Hitachi GST Redefines External Storage with the LifeStudio Drive Family

MS'; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 6px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 6px">Meet the hard drive evolved: the Hitachi LifeStudio external hard drive family. During the last decade, external hard drives have offered little beyond design changes and simple storage and backup. With the new LifeStudio family, launched today by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, the company is breaking through the long-established confines of the category and delivering an external drive that combines highly reliable storage and new levels of data protection with content organization, management, socialization and navigation for both local and online content.

The LifeStudio family, offered in both portable and desktop models, creates an unprecedented solution that seamlessly pulls in, organizes and protects consumers’ priceless stored digital content – photos, videos, music and documents – and unifies them with online digital content from social networks such as Facebook and photo sites such as Flickr and Picasa Web Albums. These important digital memories are laid out on a stunning 3D visual wall, instead of in random and hard-to-find files and folders, creating a comprehensive and organized catalog of the user’s digital life. Redefining backup, consumers receive the benefits of both local and cloud backup within one single application, making it easy to view, download, and share protected cloud content from any web browser, anywhere.

Automatic Organization and Easy Sharing on a Stunning 3D Wall

Today it’s not just early adopters using external drives to store and protect their digital lives — it’s a huge segment of the population that are deeply connected to the content they create, collect and share. Hitachi research has shown that organization is one of the most frustrating components of a consumer’s digital life. Often hectic lifestyles lead to a lack of time spent organizing the growing amount of digital content received daily. What’s left is a random storage process, which multiplies a user’s frustration when trying to backup, share, find and relieve memories. Additionally, much of what consumers’ value from a content perspective is online and socialized on dozens or hundreds of sites. Hitachi is cleaning up the “digital mess” with the LifeStudio family of drives because, in the end, it’s about content – protecting it, reliving it and sharing it.

After a quick install of the software, the drive’s innovative technology instantly kicks in. Your content – photos, videos, music and documents stored on your computer, any connected USB storage device or online sites such as Facebook, Flickr and Picasa Web Albums – automatically begins to appear in chronological order on your stunning 3D wall. Music is organized by artist or album. Now all of your most precious digital content is easily available at your finger tips. No more searching through files and folders.

Breakthrough Backup

Revolutionizing the way consumers protect their content, the Hitachi LifeStudio drive is the first to provide local and online cloud backup integrated into one single solution, within one install process. The LifeStudio application gives users multiple ways to easily protect their digital content on site or in the cloud. Every customer receives 3GB of online storage for free and for more storage there is an option to upgrade to a quarter of a terabyte (250GB) for only $49 per year, which includes multiple computer protection.

Hitachi Backup is simple and easy-to-use with default options that cover virtually every Mac™ or PC™ users’ backup needs. When using Hitachi’s cloud service, all content is stored in its natural format (no proprietary formatting), so files are protected and easy to view, download and share from any web browser, anywhere, even from an iPhone® and iPad®. Backup runs every 30 minutes or can be scheduled at one’s convenience.

LifeStudio Plus Drives with Integrated USB Keys

Hitachi understands the need to fit into consumers’ fast-paced, increasingly digital lifestyles. The LifeStudio products move beyond a hard drive in a box, into a category all their own. The patent-pending design of the LifeStudio Plus family provides the ultimate in flexibility with an integrated 4GB USB key, which provides a quick way to sync important files and folders for grab n’ go ease.

With the LifeStudio Plus family, the drive’s content management software conveniently allows you to select specific files or folders to sync to the USB key. As a result, users can simply remove the key and take what they need, while leaving the rest of their content safely stored at home. On return, the key docks on the drive to automatically sync everything back together. Availability

Designed for both Mac and PC users, the LifeStudio USB 2.0 external drive family comes in both mobile and desktop solutions. Each comes preloaded with the Hitachi LifeStudio content management app and Hitachi Backup software. Hitachi LifeStudio external drives will be available at retail and online stores in mid-July.