Hitachi Lets Fly the Spruce Goose of HDDs — a 2TB Drive

And so the race for capaciousness continues. The data storage company with the longest official name, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, claimed Aug. 6 that it is now shipping the world’s first 2TB 7,200-rpm hard disk drive. It employs five platters in one unit to supply the 2TB capacity.

Kinds of reminds me in a funny sort of way of Howard Hughes‘ huge Spruce Goose seaplane that he flew once—very slowly—off the coast of Los Angeles in 1947. Remember that? It had eight propeller engines; no other aircraft ever had that many because they were so big and heavy.

This Hitachi drive might be the Spruce Goose of HDDs. It has five engines, more than others use. Big, heavy and slow? Possibly, but Hitachi will never admit to that.

Where will it all end? There are physical limits to how much one can put on a storage disk, but you’d never know it.

Hitachi calls its new prize HDD “colossal,” and we suppose they’re not far off the mark. The 2TB Deskstar 7K2000 features high capacity with low power consumption; forget performance—a drive this big won’t be fast. It is aimed to help computers gain Energy Star ratings.

The key reason why the Deskstar 7K2000 can load up all that data is perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR), which is being re-engineered by several companies to extend capaciousness of these disks. It also features a 32MB cache and a 3Gb/s SATA interface, so it appears to be a good desktop drive for game players and high-end video and graphics users.

Pricing is a mystery. Go here for more information.