I Want My 300GB Notebook Hard Drive

The notebook I'm typing this on is a mere four months old, yet it has a whopping 60GB hard drive inside it. My desktop, which is several months older, has a 250GB drive... and it was a budget PC. Even on high-end notebooks, finding a hard drive of 100GB or 120GB is a real rarity. What gives?

Well, I could write about hard drive design, but I won't. Instead, here's some good news that means I don't have to leave half my music collection behind when I travel: Fujitsu is preparing a 300GB notebook drive (2.5-inch platters) for release in February 2007.

Why the big jump? Perpendicular recording allows for roughly double the density of data to be packed onto a platter as could be done through the old method. While most 3.5-inch (desktop) drives have gone perpendicular over the last six months, they are comparably rare on notebook drives.

No news on how expensive these 300GB drives will run, but I'm betting they'll land in the vicinity of $250 to $300. Also watch for huge discounts on older drives, as the notebook market finally gets with the times and upgrades to high-capacity technology.