500GB Toshiba Portable External Hard Disk Drive Helps With A New Year Resolution To Back Up Your Digital Life

· New external storage device offers gigantic ‘designer’ mobile storage
· 500GB extra storage – in a 2.5-inch form factor – provides cost-effective computing upgrade for cost-conscious consumers
· Straightforward operation, so even technophobes can keep their personal documents, music, photos, videos and games safe

6 January, 2009 – While millions across the UK make the familiar New Year resolutions to go on a diet and join the gym, Toshiba Storage Device Division believes today’s digital consumers should resolve to back up their digital lives in 2009. Data can be lost due to many circumstances; one may unknowingly or accidentally erase a file or a virus can completely destroy all memories stored. With incidences like these on the rise, many people compare the experience as the equivalent of having one’s house burned down. As Toshiba launches its new 500 Gigabyte (GB) external drive, it urges people to back up their lives to protect the valuable and sometimes irreplaceable music, photos, videos, games and other data sitting on their personal computers.

Toshiba’s new 500GB ‘Frost White’ portable external hard disk drive is a desirable palm-size device in trendy monochrome. It is ideal for backing up personal data which, if lost, could cost hundreds of pounds to restore or replace.

In fact, recent research from security solutions provider Webroot[1] reveals that the average home PC user has nearly 2,000 digital photos and nearly 2,500 digital music files on their computer. Loss of family photos was the number one concern reported, followed by loss of personal financial information, text documents and work projects. The report also highlighted that nearly half of all PC users (43 per cent) have lost digital files or data at some point in their lives.

The Toshiba 500GB external hard drive packs half a terabyte of mobile storage and its ‘out the box’ operation ensures even technophobes can easily store up to 130 computer games, 131,000 MP3 music files or 142,000 digital photos – more than enough to meet the needs of the average PC user.

Martin Larsson, Vice President and General Manager, Toshiba Europe Storage Device Division, said: “We often don’t consider how much money and memories are invested in our computer’s hard drives in the form of music, movies and photos until it’s far too late. For many people these things are irreplaceable. Rather than suffer the trouble and expense of recovering lost personal data, people should make a New Year’s resolution to back up now rather than pay later.

“The fact is that backing up with an external hard drive is a cheap and easy option, that also means you can store more music, games and videos, which is an added bonus for everyone whose laptop or PC is beginning to burst at the seams with all their files. Furthermore, portable storage is great for today’s digital consumers who are often ‘on-the-go’ and therefore need the flexibility of being mobile.

“These devices have moved on from the unwieldy and unattractive peripherals of the past, with the latest generation of hard disk drives being highly desirable accessories in their own right.” said Mr Larsson.

These benefits are not restricted to PC users. The Toshiba 500GB external hard drive can provide much-needed additional media storage for gamers who can grow frustrated with their consoles’ limited storage capacities. With games consoles increasingly used in living rooms as media centres in their own right, the Toshiba 500GB external hard drive offers a convenient and stylish way to store gigabytes of music, films and photos for playback via a number of leading gaming platforms.

The device’s ability to provide additional storage for the modern media centre is further enhanced by its whisper-quiet operation. Toshiba has applied decades of engineering expertise to eliminate ‘noise pollution’ from its range of external drives, ensuring users do not have to crank up the volume to drown out operational noise. Recent enhancements in technology will also benefit environmentally conscious consumers, as the hard disk drive at the heart of the device consumes an average of only 1.9W/hr.

Retailing now at £120, the 500GB external hard drive is competitively priced and is available at major consumer electronics retailers and online. Consumers can also order a ‘Y’ cable for the device free of charge from Toshiba Storage Device Division’s website.

By giving consumers the opportunity to back up precious personal files while expanding the storage capabilities of their home computers, portable external hard drives are very much in tune with the challenging economic climate. “The major analysts, including Forrester[2], Gartner and IDC[3], are all predicting that PC sales will fall between 3.1 and 6.5 per cent in 2009 as the recession bites,” added Mr Larsson. “As we seek to extend the useful lives of our existing equipment rather than invest in new PCs, portable external hard drives will be one way that we can achieve more with less in the New Year.”

[1]State of Internet Security: Protecting Your Digital Life (November 2008)
[2]www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh121508-story03.html
[3]www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE4B24YO20081203