Western Digital Offers Third Generation WD PiDrive Solution
WD PiDrive Foundation Edition Device Accelerates Project Creation with an Affordable System
Solution for Raspberry Pi Users
WDLabs™, a business growth incubator and accelerator of storage solutions leader Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC), today announced availability of the WD® PiDrive Foundation Edition products, which combine microSD™ card and USB drive functionality with operating
system installation software to provide the Raspberry Pi® community an integrated and highly affordable storage system solution for
fast project creation.
“It is similar to about 30 years ago when hard disk drives went mainstream in PCs - no more swapping floppy disks in and out to
load the OS, applications and data,” said Dave Chew, chief engineer, WDLabs. “This third generation WD PiDrive solution uses a USB
HDD or USB Flash drive to run the OS and host multiple Raspberry Pi projects instead of having to do this on a collection of
microSD cards. We have combined our technologies to work as a team.”
Custom software, based on the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s Raspbian OS and NOOBS OS installer, is included with the new system and
provides very easy installation of OSes on the USB drive. The large capacity of the drive enables an exclusive ‘Project Spaces’
feature, which allows installation of multiple instances of the core OS, creating independent spaces for project creation or
support for multiple users with isolated work spaces.
“Raspberry Pi fans will absolutely love the WD PiDrive Foundation Edition,” said Matt Richardson, Product Evangelist for
Raspberry Pi Foundation. “Not only is it a fantastic storage solution, but its Project Spaces feature is an innovation that will
empower users with more possibilities for creation, experimentation, and fun with Raspberry Pi.”
“We’re excited that WDLabs is tapping into Western Digital’s full portfolio of storage technology to support the growing needs
of this market,” said Steve Campbell, executive vice president and CTO at Western Digital Corporation. “This community’s focus on
education, invention and new product creation makes it an important segment to seed with new tools and scalable building
blocks.”
Range of new products
The WD PiDrive Foundation Edition device is offered in three capacity versions: a 375GB disk drive, a 250GB disk drive and a
64GB flash drive. The 375GB and 250GB products include a WD PiDrive cable that ensures optimal powering of the hard drive and
Raspberry Pi. All versions include a microSD card preloaded with the custom NOOBS OS installer. Raspberry Pi’s official OS,
Raspbian PIXEL, can be installed directly from the microSD card (no Internet connection required), in addition to up to five
Project Spaces, depending on capacity available. Raspbian PIXEL provides a familiar desktop environment and includes a web browser,
productivity applications, programming tools, games and other features typically provided on desktop computers. Project Spaces are
independent portions of the drive with Raspbian Lite, a minimal OS for building efficient yet sophisticated solutions via
command-line programming.
Price and Availability
Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price for the WD PiDrive Foundation Edition is $37.49 for the 375GB version, $28.99 for the 250GB
version and $18.99 for the 64GB flash drive version. The WD PiDrive Foundation Edition (375GB and 250GB version) products come with
a two-year limited warranty and the 64GB flash drive version comes with a one-year limited warranty and, along with WD PiDrive
accessories, are currently available online at wd.com.
About Western Digital
Founded in 1970, Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), Irvine, Calif., is an industry-leading developer and manufacturer of
storage solutions that enable people to create, manage, experience and preserve digital content. It is a long-time innovator in the
storage industry. Western Digital Corporation is responding to changing market needs by providing a full portfolio of compelling,
high-quality storage products with effective technology deployment, high efficiency, flexibility and speed. Its products are
marketed under the HGST and WD brands to OEMs, distributors, resellers, cloud infrastructure providers and consumers. Financial and
investor information is available on the company's Investor Relations website at investor.wdc.com.
Western Digital, WD and WDLabs are registered trademarks or trademarks of Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates in
the U.S. and/or other countries. Raspberry Pi is a trademark of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. microSD is a trademark of
SD-3C, LLC. All other marks that may be mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. As used for storage
capacity, one terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes, and one gigabyte (GB) = one billion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies
depending on operating environment. Product specifications subject to change without notice. Not all products are available in all
regions of the world.
WD Public Relations
Heather Skinner
949.672.7920
heather.skinner@wdc.com
or
Western Digital Investor Relations
Bob Blair
949.672.7834
robert.blair@wdc.com
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161116005197/en/