Western digital releases a new kind of dual hard drive.

andrew129260 · Nov 25, 2013

Finally you can set up your laptop's storage the way you do your desktop, thanks to the Black 2 Dual Drive that WD unveiled today.

On a desktop, the best way to have both great performance and large data storage capacity is to use a small solid-state drive (SSD) as the main drive that hosts the operating system, and a regular hard drive (HDD) as a secondary drive for data. You generally haven't been able to do this on a laptop due to space constraints.

The WD Black 2 Dual Drive is the first of its type to have two internal drives -- a 128 SSD and a 1TB HDD -- inside one single 2.5-inch, 9mm-thick standard laptop drive. This means on the outside it still looks just like a regular laptop hard drive and will fit anyplace a regular hard drive of its standard is used. For the first time, with just one physical drive, you can have two physical volumes for your computer.

WD Black 2 Dual Drive - Laptop Hard Drives - CNET Reviews

More Technical info on it found here:

http://content.webcollage.net/apps/...2E16822236642&enable-reporting=true&showtabs=

Lady Fitzgerald · Nov 25, 2013

This would have been perfect for my notebook since it can have only one drive. Of course, I saw this AFTER I just pulled the trigger on a 500GB Sammy 840 EVO late last week (haven't even gotten it yet). Even worse, NewEgg has it on sale for the same sale price I paid for the Sammy.

I'll keep the Sammy, however, even though the WD has a better warranty (five years vs. the EVO's three). The Sammy has a good track record behind it—the WD dual drive is too new to know how well it will do—and 500GB is plenty big for my notebook. I'm using only half of my 500GB spinner and don't anticipate increasing that by much since I use the notebook only on trips and keep a minimal amount of data on it, mostly just my books and music.

andrew129260 · Nov 25, 2013

Sorry lady

Lady Fitzgerald · Nov 25, 2013

andrew129260 said:
Sorry lady

LOL! I'm not. As I said, I don't need 1TB; the 500GB SSD is big enough, has better performance, costs the same, and has a proven track record. It was just annoying to discover this technology after holding out for something like it so long then finally caving and buying the SSD (catching the SSD on sale was also a factor). Now, if WD had come out with a 500 GB version and cut the price to a couple of hundred shekels...

whs · Nov 25, 2013

Good deal - but not cheap. A 500GB SSD costs about the same.

TVeblen · Nov 25, 2013

That is huge! What a great idea. This will help a lot of folks who want better performance and more storage but are not ready for a new (and more expensive) dual drive laptop.

Lady Fitzgerald · Nov 25, 2013

TVeblen said:
That is huge! What a great idea. This will help a lot of folks who want better performance and more storage but are not ready for a new (and more expensive) dual drive laptop.

Prexactly. You get it. I'm surprised by the number of people who don't, especially on a couple of other forums.

Bertison · Nov 26, 2013

Thanks for that Andrew, just what I will be looking for to upgrade my wife's HP lappy. :thumbsup:

jimbo45 · Nov 26, 2013

Hi there.

Could be a good idea - at least for Laptops or even tablets -- provided you could get one of these into a tablet. However in general specific devices (single purpose ones) are usually better than Combo things -- when a component of the combo breaks then usually the whole thing becomes useless.

However it's rare that I need 1TB on a laptop -- I usually use either external / network or cloud devices for my data and the 250GB SSD in the laptop is fine for the OS and the amount of data I'm carrying on the road - plus a few USB sticks - those don't take any space in a bag at all.

Whether the SSD in the WD device measures up to either the INTEL or SAMSUNG latest models is also questionable too -- WD devices while cheap and functionable (for example the cheap self powered tiny USB3 passport 2 TB drives) they aren't stellar performers in any way whatsoever.

Cheers
jimbo

Lady Fitzgerald · Nov 26, 2013

Bertison said:
Thanks for that Andrew, just what I will be looking for to upgrade my wife's HP lappy.

If your wife doesn't need 1TB of storage, you can get a better 500GB full SSD (Samsung 840 EVO) for not much more. The new WD may be the best thing since indoor plumbing but I get nervous about new products, preferring to let others be the guinea pigs.

jimbo45 · Nov 26, 2013

Hi there
agree with you on this one --let others guinea pig this thing first.

Cheers
jimbo

Lady Fitzgerald · Nov 26, 2013

jimbo45 said:
Hi there
agree with you on this one --let others guinea pig this thing first.

Cheers
jimbo

Still, it's a concept that was long past due. You have to give WD points for coming out with it. Mayhap Samsung will jump in with a series of them. I would be all over one that had a SSD with the quality and performance of an 840 EVO or PRO and a 500GB spinner to keep the cost down (500GB is a sweet spot for me even though I believe one can never have too much storage

).

andrew129260 · Nov 26, 2013

Seagate is planning on announcing a device similar to this.

Also, even if one of the modules fails on the drive, the other part would/should still work fine. Western digital has a great warranty on their products as well.
I have had to use it once, and they paid for the shipping and everything. Giving me an option of sending me a new drive now, and then send in the broken later, or just sending in the broken now and getting the new one later.

I was pleased with their warranty, I have a standard 7 year warranty on both my WD Black edition drives. Best part of it all is they do not pull that 30 day crap. The warranty continues on like nothing happened. So if your drive has 4 years of warranty left, and you send it in you still keep that 4 years.

M1GU31 · Nov 27, 2013

Really neat would use one of those if I ever have a laptop in the future if they are priced reasonably known to be good drives.

Lady Fitzgerald · Nov 27, 2013

andrew129260 said:
...I was pleased with their warranty, I have a standard 7 year warranty on both my WD Black edition drives. Best part of it all is they do not pull that 30 day crap. The warranty continues on like nothing happened. So if your drive has 4 years of warranty left, and you send it in you still keep that 4 years.

How did you get a seven year warranty on a WD Black? All I ever see are five year warranties.

Stephanie · Nov 27, 2013

Dual Drive looks to be a good idea, I wonder if they will become popular

$299.00 = £183.235

andrew129260 · Nov 27, 2013

Lady Fitzgerald said:
andrew129260 said:

...I was pleased with their warranty, I have a standard 7 year warranty on both my WD Black edition drives. Best part of it all is they do not pull that 30 day crap. The warranty continues on like nothing happened. So if your drive has 4 years of warranty left, and you send it in you still keep that 4 years.

Click to expand...

How did you get a seven year warranty on a WD Black? All I ever see are five year warranties.

I don't know.

Bought them from newegg. I didn't pay for any additional warranties or anything.
When I called up WD they stated that was how long my warranties are on the drives.

GeneO · Nov 27, 2013

Well it is a very interesting development for laptops. However, it ties the life to that of the hdd, which will be shorter than the SSD. Only relevant if you plan on keeping the laptop for 3 or more years.

I think this must be short lived solution with improvements in non-volatile storage that are on the horizon, and with even current high capacity SSD like the Samsung EVO.

Western digital releases a new kind of dual hard drive.

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