Tag: Hitachi hard drives

Article 

Western Digital 14TB hard drive sets storage record | CNet

From the horse’s mouth

HGST by Western Digital

Ultrastar HS14 14Tb hard disk

Product Page

Press Release

My Comments

Western Digital had broken the record for data stored on a 3.5” hard disk by offering the HGST by WD UltraStar HS14 hard disk.

This 3.5” hard disk is capable of storing 14Tb of data and has been seen as a significant increase in data-density for disk-based mechanical data storage. It implements HelioSeal construction technology which yields a hermetically-sealed enclosure filled with helium that leads to thinner disks which also permit reduced cost, cooling requirements and power consumption.

At the moment, this hard disk is being pitched at heavy-duty enterprise, cloud and data-center computing applications rather than regular desktop or small-NAS applications. In this use case, I see that these ultra-high-capacity hard disks earn their keep would be localised data-processing applications where non-volatile secondary storage is an important part of the equation.

Such situations would include content-distribution networks such as the Netflix application or edge / fog computing applications where data has to be processed and held locally. Here, such applications that are dependent on relatively-small devices that can be installed close to where the data is created or consumed like telephone exchanges, street cabinets, or telecommunications rooms.

I would expect that this level of data-density will impact other hard disks and devices based on these hard disks. For example, applying it to the 2.5” hard-disk form factor could see these hard disks approaching 8Tb or more yielding highly capacious compact storage devices. Or that this same storage capacity is made available for hard drives that suit regular desktop computers and NAS units.

Article

Hitachi outs a pair of 4TB HDDs for your storing pleasure — Engadget

My Comments

Hitachi has raised the ante again for hard-disk storage by delivering a 4Tb 3.5” hard-disk unit. They have packaged it as a retail-sold aftermarket retrofit kit with SATA connectivity for around US$399 and as a USB 3.0-connected external hard disk for US$420.

The Engadget article went on about us thinking of cloud storage as the way to go for personal data storage and that it would please those of us who place emphasis on desktop-local or NAS-hosted data storage. This would include most business operators who want direct control over their business data. I also see this hard disk as being relevant to the network-attached storage sector where you place emphasis on data capacity with these devices as they become local warehouses for high-definition video, high-quality music and high-resolution photos.

A question that may need to be raised with NAS applications is whether the NAS’s firmware / operating-system can address unique physical disks with a capacity of 4 or more terabytes. Here, I would suspect that most Linux-based firmwares could do so but even if the current firmware can’t address the 4Tb or more physical disk, a subsequent version could support the volume size.

Of course, as more hard-disk plants in Taiwan get back to full steam after the floods and more of the 4Tb hard disks come on the market, the prices could reduce where this capacity becomes more reasonable for home and small-business users. Other interesting factors that could come of this include the development of single-unit 2.5” hard disks with capacities of 1Tb or greater or smaller hard-disks with higher capacities that would appeal to those of us with a need for higher mobile data capacity.