Hitachi Debuts Family of Branded External Storage Solutions for Europe, Middle East And Africa
Tues 20 Oct, 2009

New 2TB SimpleDrive and Two New Portable Drives are Loaded with Simple, Reliable Storage and Backup Options for Consumers and Business Users

GITEX 2009, Dubai, UAE, October 20th, 2009 – Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced the availability of the newly designed SimpleDrive™ desktop external hard drive with capacities of up to two terabytes (2TB) in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). In addition, the company announced availability of the Hitachi Easy and Stylish Portable Drive and Hitachi Rugged Portable Drive, as well as the Hitachi Internal Hard Drive Kit for the do-it-yourself (DIY) computer-upgrade market.

Hitachi external storage solutions are ideal for road warriors, prosumers, small office/home office (SOHO) users, or virtually anyone looking for a simple and reliable way to store, protect and better manage their data. All products are now available through major e-tailers, retailers and distribution channels.

“Hitachi continues to build its channel presence with an expanded portfolio of desktop and portable storage solutions for business users, consumers or virtually anyone who needs additional capacity to manage the growing number and size of their digital files,” said Azmat Ali, vice president of marketing, Branded Business, Hitachi GST. “Even though people are inundated with digital content daily, many are not taking the necessary precautions to safeguard their content. Our external drives, together with consistent backup practices, will help people keep their digital memories, entertainment and business documents safe.”

“Todays announcement further extends the Hitachi GST brand into the external hard drive marketplace with the reliability and confidence that you would expect from a global hard drive supplier,” said Steve Pereira, vice president EMEA, Hitachi GST. “It’s exciting to see the rollout of these products into EMEA. We look forward to building deeper relationships with our retail and channel partners to drive the branded business forward in 2010 and beyond.”

New SimpleDrive USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
With a new design that clearly communicates a purpose – solid data protection – the SimpleDrive balances ruggedness and ease of use all in one streamlined package. The new Hitachi SimpleDrive sits vertically for a non-invasive footprint, which is important for a small home or office environment. With up to 2TB capacity and a plug-and-play design, the SimpleDrive gives users simplicity, reliability and enough capacity to store or backup 665,000 photos, 500,000 MP3s or 4,000 hours of standard video¹. Delivering both style and substance, it features an anodized aluminum enclosure to keep the SimpleDrive cool, and a reliable, high performance, low-power Hitachi hard drive inside to help protect your pics, flix, tunes and docs. For both Mac and PC users, the SimpleDrive comes in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities.

Hitachi Portable USB 2.0 Rugged Drive
If you work hard or play hard, the Hitachi Portable Rugged Drive is designed for serious mobility. It is the only water-² and shock-resistant³ external drive available today from a global hard drive manufacturer, and can take on more falls, knocks and spills than any average external drive on the market. Plus, it’s ready for the great outdoors. The Hitachi Portable Rugged Drive includes a “never-lose” foldaway USB cable, ergonomic sides for easy carrying, and a cool topside LED for power status. But don’t be fooled by its handsome exterior. Not only is the drive rugged on the outside, it’s dependable and reliable on the inside. The Hitachi Portable Rugged Drive integrates Hitachi’s Travelstar hard drives, which can be found in virtually all top brand notebooks around the world. Known for its proven and dependable design, Hitachi Travelstar drives provide solid shock protection at 400G operating and 1,000G non operating shock, and feature the company’s TrueTrack Technology™, providing added data protection against rough handling. Packaged in one streamlined solution, the portable drive by Hitachi is USB powered for on-the-go convenience. The Hitachi Portable Rugged Drive comes in capacities of 320GB and 500GB.

Hitachi Simple and Stylish Portable USB 2.0 Drive
Your belongings say a lot about your personality, so why should your hard drive look like a toaster? Show off your style with the Hitachi Simple and Stylish Portable Drive. Designed for an increasingly mobile world, the Hitachi Portable Drive is stylish storage made simple. It offers a unique contemporary design with multiple colors, and delivers streamlined, yet simple ways to store and protect your data. The drive uses dependable hard drives from Hitachi so you can rest assured that your data is stored on a leading hard drive. Depending on your mood, personal style or capacity needs, you have choices of blue dusk in 320GB or carbon fiber for a textured black look at 500GB.

Hitachi Internal Hard Drive Kits
Easily boost the capacity and performance of your Mac or PC in minutes with a Hitachi Internal Hard Drive Kit. Each premium kit features a proven and reliable high-performance drive, easy installation instructions, a SATA cable and mounting screws. With both low-power 5,400 RPM and 7,200 RPM drives with up to a 32MB cache buffer, users don’t have to sacrifice speed to be a little green.

Simple and Easy Hitachi Local Backup Software
Thanks to the increasingly digital lives we lead, our digital content – our family photos, music libraries, home videos and important business and financial information – is quickly becoming the most valued asset in our possession. More often than not, data is coming in so fast and from so many places, that people forget to back it up. If an accident does occur, it could cost thousands of dollars to recover the data. That’s where simple set-it-and-forget-it solutions from Hitachi GST can help.

The Hitachi SimpleDrive and two new portable external drives ship with Hitachi Local Backup software to help users protect and manage their personal or professional content. The software offers simple wizards to guide users in setting up automatic backups on specific days or dates that is convenient for you. Automatic file selection provides easy identification of particular file types to back up—for example, photos, emails or documents— regardless of where they are stored on the computer’s drive.

All Hitachi external storage solution products are Mac and PC compatible, and feature a three-year warranty.

About Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) develops advanced hard disk drives, enterprise-class solid state drives, and innovative external storage solutions and services used to store, preserve and manage the world’s most valued data. Founded by the pioneers of hard drives, Hitachi GST provides high-value storage for a broad range of market segments, including Enterprise, Desktop, Mobile Computing, Consumer Electronics and Personal Storage. Hitachi GST was established in 2003 with its U.S. headquarters located in San Jose, California. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.HitachiGST.com

About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 400,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2008 (ended March 31, 2009) consolidated revenues totaled 10,000 billion yen ($102.0 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials, logistics and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

Hitachi trademarks are authorized for use in countries and jurisdictions in which Hitachi has the right to market the brands. Hitachi is not liable for third parties’ unauthorized use of Hitachi trademarks. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.

One gigabyte (GB) represents one billion bytes and one terabyte (TB) represents one trillion bytes. Actual capacity will vary depending on operating environment and formatting.

Hitachi external hard drives and Hitachi Ultimate Backup serve as an element of an overall backup strategy.

Hitachi trademarks are authorized for use in countries and jurisdictions in which Hitachi has the right to market the brands. Hitachi is not liable for third parties’ unauthorized use of Hitachi trademarks.

¹Actual storage may vary depending on the compression rate applied. Capacities may not be combined.

²Water resistance was measured using 60cc of liquid, simulating a spilled drink.

³Shock resistance was measured using three meter drops onto a carpeted concrete floor. Dropping the drive is not recommended while in operation mode.

All testing was conducted by Hitachi GST.

Contact:
Caroline Sumners
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
+44 7825 435970
caroline.sumners@hitachigst.com