Western Digital doubles HDD storage densities

It seems like hard drive manufacturers are all about the bold claims this week -- hot on the heels of Hitachi's promise to deliver 4TB drives in 2011, Western Digital is doing a little chest-thumping over its "successful demonstration" of a drive with a storage density of 520 gigabits per square inch. That's more than double today's max of 200Gb per square inch, and WD says cramming bits in that tight will result in 3TB 3.5-inch drives by 2010. Hmm, 1TB less one year sooner? Storage fanboys, to the comments!

[Jeremy K. @ Oct 18th 2007 2:00AM]

Oh yeah? Well, I can carry nearly eighty gigs of data in my head.

[JLTate @ Oct 18th 2007 2:32AM]

Dude, it's the nineties. Get a data doubler so you can store a full 160GB in that head of yours. Just be ready to part with some of those less interesting memories, like your childhood for example.

[Michael La Framboise @ Oct 18th 2007 2:33AM]

and then you get dropped and poof goes the data

[wes @ Oct 18th 2007 3:08PM]

wow impressive

[luzzio @ Oct 18th 2007 1:19PM]

bring on the rapture, I say =)

[Jason @ Oct 18th 2007 2:02AM]

I wonder how much 3TB of SSD would cost.

[Alexander @ Oct 18th 2007 9:07AM]

You need those kidneys?

[waiownsyou @ Oct 18th 2007 2:18AM]

Storage fanboys? WTH.

Any who, no one really needs that much storage unless they're crazy video producers or someone who needs 50 installations of World of WarCraft.

[Alvin @ Oct 18th 2007 2:25AM]

>> Any who, no one really needs
>> that much storage unless they're
>> crazy video producers...

Or crazy pr0n consumers?

[Edho @ Oct 18th 2007 2:28AM]

or someone who loves storing his dvd/cd collection somewhere far away from the computer

[Michael La Framboise @ Oct 18th 2007 2:30AM]

or to someone who plays anything else except WoW -- seeing how fast games are growing in size, by 2010 we'll be seeing 10-15 gig installations on average imo

...or theres always the porn I guess :/

[alg @ Oct 18th 2007 4:21AM]

Remember the times when 10 Mb hard drive was more than enough and games on diskettes were more than anyone could imagine? Once CD's came out, no one could find an application. Then first one-, two-, three-CD games with improved graphics showed up and it became clear that we need something bigger for this. DVD. BlueRay.

Now that the graphics and audio technology advances, there's a crying need to fit more data. I'm positive soon we'll witness the emergence of the next generation of games / video / audio with more realistic and resource-consuming content to fill all the space provided by new drives.

At first, it sounds odd to have a 100Gb game, but why not? We had a similar transition in the past, but it was more striking then as we weren't prepared for changes. Now we are.

Be sure. ;)

[Josh @ Oct 18th 2007 7:34AM]

Exactly, I used to say I'd never need more than 40 Gigs. But Ohhh how I have filled that space since.

[JLTate @ Oct 18th 2007 2:23AM]

I really doubt a 3TB drive would make me any happier than my dual RAID-0 WD Raptors already do.

And yes, I lovingly stroke both of them daily in the hopes that the RAID gods don't smite me for my blatant hubris.

[alex @ Oct 18th 2007 12:07PM]

That's the only thing you stroke daily? ;-p

[ryano @ Oct 18th 2007 2:28AM]

and i still wouldnt buy WD!

Why are we wasting time on platter drives when SSD need alot more capacity!

[Michael La Framboise @ Oct 18th 2007 2:32AM]

Why are we wasting our time on this primitive tech in general? Shouldn't we be developing cyberbrains? (ref. to GiTS)

[JLTate @ Oct 18th 2007 2:34AM]

Hell no. I want a tachikoma before I get cyberized. I need a friend first. :(

[Chuckles McGee @ Oct 18th 2007 12:10PM]

Actually JLTate, you will be able to get a tachikoma come February: http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/12/new-tachikoma-spider-robot-on-the-loose/
Mmm, cyborgs.

[Mr. Tangent @ Oct 18th 2007 2:29AM]

Just think, in ten years people are going to be laughing at the idea of only three terabytes. The land of exobytes and petabytes is just around the corner...

[euclid @ Oct 18th 2007 2:49AM]

No kidding... a decade ago, 400 MB of storage and 8 MB of Ram was pretty high end. Now we're talking terabytes. The day of infinite storage capacity isn't far away.

[Jimmy Hoffa @ Oct 18th 2007 3:52AM]

Actually, a decade ago, a system with a 6.4 GB HDD and 64 MB of RAM was pretty high end, 400 MB for a hard drive and 8 MB of RAM was nothing in 1997 (except maybe on a laptop?)

[M @ Oct 18th 2007 2:34AM]

All I care about for claims is SSD. Sure I like big drives, but SSD development is where I want to spend more. No moving parts, faster speeds, less power... I would pay for those advancements!
M

[Dukeman @ Oct 29th 2007 10:49AM]

When Dell thinks they can sell millions of systems with large expensive SSD drives to web surfing, photo emailing grandparents then SSD will take off and costs will drop. But SSD's evolution will be slow while only "fan boys" want them.

[Nex @ Oct 18th 2007 2:36AM]

what about blu ray and hd dvd ripping.. could take up a lot of room quickly
just a though.. let me know what you think?

