Toshiba will release a 14TB Helium-filled HDD "very soon"

by Mark Tyson on 6 September 2017, 11:11

Tags: WD (NYSE:WDC), Toshiba (TYO:6502)

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Toshiba's 14TB Helium filled HDD

The highest capacity 3.5-inch HDDs currently available come from Western Digital. Its HGST branded Ultrastar He12 12TB HDD started shipping about four or five months ago. Now it looks like the capacity crown is soon to be swiped by Toshiba as it readies a 14TB helium-filled hard disk drive.

According to a brief report published by The Register, Toshiba will boost its maximum capacity offering from 8TB to 14TB "very soon" with the release of a new Helium filled drive. The Reg was told this by Toshiba stand staff at the Huawei Connect conference 2017 in Shanghai yesterday. If "very soon" is worryingly vague, the definition of 'soon' was confined to within the current year by the representatives.

There is little further information about the upcoming drive, such as platter count or interface type but it is expected to be SATA.

20TB HDDs to use glass platters?

Japanese company Hoya Corp. believes that, as companies such as Seagate, WD, and Toshiba push towards HDDs with capacities of 20TB, glass substrates will be critical to their success. Using glass for the platter substrate provides increased rigidity, light weight, and less expansion due to heat - compared to the choice of aluminium. Thus glass platters can deliver a denser platter structure and lower energy use.

Currently Hoya supplies glass substrates for use in 2.5-inch HDDs designed for laptop computers, so it's not suggesting a move which is 'pie in the sky' here. The firm has done some prototyping research into using glass in 3.5-inch drives and found that it could fit a 12-substrate drive structure in a 1-inch thick 3.5-inch HDD form factor.

One further significant advantage for glass substrates going forward is its good fit for heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) tech, which is expected to become mainstream at a future date. HAMR tech requires a substrate with heat resistance of about 700°C. Aluminium substrates struggle above 200°C, asserts Hoya.



HEXUS Forums :: 13 Comments

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Whilst I still use HDDs in my NAS, I'm looking forward to the day that they are all replaced by SSDs.

Anything north of 4TB takes a very long time to replace in a RAID array.
glass platters….wow!
i wonder what they will be able to make into a 9.5mm high 2.5“ laptop drive. it's great they can keep getting higher capacities. there is more scope for 3.5” drives to be slightly larger in size than a laptop drive I would have thought though. they make 15mm thick 2.5“ drives but not larger 3.5” ones
…. and a glass case. Now all it needs is for them to pimp it up by putting a bunch of RGB LEDs inside. It's time that HDDs stood out proudly in the case instead of skulking away in secluded drive bays.
I thought HDD platters were already made of glass, or at least last time i took apart a HDD it sure seemed like glass, shows what little i know.