WD and Fujitsu could offer 1TB 2.5-inch HDDs in 2010, sun could rise tomorrow

We've been around this stuff long enough to know that hard drives just keep getting bigger with time, but if you were eager to know exactly when a 1TB unit would be prepped and ready for your notebook, try 2010. According to those infamous "undisclosed sources," both Western Digital (which started shipping a 500-gigger today) and Fujitsu are looking to pump out 750GB 2.5-inch HDDs by mid-2009 and 1TB variants in 2010. Keep the faith, brethren.

[Corey @ Sep 12th 2008 5:54PM]

Just when SSD was making progress...

[loosely_coupled @ Sep 12th 2008 9:59PM]

It doesn't matter how many GBs a 2.5" HD can get. For me, and I think a lot of other people, a laptop doesn't need to carry ALL of your data. I would love to just have a FAST internal 2.5" ~128GB SSD in a laptop and just use an external 500GB eSATA drive for all your media. OR if you want a serious desktop replacement laptop, then a hybrid situation would be the best: one fast 64GB/80GB/128GB SSD for primary boot/app storage *and* an internal 2.5" 500GB drive for everything else. Since SSDs can be made much smaller (and differently shaped) than your average laptop drives, you could easily fit one of each in a laptop.

Remember, there is no reason to use a large SSD as an archive for rarely-used media files. The primary advantage of an SSD is the quick random access time, high sequential read rates (versus average laptop HDs), durability, and lower power usage. It would be a total waste to use them for storing archived files. It would be like using a Ferrari for driving kids to soccer practice..

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Sep 12th 2008 11:50PM]

Forget SSD, I want a full Terabyte spinning at 7,200 RPM in my PS3. This is good news. SSD will never touch HDD when it comes to cost and capacity.

[cil @ Sep 15th 2008 2:53PM]

1TB is laptop hdd's are all ready inuse by most government security servers including those of crossbeam servers. but yes 2010 sounds like a good assesment for when home users will see this kind of hdd.

[Zinger314 @ Sep 12th 2008 5:56PM]

Pfft. Where are the 1TB MP3 Players?

[ybd @ Sep 12th 2008 6:28PM]

Just what I was thinking. It's not too unreasonable to fill that much space with a PMP. Then again, imagine how often that thing will break.

[Billy Gun @ Sep 12th 2008 7:53PM]

To bad they use 1.8 inch HDDs, and sounds they realy dond care about producing big players anymore (now we only have 120gb Ipod and Zune). I wold love an 320gb zune or Ipod.. But I'm not sure when this will happen, I gess they will stop HDDs players production soon, and all the players will be flash players. Anda about 128gb Pen Drive? When? Are we stuck on 32/64gb pendrive?

[Julian Bond @ Sep 13th 2008 6:21AM]

Indeed. So if 2.5" drives hit 1Tb in 2010, where will 1.8" drives be? 500Gb? And will Apple produce a 500Gb Classic?

I do not understand why *nobody* caters for the music fanatic with too much music. I know it's probably a niche market and a premium loss leader, but reading the comments here, there's quite a few of us. Surely somebody wants to make money from people who want a PMP >=160Gb?

[Evan @ Sep 12th 2008 5:57PM]

I don't like the idea of keeping data on my laptop (you know, in case it gets stolen, damaged, etc). I keep my data on my Linux media server (1TB with RAID 1 protection at the moment), and I only ever have 10GB to 20GB on my laptop at any one time.

[broli @ Sep 12th 2008 6:07PM]

How about 1TB for that sony console. Could keep all your bluray and game collection on there. Yes I know, need to be hacked but by then the ps3 will be hacked so hard that it could even emulate the Wii.

[JR @ Sep 12th 2008 6:08PM]

Yes, don't keep too much of your top-secret "entertainment media" on that laptop.

[kyakko @ Sep 12th 2008 6:33PM]

I know what you mean by personal experience. I've learn the hard way, you shouldn't put all your important info on one hard drive and especially with a laptop. I accidentally dropped my thinkpad T61 on hardwood floors. As soon as I hear the clicking noise, I knew i was in trouble. I know the thinkpad has an hd active protection, but I changed out the original hd for a for 320GB. 1TB for a laptop is not a good idea.

[YHWHMystic @ Sep 12th 2008 5:59PM]

1TB is overkill. What's the point of having so much storage capacity anyway?

[Yashar @ Sep 12th 2008 6:25PM]

no offence but yes you ARE very stupid :D

[CraigJ @ Sep 12th 2008 6:21PM]

AnyDVDHD + Blueray, is one reason
Digital SLR shooting Raw is another
Lots and lots of classical music ripped in a lossless codec is another

Oh, and massive porn collections for those lonely business trips.

I'll take 2 please.

[Billy Fiul @ Sep 12th 2008 6:39PM]

Why does it have to be classical music, Craig, you small-minded douche?

[CraigJ @ Sep 12th 2008 6:56PM]

Where did I say is _has_ to be. Those are my reasons, not yours. if you want to rip some other type of music lossless, knock yourself out. But if I must explain; I can't tell the difference between 192 kbps and lossless ripped rock/punk/metal, etc. on my iPod with earbuds, but I can tell the difference when playing classical music via my home system.

right back at ya, ya fukin' pico-minded douche canoe.

[zonamanoz @ Sep 12th 2008 7:00PM]

@ Billy, urm maybe cos Classical music represents the epitome of human endeavour into the art form. Not to mention classical music is also the amongst the longest pieces of music you can get and since it's music that deserves the highest amount of sound quality, it's going to make the largest files. You can also make an analogy with storing photos where classical comes from your DSLR in RAW format, any other genre would be of the jpeg point and shoot variety. Hope that helps.

