Hard Drives Just Got Bigger

Introducing the Terabyte Hard Drive From Hitachi

By: Chris Dobbs

In the technology industry there is always a competition going on to see who will come up with the next big thing first. This time the next big thing was big indeed. Really big. Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has released the first terabyte hard drive. A terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes. Really big. Before the terabyte hard drive came out on the market the largest hard drive had 750-gigabyte memory capacity, making the terabyte a huge jump in capacity. When hard drives were first created it was hard to imagine how much data a terabyte is let alone how or why one would need to store so much data, so it seems fitting that the out-of-this-world hard drive have a Star Wars-esq name, DeskStar.

The race to be the first out with a terabyte hard drive was between Hitachi and Seagate Technology. Seagate had the privilege of holding the title of largest hard drive maker with the 750-gigabyte hard drive, so it seemed likely that they would be the first to a terabyte. Unfortunately for Seagate, Hitachi gladly took the title earlier this year.

The DeskStar is being offered anywhere from $399 to $450 making it cheaper then the cost of two 500-gigabyte hard drives. Typically, when new technology first comes out the price comes down shortly after due to new advances always following and the drop of interest after the initial buyers. However, speculation is that the price of the DeskStar and other terabyte hard drives will not drop much because the large capacity hard drives do not carry the universal appeal that most electronics have.

The target audience of the large capacity hard drives is going to be a small niche of consumers. While a terabyte would be useful for corporations there are not many personal users who have that much data to store. Most consumers can get by with a 160 or 200-gigabyte hard drive. The DeskStar would be useful for consumers looking to store high definition video, video games or people utilizing high-performance PCs.

Hitachi achieved the terabyte data storage capacity by using a five-platter drive design. Each of the five platters has a capacity of 200-gigabytes. To reach the 200-gigabyte platter mark, Hitachi utilized perpendicular magnetic recording, the same technology that Seagate employs in their large capacity drives. Smaller hard drives, in the 160-gigabyte to 200-gigabyte range, are able to use only one platter making it a wonder that Hitachi could get five platters in a small space.           

Currently, the DeskStar is only available for a desktop, but can convert to an external hard drive for consumers who want to supplement their current data storage. Staying with the push to always progress technology, an external terabyte hard drive and a laptop hard drive should be released in the coming months.