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Western Digital is shipping 12 TB helium-filled hard disk drives containing eight 1.5 TB platters:
Western Digital on Wednesday announced that it had begun to ship its HGST Ultrastar He12 hard drives with 12 TB of capacity. The HDDs are the first drives to employ eight platters, so the fact that Western Digital is now shipping them is important not only for its datacenter customers who need massive storage capacities, but also because the drive represents a significant step forward from a technology point of view.
The HGST Ultrastar He12 is based on Western Digital's fourth-generation HelioSeal technology, which uses eight perpendicular magnetic recording platters with 1.5 TB capacity each. To add the eighth platter, Western Digital had to redesign internal components of its HDDs (including arms and heads) significantly. In addition, the company increased areal density of the platters, which improved the sequential read/write performance of the new hard drives. In particular, Western Digital claims that the HGST Ultrastar He12 has a sustained transfer rate of 255 MB/s, an average latency of 4.16 ms, as well as an average seek time of around 8 ms.
Previously: Western Digital Announces 12-14 TB Hard Drives and an 8 TB SSD
Seagate's 12 TB HDDs Are in Use, and 16 TB is Planned for 2018
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 29 2017, @07:54AM
My main computer still has a 120GB parallel ata disk. It's starting to feel slowish and rather small but at least it's easy to back up.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Saturday April 29 2017, @08:52AM (6 children)
How long does it take for the tiny Helium atoms to leak out and affect the function of the drive? The article mentions nothing about this nor general longevity expectactions.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Saturday April 29 2017, @08:59AM
Yeah that is why I'm avoiding them, hell I recently found some old 400Mb drives in a box at the shop and hooked them up...worked just fine. Many of my customers keep systems for a loong time under the "If it ain't broke" principle, I don't like the idea that the systems I would be selling them has an expiration date.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 29 2017, @09:09AM
> How long does it take for the tiny Helium atoms to leak out
Their first gen helium drives, back in 2013, were guaranteed 5 years without leaking,
Which is 1 year longer than the typical lifespan of a drive in a data-center.
And that's their target market.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 29 2017, @09:59AM
Planned Obsolescence [wikipedia.org]
At least Amazon would not be able to resell these as new [amazon.com] with over 50000 hours. [google.com]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday April 29 2017, @02:09PM
I'll guess this will make harddisc rescue next to impossible?
Like this one:
Data Recovery: Hard Drive Platter Swap in Our Lab! [youtube.com]
(the action scene at 22:05)
I'm seeing a new use for those helium balloon fills used in entertainment parks provided they have the right isotope and is clean. Mass diffusion may create a problem as others pointed out. But I think it's generally just hydrogen that is really tricky in this aspect.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Saturday April 29 2017, @06:34PM (1 child)
How long does it take for the tiny Helium atoms to leak out
My first thought on reading the headline was a semi-sarcastic "What could possibly go wrong?"
Upon further reflection, I came up with a semi-serious "What could possibly go right with that approach?"
But, hey, they have been in the data storage r&d business for decades, so they know more about the situation than I.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Sunday April 30 2017, @05:33AM
Yeah. Though unlike you and I, they don't want the drive to last longer than the warranty period.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 29 2017, @10:32AM
so, do they store a byte by writing one bit to each platter? that should help with transfer rates, right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 29 2017, @07:29PM (2 children)
How much one of those things weigh? Piling on eight of these platters will correspondingly increase mechanical stress and affect its reliability.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 29 2017, @09:21PM (1 child)
Yeah but you forgot all that helium... /stupidjoke
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 30 2017, @05:50AM
I just realized it. they HAD to put in the 8th platter, otherwise the things would float away!