The WD PiDrive 314GB device is based on Western Digital's proven, high-volume 500GB platform with design changes made specifically for Raspberry Pi. Customizations made to the drive's magnetic recording and electrical system operating set-points align with Raspberry Pi's USB data and power design to reduce the electrical power load of the hard drive on Raspberry Pi, while still maintaining sufficient performance to deliver maximum USB data transfer rate.

Platform design flexibility and the manufacturing tuning process enabled WDLabs to create this specialized product for Raspberry Pi efficiently without compromising quality and reliability.

WDLabs and the author of BerryBoot, a highly regarded, well-established and free software solution that simplifies the loading of multiple software applications, have created a special version of BerryBoot for WD PiDrive device customers, which includes software applications featuring the use of mass-storage devices with Raspberry Pi.

Many operating systems and software applications can be stored on the WD PiDrive HDD, taking full advantage of the 314GB of storage. Upon system boot-up, the OS can be selected from the BerryBoot menu and launched with a couple of mouse clicks.

"Adoption of Raspberry Pi computing devices is expanding at a tremendous rate, reaching eight million units in about four years1. However, the millions of Raspberry Pi users are finding limitations from data storage devices (SD card, USB hard drive or cloud storage) originally designed for other applications," said Dave Chew, chief engineer, WDLabs.

"The WD PiDrive 314 GB HDD is designed to support Raspberry Pi growth by addressing barriers to hard drive adoption such as affordability, power loading and system set-up. In addition, we've maintained the key strengths of hard drive technology, including mass-storage value, high data integrity and reliability."

"With the extended capabilities of Raspberry Pi 3, we can't wait to see what new projects our community comes up with," said Eben Upton, chief executive officer, Raspberry Pi. "WD PiDrive 314GB gives our members a low-cost, purpose built hard drive solution that helps them develop even more innovative and unique ways to use Raspberry Pi."

"The innovative work being done in the Raspberry Pi community is extraordinary and we applaud participants," said Melyssa Banda, head of worldwide marketing communications, WD.

"That work has inspired problem-solving engineering through our WDLabs group and, with their insight and collaboration, we are focused on taking new solutions to market. The WD PiDrive 314GB is a great example of real-world innovation from WDLabs."