Performance and reliability for everyday computing. With SATA and PATA interfaces and cache sizes up to 32 MB, this series of drives offer a full range of performance features. Pick the drive that suits your needs with the confidence in knowing that all WD Caviar Blue drives are built to the highest standards of quality and reliability. Interface PATA - Enhanced integrated drive electronics (EIDE), also called Parallel ATA (PATA), hard drives have been the standard in the computer industry for more than 10 years. SATA - Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives are quickly becoming the new standard. Motherboard manufacturers now include SATA inputs on their boards. Because of their considerably narrower cables, SATA hard drives provide increased airflow and less clutter and in the computer system compared to PATA drives. The performance difference - PATA drives support data transfer rates up to 100MB/sec, and all WD Caviar Blue SATA drive support 3 Gb/s transfer rates. How to choose - Our handy Interface Guide can help you make your selection. Solid performance - With SATA and PATA interfaces, and cache sizes up to 32 MB, this series of drives offer a full range of performance features. Ultra cool and quiet - Keeping the drive cool enhances reliability. WD continues to develop new and innovative ways to keep drives cool while they are operating which helps protect the drive and the data stored on it. Capacity - We offer WD Caviar Blue drives with capacities from 80 GB to 1 TB because you can never have too much storage space. NoTouch ramp load technology - The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit. IntelliSeek - Calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration. Advanced Format Technology (AF) - Technology being adopted by WD and other drive manufacturers as one of multiple ways to continue growing hard drive capacities. AF is a more efficient media format that enables increased areal densities. (AALX models only) ShockGuard - Instantaneously protects the hard drive against damage from bumps and vibrations while it is running. This technology enables WD Caviar drives to achieve industry-leading shock specifications. Compatible - We perform tests on hundreds of systems and a multitude of platforms in our FIT Lab and Mobile Compatibility Lab to give our customers confidence that our drives will work in their systems. Ideal For Family and business computing. Desktop / Consumer RAID Environments - WD Caviar Blue Hard Drives are tested and recommended for use in consumer-type RAID applications (i.e., Intel Matrix RAID technology).* *Business Critical RAID Environments – WD Caviar Blue Hard Drives are not recommended for and are not warranted for use in RAID environments utilizing Enterprise HBAs and/or expanders and in multi-bay chassis, as they are not designed for, nor tested in, these specific types of RAID applications. For all Business Critical RAID applications, please consider WD’s Enterprise Hard Drives that are specifically designed with RAID-specific, time-limited error recovery (TLER), are tested extensively in 24x7 RAID applications, and include features like enhanced RAFF technology and thermal extended burn-in testing. How this WD hard drive protects your data - Data Lifeguard is an exclusive set of data protection features, including shock protection, an environmental protection system and real-time embedded error detection and repair. WD's Data Lifeguard technology automatically finds, isolates, and repairs problems that may develop over the life of a hard drive. - Data Lifeguard Tools are software utilities designed for WD hard drives that work with the embedded Data Lifeguard features to make hard drive installation,diagnostics and repair both simple and worry-free. - ShockGuard instantaneously protects the hard drive against damage from bumps and vibrations while it is running. This technology enables WD Caviar drives to achieve industry-leading shock specifications.