Fujitsu says it has begun production of a hard drive for notebook computers that offers 120GB of storage capacity.

The new drive offers 20% more storage capacity as well as several other improvements over its nearest 2.5-inch rival, says Fujitsu Computer Products of America marketing VP Joel Hagberg. According to PCWorld, the company increased storage capacity by cramming data more closely together on the disk's surface.

Additional improvements include a doubling of the number of times the drive head can be loaded and unloaded from the disk to 600 000, a cut in power consumption and an increase in the drive's ability to handle mechanical shocks.

Samples of the drives are already with notebook vendors for testing and Fujitsu plans to begin shipping commercial versions of the drive during the second quarter, says Hagberg.