Unpacked: Western Digital Black2 dual drive

The story of a 120GB SSD fused with a 1TB HDD.

By John Gillooly on Nov 27 2013, 4:45PM

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It seems strange that so much care has gone into the packaging design for the Black2 Dual Drive, especially when it is targetted at those who usually get only an antistatic bag and a silica gel pouch when they buy a new drive. The drive itself combines a 120GB SSD with a 1TB HDD, connecting over a single SATA 6Gbps connection. It evolved from WD's hybrid drive testing, in response to testers asking if they could address the flash memory directly, rather than leave the caching up to the firmware. What has resulted is a 2.5in drive that contains a fully fledged SSD, designed for OS installation, and a 1TB HDD for bulk storage.