WDLabs has launched the third generation of its PiDrive products. Offering an affordable hard drive storage solution for the Raspberry Pi.

The latest drive is called ‘Foundation Edition’. The new range includes two hard drive options – 250GB and 375GB – along with a 64GB USB flash drive.

While similar in format to previous PiDrive models, this edition features a microSD card preloaded with the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s NOOBS installer.

In other words, it's easy to install Raspbian with PIXEL without the need to flash a memory card.

The PiDrive Foundation Edition

Western Digital also sells an enclosure so you can place the hard drive and a Raspberry Pi inside a case.

“This third-generation WD PiDrive solution uses a USB HDD or USB flash drive to run the OS and host multiple Raspberry Pi projects," says Dave Chew, chief engineer at WDLabs. "Instead of having to do this on a collection of micro SD cards.”

Western Digital explains: "Combining SD card and USB drive functionality, the WD PiDrive Foundation Edition is the ideal storage solution for Raspberry Pi.:

"The microSD comes preloaded with custom software. So that you can start creating Raspberry Pi projects quickly and easily. Foundation Edition is available in USB Flash and USB Hard Drive versions."

If you're interested, the PiDrive Foundation Edition is available direct from Western Digital.