World's first 250GB 1.8-inch hard drive arrives

Toshiba HDD
Toshiba's little 1.8-inch drives just got a whole lot bigger

On a busy day for Toshiba, the Japanese firm has announced that it has achieved the world's first quarter-terabyte 1.8-inch mini hard drive.

The new SATA drive, which actually offers 250GB of storage, is joined by 120GB and 160GB models, all of which are likely to find their way into slim laptops, such as the MacBook Air, rather than low-end netbooks.

Drop detector

On top of the storage bump, the drives all spin at 5,400RPM and incorporate an accelerometer that can detect being dropped from as little as five inches.

Low power consumption will also likely make the new models attractive in an increasingly competitive laptop market where battery life can be the deciding factor for many shoppers.

J Mark Lytle was an International Editor for TechRadar, based out of Tokyo, who now works as a Script Editor, Consultant at NHK, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation. Writer, multi-platform journalist, all-round editorial and PR consultant with many years' experience as a professional writer, their bylines include CNN, Snap Media and IDG.

Latest in Storage & Backup
SanDisk portable SSD on a blue background
Get a 2TB portable SSD for less than $0.07 per GB in this limited-time deal at Amazon
An Orico O7000 SSD on a table with its retail packaging
Orico O7000 SSD review: high-end PCIe 4.0 storage without the frills
A PC Gamer looking happy sat in front of their desktop monitor
Looking at buying an SSD? Hold fire for now – prices are predicted to drop (and on top of that, Black Friday is on the horizon)
External hard drive
How to fix an external hard drive that's not showing up
Staples Task Chair in a home office
This budget office chair gets a massive discount, dropping below $50
Lexar Computex 2024
Lexar reveals incredibly fast SSDs, RAM and other storage innovations at Computex 2024
Latest in News
A super close up image of the Google Gemini app in the Play Store
It's official: Google Assistant will be retired for phones this year, with Gemini taking over
Quordle on a smartphone held in a hand
Quordle hints and answers for Sunday, March 16 (game #1147)
NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background
NYT Strands hints and answers for Sunday, March 16 (game #378)
NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background
NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, March 16 (game #644)
Three iPhone 16 handsets on show
Apple could launch an iPhone 17 Ultra this year – but we've heard these rumors before
Super Mario Odyssey
ChatGPT is the ultimate gaming tool - here's 4 ways you can use AI to help with your next playthrough