artists, videographers, and home video enthusiasts alike will have the space they need to store hours of high definition videos as well as the performance they need for demanding video editing applications."

Extra-fast Performance with RAID 0
Lightning-fast eSATA or FireWire 800 interfaces combined with RAID 0 (Striped) yields the speed users' need for: fast, smooth video editing; rendering complex 3D objects or special effects; and saving huge blocks of data in record time. With RAID 0, users can have 4 TB of storage in an elegant, small footprint design that offers plenty of room to store an entire digital photo library and hundreds of hours of HD movies or digital video (results will vary based on file size and format, settings, features, software and other factors).

Features
Formatted for Mac computers, these new storage systems feature:

• Massive 4 terabyte capacity;

• Extra-fast performance with four interfaces (FireWire 400/800, eSATA, USB 2.0);

• Cool, eco-friendly operation with WD's drives with WD GreenPower Technology that consume approximately one-third less power than standard dual-drive external storage systems and efficient convection cooling architecture and power-saving mode and designed without a fan to run quietly;

• Quad interface with connections for ultra-fast eSATA and FireWire 800 and for flexibility and convenience FireWire 400 and USB 2.0;

• Automatic and continuous backup software;

• User serviceability, enabling owner to open the enclosure and replace the drive inside;

• Capacity gauge to see at a glance how much space is available on the system; and,

• 5-year limited warranty.

Pricing and Availability
My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive storage systems are available now at select retailers and WD's online store (www.shopwd.com). MSRP for My Book Studio Edition II with 4 TB is $649.99 USD.

About WD
WD, one of the storage industry's pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company produces reliable, high-performance hard drives and solid-state storage that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. WD applies its storage expertise to consumer products for external, portable and network storage applications.

WD was founded in 1970. The company's storage products are marketed to leading systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital® and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company's Web site (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.

Western Digital, WD, the WD logo and My Book are registered trademarks; My Book Studio Edition II is a trademark of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Other marks may be mentioned herein that belong to other companies. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies. One gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes. One terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment.

1.  Includes software and instructions for reformatting to Windows®. The 4 TB capacity works with Windows Vista and Windows 7 only. Windows XP does not support hard drives with capacities above 2 TB.

2. My Book Studio Edition II dual drive systems consume approximately one-third less power than standard dual-drive storage systems. Tests based on comparison between a 1 TB dual-drive system using 7200 RPM drives and a 1 TB dual-drive system using WD's drives with WD GreenPower Technology.