WD Announces New 3 TB External HDD

Following Seagate's lead, Western Digital reveals a 3 TB external hard drive.

Monday brought rumors that Western Digital (WD) was gearing up to introduce a 3 TB hard drive, however the company made it official on Tuesday. The announcement trails behind Seagate's own 3 TB GoFlex Desk external hard drive released back in July, the first of its size to hit the market.

According to WD, the new 3 TB drive will be part of the company's My Book Essential line of external drives consisting of both dual USB 3.0/2.0 and cheaper USB 2.0-only models. The dual-interface 3.0/2.0 models will offer a choice of 3 TB, 2 TB and 1 TB capacities, whereas the USB 2.0-only models will offer capacities of 2 TB, 1.5 TB, 1 TB, 750 GB, 640 GB, and 500 GB.

Tuesday Western Digital also said it added a 500 GB USB 3.0 model to its My Passport Essential line of portable drives. Consumers can choose between five “fun” colors-- Midnight Black, Cool Silver, Real Red, Pacific Blue and Arctic White.

The company also added two USB 3.0 drives to its My Passport Essential SE line offering 750 GB and 1 TB capacities. The drives will be offered in stylish black, silver, metallic blue and metallic red colors.

WD said that all drives are formatted NTFS for Windows XP/Vista/7, and require reformatting for Mac OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard.

Pricing for the 500 GB My Passport Essential portable drive will be $99.99 USD. The My Passport Essential SE drives ranges from $129.99 USD to $169.99 USD, and the My Book Essential drives ranges from $129.99 USD to $249.99 USD. They are available now at select US retailers and through WD's online store.