HDDs
Data storage requirements have kept increasing over the last several years. SSDs have taken over the role of the primary drive in most computing systems. However, when it comes to sheer bulk storage, hard drives (HDDs) continue to be the storage media of choice in areas dealing with large amounts of relatively cold data. Since the release of the last HDD guide, we have seen the announcement of 24TB CMR drives from both Seagate and Western Digital. The 22TB and lower capacity drives have also seen price reductions. Meanwhile consumer SSDs have seen a resurgence of their own, thanks to a recent (and temporary) bust in flash memory prices. Even with this, it's not enough to challenge large HDDs on a $/GB basis, but it's...
Western Digital Releases 24TB Ultrastar & Gold Hard Drives, 28TB SMR Drives Ramping
Western Digital is announcing today that it has begun volume shipments of its 24 TB hard drives based on conventional magnetic recording (CMR) to its full customer base. In...
22 by Anton Shilov on 11/16/2023Seagate's HAMR Update: 32 TB in Early 2024, 40+ TB Two Years Later
Hidden deep in Seagate's financial report released late last month was a brief roadmap update for the company's heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology. As noted in the latest update...
11 by Anton Shilov on 11/8/2023Western Digital to Split HDD and NAND Businesses
Western Digital has announced its decision to split its hard disk drive and NAND memory businesses, creating two separate public companies. According to the company, the change is aimed...
12 by Anton Shilov on 10/31/2023Seagate Unveils Exos X24 24TB and 28 TB: Setting the Stage for HAMR HDDs
Seagate on Wednesday introduced its Exos X24 family of hard drives, it's highest capacity series of drives to date. The new family is comprised of both conventional magnetic recording...
16 by Anton Shilov on 10/19/2023Western Digital Preps 28 TB UltraSMR Hard Drive
Western Digital is gearing up to start sampling of its 28 TB nearline hard drive for hyperscalers. The new HDD will use the company's energy-assisted perpendicular magnetic recording (ePMR...
19 by Anton Shilov on 8/1/2023Seagate Ships First Commercial HAMR Hard Drives
Seagate announced this week that it had begun the first commercial revenue shipments of its next-generation HAMR hard drives, which are being shipped out as part of Seagate's latest...
3 by Anton Shilov on 7/28/2023Western Digital Estimates HAMR HDDs to Emerge in 1.5 Years
Western Digital is somewhat behind its rival Seagate in adopting heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), which promises radical improvements to areal density and HDD capacities. Still, the company expects hard...
16 by Anton Shilov on 6/12/2023Big Leap for Hard Drive Capacities: 32 TB HAMR Drives Due Soon, 40TB on Horizon
Offering a brief update on the future of hard drives, Seagate has shared some fresh insights concerning launch of its next generation hard drives featuring its heat-assisted magnetic recording...
28 by Anton Shilov on 6/8/2023Seagate to Pay $300 Million Fine For Supplying Hard Drives to Huawei
The U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security this week imposed a $300 million fine on Seagate for violating U.S. export control restrictions. The storage company has...
21 by Anton Shilov on 4/20/2023Dropbox Shares Preparations for HAMR Hard Drives, Focusing On Reducing Drive Vibrations
Dropbox was among the first large cloud service providers (CSPs) providers to deploy hard drives that use shingled magnetic recording (SMR) to increase storage density of its datacenters. As...
4 by Anton Shilov on 3/13/2023Western Digital Launches 22 TB HDD for Consumers in Updated My Book Portfolio
Western Digital's 22 TB hard disk drives hit retail in July 2022, with a trio of products catering to the prosumer and business / enterprise markets. Today, the company...
13 by Ganesh T S on 2/15/2023Western Digital Unveils Dual Actuator Ultrastar DC HS760 20TB HDD
Without much fanfare, Western Digital this week introduced its first dual actuator hard drive, a 20TB drive that is designed to offer SATA SSD-like sequential read/write performance. The Ultrastar...
35 by Anton Shilov on 2/1/2023Seagate Confirms 30TB+ HAMR HDDs in Q3, Envisions 50TB Drives in a Few Years
Seagate this week confirmed plans to launch the industry's first 30+ TB hard drive that uses its heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology, as well as reaffirming its commitment...
70 by Anton Shilov on 1/27/2023Western Digital 22TB WD Gold, Red Pro, and Purple HDDs Hit Retail
Western Digital's 'What's Next' event back in May 2022 had seen the announcement of its 22TB platform based on ePMR and OptiNAND (with ArmorCache). At the event, WD indicated...
22 by Ganesh T S on 7/19/2022Destination 30 TB: HDD Vendors Plan Different Routes to Hit Storage Milestone in 2023
In the recent months all three hard drive manufacturers — Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital — and some of their partners have outlined plans to ship 30TB HDDs already...
24 by Anton Shilov on 6/3/2022Western Digital Announces 22TB CMR and 26TB SMR HDDs: 10 Platters plus ePMR
Western Digital is announcing the sampling of its new 22TB CMR and 26TB SMR hard drives today at its What's Next Western Digital Event. As usual, the hyperscale cloud...
25 by Ganesh T S on 5/9/2022Western Digital Spills Beans on HDD Plans: 30TB HDDs Planned, MAMR's Future Unclear
Western Digital this week said that its energy-assisted magnetic recording (ePMR) and OptiNAND technologies coupled with increased number of platters per hard drive would enable it to build HDDs...
41 by Anton Shilov on 12/2/2021Seagate Exos X20 and IronWolf Pro 20TB Expand Retail 20TB HDD Options
Seagate has updated their flagship capacity options for the retail HDD market with the availability announcement for two new hard drives today - the Exos X20 and IronWolf Pro...
10 by Ganesh T S on 12/2/2021Western Digital Reimagines HDD - Flash Integration with OptiNAND
The last few years have seen plenty of new innovations come up in the hard-disk drive market. For quite some time, the HDD technology roadmap was shared industry-wide -...
51 by Ganesh T S on 8/31/2021