Western Digital on Monday introduced a 1TB hard drive for laptops, intended to meed the ever- increasing storage demands of users with growing archives of data files generated by digital cameras and video cameras.

The WD Scorpio Blue SATA 2.5-inch drive also is available with 750 GB of storage. The two models are targeted at laptops and mini-desktop PCs, such as the Apple Mini. The drives are likely too big to fit in netbooks, mini-laptops that are selling faster than any other PC category.

Along with the new internal drives, WD also introduced two external USB drives with the same amount of storage. The My Passport Essential SE drives feature a titanium silver finish and fit in the palm of a hand.

Scorpio Blue drives have a 3GB per second transfer rate and provide a maximum capacity that's double what was previously available. The new products include WD's WhisperDrive technology for quieter operation. The drives also include WD's shock-resistant technology, which includes parking the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down and when the drive is off.

The 1TB Scorpio Blue has a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $250 and the 750 GB model has an MSRP of $190. Both drives are covered by a three-year limited warranty. The 1TB My Passport Essential SE has an MSRP of $300 and the 750 GB model $200.

Western Digital also makes network storage drives for consumers. In February, the company introduced a 1TB and 2TB My Book World Edition backup. The drive plugs into a network router and can begin backing up files from all computers on a network after only a few clicks with the mouse. The 1TB model sells for $230, the 2TB version for $450.

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