Kanguru, best known for its line of portable storage devices, has developed a power-saving hard drive capable of operating at only 10 percent of normal energy consumption while not in use.

If you’re in the market for an external drive to fill with files that you only need to access every now and again, this might be an enticing option.

With its three built in Power Saving modes, the Kanguru Eco Drive automatically gauges hard drive usage to reduce power consumption by up to 75% and extends the life of the hard drive itself. The three modes include Idle mode (drive operates at 80% of normal consumption after 3 seconds of inactivity), Standby mode (drive operates at 10-20% of normal consumption after 3 minutes of inactivity) and Power Down (drive operates at 5-10% of normal consumption after 5 minutes of inactivity). The power modes are configurable through included software for Windows platforms (Windows 2000, XP and Vista only).

The USB 2.0 drives are available up to 750GB and are available now in various Parallel-ATA flavors. Pricing ranges from $94.95 (80GB) on up to $349.95 (750GB). Serial-ATA versions are coming soon.

Kanguru Announces Power Saving Hard Drives [Digital Trends]