Western Digital doubles HDD storage densities
By Nilay Patel 
posted Oct 18th 2007 1:55AM
posted Oct 18th 2007 1:55AM
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!
Oh yeah? Well, I can carry nearly eighty gigs of data in my head.
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.
and then you get dropped and poof goes the data
wow impressive
bring on the rapture, I say =)
I wonder how much 3TB of SSD would cost.
You need those kidneys?
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
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.
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.
>> Any who, no one really needs
>> that much storage unless they're
>> crazy video producers...
Or crazy pr0n consumers?
or someone who loves storing his dvd/cd collection somewhere far away from the computer
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 :/
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. ;)
Exactly, I used to say I'd never need more than 40 Gigs. But Ohhh how I have filled that space since.
and i still wouldnt buy WD!
Why are we wasting time on platter drives when SSD need alot more capacity!
Why are we wasting our time on this primitive tech in general? Shouldn't we be developing cyberbrains? (ref. to GiTS)
Hell no. I want a tachikoma before I get cyberized. I need a friend first. :(
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.
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.
That's the only thing you stroke daily? ;-p
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...
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.
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?)
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?
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?
This, amidst the echos of "when will the madness end?"
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.
So...I was thinking maybe storing data on crystals...nup? Too much stargate?
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
Remember back when your HDD capacity was 130MB and and you could install something like Stacker to double the storage?
..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...
LOL. I remember trying to figure out that dreaded himem.sys file, and setting Stacker to use emm or ext memory!!!
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).
There are storage fanboys?
I demand the sum... OF 1 MILLION BYTES!
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
"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.
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.
ever heard of usenet?
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.
Exactly, I used to say I'd never need more than 40 Gigs. But Ohhh how I have filled that space since.
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.
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).
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)
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.
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
I'd take a Western Digital over a Hitachi any day of the week.
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
that's Gb as in gigabit, not GB as in Gigabyte.