Western Digital recently made storage simpler when it comes to the Raspberry Pi micro computer. The aptly-named PiDrive Kit allows you to easily pair the company’s 1TB 2.5” hard drive with the SFF PC.
Released last week, the PiDrive Kit consists of a 1TB laptop-style mechanical hard drive, a custom Micro USB cable, a microSD card, and a 5V USB AC power adapter. The hard drive has a micro USB 3.0 port (though the Raspberry Pi only supports 2.0 speeds) for data and power. One end of the cable connects to the drive. The cable then breaks out into three cables which connect to one of the Pi’s USB ports, the Pi’s micro USB power input, and the USB wall adapter. This allows the drive and Raspberry Pi to be powered off of one USB connection.
Looking up the model number from the WD website, it looks like the hard drives are part of the company’s Passport Ultra line. The biggest bottleneck is likely to be the USB 2.0 interface, especially when it comes to burst speeds though. The included micro SD card (WD does not specify capacity or speeds) can be used to test out alternative operating systems or to test out setting up the external storage in Linux without messing with your main development install.
If you are using a Raspberry Pi Model B+ or a Pi 2 Model B and need a hefty terabyte of storage, WD has a simple option that is currently for sale on their website for $52. I’m sure enthusiasts will find uses for the massive storage upgrade beyond what micro SD can offer (at the moment).
Is it time to dust off the Pi?
The USB 3.0 port on the drive
The USB 3.0 port on the drive is mainly for extra power. I’ve got a similar Seagate external drive which uses USB 3 for data and power via a single cable. A USB 2.0 cable would fit but hasn’t got enough power to run the drive. 3.0 does.
Great, but with a Micro USB
Great, but with a Micro USB connection, replacing it will likely be more difficult down the line. Are there any real benefits to getting this vs a USB to SATA adapter?
as mentioned in the story the
as mentioned in the story the drive is from the passport line so i guess they have a bunch in cheap manufacturing so it was a feasible use for this