Buffalo announced a new line of external hard drives that they claim can withstand being dropped from up to one meter. And the housing doesn't look half bad either.

Buffalo today announced that they will release a new series of shock resistant external hard drives, the HD-PHGU2. Two hard drive sizes are available, the HD-PHG40U2, a 40GB, at 14,200 yen, and the HD-PHG80U2, an 80GB at 22,050 yen. Supported operating systems are Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, as well as Mac OSX 10.0.4+.

The case itself has been completely reworked, and uses ABS plastic in its construction, and thanks to its unique inner structure, Buffalo claims it can withstand a drop from up to one meter (about 3 feet). The USB cable can be wrapped around the device when it is not in use (see picture below).

The drive measures 127x43x84mm, and weighs 195g. It will be available in both silver and black. The unit uses a 5,400RPM hard drive.

The drive includes back up and encryption software, as well as virtual CD/DVD software.

Inspired by:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2005/1116/buffalo1.htm

Press Release:
http://buffalo.melcoinc.co.jp/products/new/2005/000105.html