Hitachi Announces 500GB iVDR (A Portable HDD Cart)

Serkan Toto

Dr. Serkan Toto is an independent consultant and advisor focusing on Japan’s web, mobile and social gaming industries. Based in Tokyo, he works together with financial institutions and startups worldwide. Serkan has been the Japan contributor for TechCrunch.com since 2008. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. → Learn More

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

Never heard of iVDR? You are probably not alone. The iVDR (Information Versatile Disk for Removable usage) standard for portable HDD carts was established in 2002 by eight top Japanese electronics companies, but it never caught on. One of these companies was Hitachi, which still produces these devices, for example the iS500 announced [JP, PDF] today.

The iVDR has a capacity of 500GB, the highest available so far (although a 1TB model is expected to arrive this year). With the iS500AD that’s pictured above, Hitachi throws in a USB 2.0 PC adapter made by I-O DATA (I don’t really get the whole concept either).

The iVDR itself is sized at 80 x 110 x 12.7 mm and weighs 145g.

Hitachi plans to start selling the device (in both variations) on the Japanese market next month with an open price model.