IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --  WD^®, a Western Digital company (NASDAQ: WDC), and a world leader in external storage and connected life solutions, today announced a new version of the My Book^® Studio™ external hard drive. USB 3.0 capability is now extended to this family of My Book Studio hard drives and provides data transfer speeds up to three times faster than USB 2.0. WD has also introduced the addition of a massive 4 TB capacity in a single-drive configuration making it a perfect solution for backing up large amounts of digital content. The My Book Studio drive is designed with a premium aluminum enclosure and will be available in 1 TB, 2 TB, 3 TB and 4 TB capacities.

The My Book Studio drive's features and benefits have made it a favorite among creative professionals and Mac computer enthusiasts, including working seamlessly with Apple^® Time Machine, for protecting and backing up their valuable professional and personal content. The My Book Studio external hard drive includes WD Security™, which allows users to password protect their drive along with 256-bit hardware-based encryption for added security against unauthorized access to the drive and its contents.

"WD's My Book Studio with USB 3.0 delivers extreme transfer speeds while maintaining the standard USB and FireWire connections computer users prefer," said Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of WD's branded and CE products. "Its large capacity, combined with a premium aluminum enclosure, hardware-based encryption, and compatibility with Apple Time Machine, provide Mac users with a fast, secure and complete system for preserving their valuable content."

Pricing and Availability

The My Book Studio external hard drive comes with a 3-year limited warranty and is available on the WD store at www.wdstore.com and at select retailers and distributors. MSRP for My Book Studio 1 TB is $159.99 USD; the 2 TB is $189.99 USD; the 3 TB is $239.99 USD and the 4 TB is $299.99. WD will continue to offer its My Book Studio drive with USB 2.0 and FireWire^® 800 connectivity for legacy systems.

About WD

WD, a Western Digital company, is a long-time innovator and storage industry leader. As a storage technology pacesetter, the company produces reliable, high-performance hard disk drives and solid state drives. These drives are deployed by OEMs and integrators in desktop and mobile computers, enterprise computing systems, embedded systems and consumer electronics applications, as well as by the company in providing its own storage products. WD's leading storage devices and systems, networking products, media players and software solutions empower people around the world to easily save, store, protect, share and experience their content on multiple devices. WD was established in 1970 and is headquartered in Irvine, California. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.wd.com.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), Irvine, Calif., is a global provider of products and services that empower people to create, manage, experience and preserve digital content. Its companies design and manufacture storage devices, networking equipment and home entertainment products under the WD, HGST and G-Technology brands. Visit the Investor section of the company's website (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.

Western Digital, WD, the WD logo, and My Book are registered trademarks in the U.S. and other countries; My Book Studio is a trademark of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Other marks may be mentioned herein that belong to other companies. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies. As used for storage capacity, one terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121113/LA11293)

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20000711/WDCLOGO)

SOURCE WD