Tohsiba's latest hard drives might not be the smallest, fastest, densest or highest capacity models on the market, but they might just be some of the toughest storage that money can buy.
The MK1060GSCX and MK8050GACY are designed to be run continuously in the harshest environments without packing in. That means they can survive and continue to operate in a temperature range of between -30°C and 85°C, or -15°C to -70°C on the disk enclosure surface. They're also capable or running at altitudes of up to 5,650m above or 300m below sea level and resisting shock of up to 300G while active or a massive 800G - or 7,840m/s2 - when not in operation.
As for the drives themselves, they offer 100GB or 80GB of storage with seek times of 12 and 16 milliseconds, respectively in a standard 2.5in form-factor with a 4,200RPM spindle speed. The higher-capacity model makes use of a SATA interface, while the 80GB version has to make do with a PATA connection.
These drives are designed for use in factories, digital surveillance and any other form of computing that requires exceptional reliability, though they'd also be an excellent fit for a ruggedized laptop. They certainly won't outperform a speedy new SSD - or even the majority of mechanical hard-drives - but if you need a HDD that just won't quit, the Toshiba's might be just what you're looking for.
Both drives are due to be released in December and while pricing hasn't been announced, don't expect durability like this to come cheap.