[Sirocco @ Oct 18th 2007 2:50AM]

This, amidst the echos of "when will the madness end?"

[Daniel @ Oct 18th 2007 2:51AM]

I believe they're working on data storage at a nano-scale level. Trying to manipulate atoms at a molecular level to possess a high and low state is pretty amazing. But, like all things, there is a physical limitation..but that's where human ingenuity comes into play right?

[Technobob @ Oct 18th 2007 2:57AM]

This is good news and it's even better because I'm a WD fanboy best drive maker IMHO

What I don't understand is why we are still working with such old tech. Where are the data crystal storage or such. Is not the HD tech something like 40 years old now.

[Andrew @ Oct 18th 2007 2:58AM]

So...I was thinking maybe storing data on crystals...nup? Too much stargate?

[Fahad @ Oct 18th 2007 7:12AM]

someone (sorry cant remember who) gave a lecture at my uni a few months ago.

apparently they can store the information in the crystal using lasers or what hav you, but they cant get the information back out agen.

lol my two (sterling) pounds

[KC @ Oct 18th 2007 3:17AM]

Remember back when your HDD capacity was 130MB and and you could install something like Stacker to double the storage?

[pathfinda @ Oct 18th 2007 9:38AM]

..ah, Stacker... just the thought bring a tear to my eye....

I remember having a corrupted Stacker Drive on a Doctor's PC... Needless to say, I no longer work for that company...

[KC @ Oct 18th 2007 11:59PM]

LOL. I remember trying to figure out that dreaded himem.sys file, and setting Stacker to use emm or ext memory!!!

[Droo @ Oct 18th 2007 3:58AM]

They just came out with a 1TB Caviar GP.. There was a good deal of 259 a piece on Best Buy's site for a week or so for the promo of the new model, then the price went up to the mid-300s.. This was 2 weeks ago maybe.

I'd rather they do it right, compared to IBM (before Hitachi acquired them), who released glass plate drives (75GXP) that 'suddenly lost data' and then were class actioned for it.

When it comes to people's data, it's about doing it right, not necessarily first. WD really accels in that case and has some of the best reliability in the industry (especially when it comes to the beloved Raptor).

[Kyle Simmons @ Oct 18th 2007 4:05AM]

There are storage fanboys?

[Blakamin @ Oct 18th 2007 4:46AM]

I demand the sum... OF 1 MILLION BYTES!

[Bruce @ Oct 18th 2007 4:49AM]

That'd be hell to back up if it runs at the same relatively slow speeds that the drives of today function at. Transferring 3TB of data across a network is not something I'd look forward to :s

[N30 G30 @ Oct 18th 2007 4:52AM]

"MOAR!!!" screams society!

Seriously, when will this bigger, larger, faster, thinner uhh... smaller, obsession gonna slow down?

People need to relax. I see way too many people buying Core 2 Duo laptops with insane video and audio cards to browse the internet, download stuff, and type papers.

[Tim Brown @ Oct 18th 2007 4:58AM]

Oo cant wait for the day where I can update my 2Tb home file server to 9Tb effective (RAID 10) as I have almost filled the 2Tb. Although I have a nasty feeling that as I am a Bit Torrent junky that will soon disappear.

[blue @ Oct 18th 2007 7:14AM]

ever heard of usenet?

[Eric @ Oct 18th 2007 6:59AM]

No, there needs to be more space sooner, cheaper, and of better quality. There is a need (as much as people need music, movies, and games... which is actually a lot.) for more. Someone fill it please.

[Josh Rose @ Oct 18th 2007 7:35AM]

Exactly, I used to say I'd never need more than 40 Gigs. But Ohhh how I have filled that space since.

[wasabi @ Oct 18th 2007 7:42AM]

i am a big fan of storage. i think it's very essential to computing. i don't care what people say, i will always be a storage fanboy.

[Mike @ Oct 18th 2007 8:26AM]

I got my 1GB hard drive waaay back in 1993 (when 100MB was considered big!)
It cost a family friend $1000, which he ordered for a client who didn't want it, but paid for it anyway... That was the best birthday gift... EVER! (until I get a 3TB drive in my stocking in 2009)

[moondy @ Oct 18th 2007 8:27AM]

To follow the trend...

Forget HD, SSD and Flash...bring on the liquid drives. Instant transferability and storage at a molecular level (in other words a lot).

[Matt @ Oct 18th 2007 8:55AM]

A lot of people say 3TB?!?! Way toooo much.

But thats whats we said about our 2GB, 20GB, 200GB hard drives.
They aren't enough now so who is to say 3TB is too much.

[fiore00713 @ Oct 18th 2007 9:05AM]

I don't know there is just something about having that much available storage space that just makes me giggle
Considering my workstation consists of a laptop with a 250gb internal and 3 externals that sum up to 820gb
Then there is the one home media server with 1.75tb that's nearly full
and the other server has 300gb
It'd be so nifty to buy 1 drive and have almost the same amount of storage space

[Ryan Worrell @ Oct 18th 2007 9:08AM]

I'd take a Western Digital over a Hitachi any day of the week.

[Steele @ Oct 18th 2007 9:28AM]

i do HDV video editing and have a raid 5 of 4 500gb drives and im starting to run out of room, so i welcome any advancement to drive storage capacity

[kyle @ Oct 18th 2007 12:53PM]

that's Gb as in gigabit, not GB as in Gigabyte.