Western Digital launches a Hybrid Drive. SSHD

[dark-D]

I don't know where you are getting that software is needed to use the two separate drives...

 

 

Software is for migrating from the old hard drive (with the usb 3.0 kit)

Initially, the WD Black 2 only allows the OS to see the SSD. This is to insure there is no confusion when installing your operating system. After you have successfully installed the OS, you can then use the included USB Key to launch the software and unlock the HDD portion of the drive. After the software installs and unlocks the HDD, a prompt allows you to restart your PC.

,http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/5903/western-digital-black-2-dual-drive-2-5-consumer-hdd-ssd-review/index2.html

 

Initially just the SSD portion of the drive is exposed, when the drivers are installed the user will see both drives through Windows. WD recommends putting a fresh install of the OS on the SSD portion of the drive but also includes cloning software to facilitate an easy migration if the previous OS footprint is smaller than the 120GB SSD capacity.

http://www.storagereview.com/wd_black2_ssd_hdd_review

 

If, say, you needed to reinstall Windows for whatever reason. So long as you don't touch the HDD partition, you can safely reformat and reinstall in the SSD space. The HDD partition will persist. Once in your freshly installed Windows you may choose to reinstall the Black2 software, and during that process it will gracefully erorr out at the end, where it would normally create the HDD partition (as it's already there).

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Storage/Western-Digital-Black2-Dual-Drive-Full-Review-120GB-SSD-1TB-HDD-single-25-package/Se

 

also from what i read on the net if the ssd dies, you lose the hdd partition, i will research more on this.

[mogan23]

Does this count as a SSHD ? Since it is actually 2 separate drives in 1 form factor .

[bob345]

This would be simply amazing for my laptop. But that price

[stevv]

,http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/5903/western-digital-black-2-dual-drive-2-5-consumer-hdd-ssd-review/index2.html

http://www.storagereview.com/wd_black2_ssd_hdd_review

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Storage/Western-Digital-Black2-Dual-Drive-Full-Review-120GB-SSD-1TB-HDD-single-25-package/Se

 

also from what i read on the net if the ssd dies, you lose the hdd partition, i will research more on this.

 

So, it looks like the software is more of an "unlocker" than driver.  That's to prevent the user from making a partition spanning both the ssd and hdd (that would cause problems).

 

I guess WD could have shipped it "unlocked" (showing up as a 1120MB drive)... but the user would need to know how to partition it properly, right at the sweet spot between the ssd and hdd .  I'm sure they can easily make a utility for Linux and OSX later.  I think this is a good way to reduce driver/boot issues from RAID or Sata multiplier method.

 

With this setup, I guess the SSD would be one more point of failure... though I would be more afraid of HDD dying first  :lol: .