Toshiba MD04

Toshiba MD04 is a hard drive family created by Toshiba. It succeeds the previous Toshiba MD03 family, increasing the density to 1 TB per platter. It encompassed models from 2 TB to 6 TB, and is a lower binned version of the enterprise Toshiba MG04 family. The Toshiba MN04 family is a similar, higher binned family (though still lower binned than the MG04) that targets NAS applications. The MD04 also formed the initial basis for the Toshiba X300 family, with the TOSHIBA HDWE140, HDWE150 and HDWE160 based on models from the MD04 family. This family was succeeded by the new TOSHIBA HDWR440 and TOSHIBA HDWR460, which are also part of the X300 family and are rebadged Toshiba MG08-D models, though the MD04 family nevertheless remains in production.

History

The MD04 family was released sometime after the MG04 family was released in 2014. Compared to the Toshiba DT01ACA family which it shares some overlap with, the MD04 family targets higher performance, at the cost of higher heat and noise, owing to its enterprise heritage. Though a newer model, the Toshiba MD06 family, was released to compete with the 6 TB model, the MD04ACA600 nevertheless remained in production. In 2021, this family was effectively superseded by the TOSHIBA HDWR440 and TOSHIBA HDWR460, which are lower binned versions of MG08-D models, therefore having faster and quieter performance than the outgoing MD04 family. However, as of 2021, the MD04 family remains listed as an option on the Toshiba website, as no OEM version of the HDWR440 or HDWR460 exists.

Products

• TOSHIBA MD04ACA200
• TOSHIBA MD04ACA200N (512n)
• TOSHIBA MD04ACA300
• TOSHIBA MD04ACA400
• TOSHIBA MD04ACA400N (512n)
• TOSHIBA MD04ACA500
• TOSHIBA MD04ACA50D
• TOSHIBA MD04ACA600

Trivia

• With at least six years of lifetime, the MD04 family is the second longest lived OEM desktop family, after the Toshiba DT01ACA, still in production since 2012.
• Models with 5 platters or less (except for the MD04ACA50D) are codenamed Tomcat, whereas the MD04ACA50D and MD04ACA600 are codenamed Tomcat-R. Despite this, firmware versions still begin with "F", like the MD03/MG03 family before (that family's codename is Harrier, which still does not make sense)