[Kamokazi @ Sep 12th 2008 8:22PM]

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home."-1977, Ken Olsen, founder of the company that would eventually morph into Compaq and HP

"640K [of RAM] ought to be enough for anybody."-1981, BIll Gates, Former CEO and founder of Microsoft

"1TB is overkill. What's the point of having so much storage capacity anyway?"-2008, YHWHMystic, Douchebag of Engadget

[craig @ Sep 13th 2008 9:12AM]

"Ken Olsen, founder of the company that would eventually morph into Compaq and HP"

Ken Olsen was in NO way the founder of anything that morphed into Compaq and HP. DEC was a company well into its decline when it was euthanized by Compaq who was, itself, already on its way to extinction. Ken Olsen receives utterly no credit for anything Compaq or HP accomplished.

[Emrah Gunduz @ Sep 13th 2008 10:38AM]

i've got 5 TB of total hdd. and all is full :)

some of us need that much space for our jobs. including laptops...

[Fanfoot @ Sep 12th 2008 6:02PM]

Yeah, seriously. Why aren't they working on more important things like rotation speed? When are we going to have 30,000 rpm laptop drives?

[Totalfixation @ Sep 12th 2008 6:12PM]

if your going to work at 30,000rpm why not just work on SSD? doesn't make sense to do that, rotation is conventional and SSD is technological .

[Samboini @ Sep 12th 2008 6:23PM]

Rotation speed higher = higher fail rate!

[Zinger314 @ Sep 12th 2008 6:23PM]

30k RPM? What, do you want your laptop to levitate?

[Spork @ Sep 12th 2008 6:27PM]

You try spinning at 30k on a battery the size of a can of Red Bull...

[Fanfoot @ Sep 12th 2008 6:55PM]

I'll be here all week. Be kind to your waiters and waitresses!

[c. thomas @ Sep 12th 2008 6:15PM]

WOW! The next generation of Console's will have a shit load of hdd memory! Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Forrest @ Sep 12th 2008 6:21PM]

Assuming there IS a next generation. Comments like this make me fear for the future of the human race :(

[v3xx @ Sep 12th 2008 6:47PM]

and still 3 times the price on a normal hard drive of equal capacity.

[Kukawaki @ Sep 12th 2008 8:09PM]

@Forrest

Really? Comments like that one?
You don't read that many comments do you?

[Temple @ Sep 12th 2008 10:15PM]

Or you can just stick an OEM 1TB 2.5" HDD in the PS3 whenever it comes out since it takes off-the-shelf harddrives.

[James @ Sep 12th 2008 6:21PM]

WDC just shipping a 2.5" 500GB drive? I have a Samsung 500GB notebook drive in my MSI Wind for a couple of months now. And the Samsung drive got a great review from Tom's Hardware. WD is a little late to the market.

[yode @ Sep 12th 2008 6:25PM]

rofl, i love the sarcastic 'sun could rise tommorrow'

[Billy Fiul @ Sep 12th 2008 6:44PM]

Thanks for sharing. It's comments like these that really add value to the original post.

[yode @ Sep 12th 2008 8:15PM]

Billy. It is part of the title. If the author didn't want anyone to take notice of it he wouldn't have put it there.

[Joe P @ Sep 14th 2008 11:39AM]

Well with the LHC about you never really know....

[Falcom @ Sep 12th 2008 6:26PM]

what I want to know is why desktop drives seem stuck at 1TB and laptop drives are catching up. This will be the first time I can ever recall of laptops and desktops potentially having equal storage space on a single drive. Hopefully desktop drives will see 1.5 and 2TB capacities by then. My DVR is hungry for space.

[atbnet @ Sep 13th 2008 12:10AM]

Seagate announced a 1.5 TB drive this summer, but I think most are holding off until they can get 2TB drives out.

[whitephatt @ Sep 12th 2008 6:28PM]

I wonder when they will start making consumer drives with a higher MTBF. You won't catch me purchasing some insanely capacious 1TB+ drive with the same MTBF as a 250gb. pfft

[sr1329 @ Sep 12th 2008 7:02PM]

Statistics and lies buddy.

[shimman @ Sep 12th 2008 6:31PM]

samsung might be the first one to release in 9.5mm 5400rpm format if recent fall of CEO is not affecting them much. other than samsung, hdd makers better be working hard to improve the capacity as ssds are coming to replace them.

[bandigolo @ Sep 12th 2008 6:40PM]

This is pathetically narrow-sighted. By 2010 SSD's will be pushing 500GB for the same cost as high-end mechanical spinners are today. FAIL.

[James @ Sep 12th 2008 6:57PM]

You can dream about a sub $200 500GB SSD by 2010.

[sr1329 @ Sep 12th 2008 7:01PM]

Don't really care for this anymore. All my data sits on a Windows Home Server. My Laptop needs 64GB for OS and a few programs at most. SSD all the way!

[sr1329 @ Sep 12th 2008 7:04PM]

As an addendum, I have a 200GB 7200 RPM drive in mine where 75% is unused and I can pare that down some more.

[Almadi @ Sep 12th 2008 7:30PM]

Terabyte is the new gigabyte!!

[nutriapeluda @ Sep 12th 2008 7:45PM]

hmmm, real 1TB or 94 gigs?

[Absinthe_Nishi @ Sep 12th 2008 8:01PM]

?? I'm guessing you mean 1TB or 940GB?

[pretol @ Sep 12th 2008 10:20PM]

I've had a 500gb hd in my server for 1.5 years now (was sent to me as replacement for a 120gb - thank you, Western)...

All they could manage is 1TB in 1.5 years?

Not impressed.