TDK roadmap suggests 2.5TB HDDs are just around the corner

[onethreehill]

Hard drive head manufacturer TDK has recently made available a little chart that provides updated info regarding the hard drive capacity updates coming throughout this year. In the 3.5-inch zone, the next step up is a 640GB platter, which is expected to start being used as of next month and adopted by all major HDD manufacturers by November.

The move from 500GB to 640GB will enable companies to make and sell 3.5-inch drives with a 2.5TB capacity (using 4 platters) or even 3TB (5 platters).

In the 2.5-inch space, the 375GB platter is basically here as certain companies will be able to produce it as of this month. Currently the top capacity for 2.5-inch platters is 320GB to the increase will see to the arrival of 750GB 2-platter notebook HDDs. The adoption of 375GB disks will be made pretty quick, with everyone set to have them in October. This year's holiday season should come with quite a good range of 2.5TB 3.5-inch and 750GB 2.5-inch HDDs although we're not expecting very attracting prices for these.

http://www.tcmagazine.com/comments.p...=32517&catid=6

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Great since prices will again drop.

I wonder if at any point, there'll be an improvement in format times. How long does it take to format a 2TB drive? 3+ is going to take a while.

[96redformula]

Thank goodness, been waiting for it to go 2TB+ with 7200rpm drives at a decent price.

[Chrono Detector]

Would like to see a 3TB instead, another 500GB just really isn't enough.

[Anemic]

Should push the price down alot I think. I dont care much if it's 7200 or 5400 RPMs. Ofcourse, faster is always bether but when it comes to pure storage it dosent mather greatly.

[RPGWiZaRD]

Hmm 640GB platters should probably push avg reads to around 130~135 MB/s with 7200rpm and probably around 105~110 MB/s for 5400rpm.

[tiro_uspsss]

Would like to see a 3TB instead, another 500GB just really isn't enough.

+1 - I hate this .5TB bulldust

also 750GB & 1TB 2.5" has been around for a few months already..

[Particle]

How long does it take to format a 2TB drive? 3+ is going to take a while.

It takes about the same amount of time (a few seconds) to format a 2TB drive as it does a 320GB drive. Formatting doesn't zero out a drive these days unless there's something funky with it. It just wipes the allocation table and writes a new, empty one.

[tiro_uspsss]

I wonder what read speeds this density will get in a 15K-rpm SAS hdd?

[zalbard]

By November? Gah, that's so slow... 500GB platters have been around for ages.

[chinobino]

Just wait for all the 'Windows won't install on my new 2.5 TB hard drive' threads... MBR limitation of 2TB will make many ppl cry.

[96redformula]

Just wait for all the 'Windows won't install on my new 2.5 TB hard drive' threads... MBR limitation of 2TB will make many ppl cry.

Aw crap, does that include WHS ?

[lowfat]

Aw crap, does that include WHS ?

It sure does. Not until we start seeing systems w/ EFI will we be able to boot on drives larger than 2TB.

[Levish]

Windows 2003/2008 server, Vista and Windows7 support it on the other hand (I believe only the 64bit editions but i could be wrong).

[Darakian]

TDK makes hard drives?

[lowfat]

Windows 2003/2008 server, Vista and Windows7 support it on the other hand (I believe only the 64bit editions but i could be wrong).

But it can only boot off GPT w/ Itanium processors.

[Kej]

But it can only boot off GPT w/ Itanium processors.

According to this Vista/server2008 and forward seems capable to
boot from a GPT enabled disk as long as the MB is EFI.

A table with status on some OS-support for GPT on Wikipedia, here
they have put up x64 as a requirement, for being able to boot from
the disk, also.

What Windows-version is Home Server based on? XP?

[96redformula]

According to this Vista/server2008 and forward seems capable to
boot from a GPT enabled disk as long as the MB is EFI.

A table with status on some OS-support for GPT on Wikipedia, here
they have put up x64 as a requirement, for being able to boot from
the disk, also.

What Windows-version is Home Server based on? XP?

WHS is based on Server 2003 32-bit

[JAG87]

Who boots off a 2TB partition lol?

[Monkeywoman]

5 platers + Western digital's Advanced Format = at least 3tb usable space...2010 is looking good

[[XC] Oj101]

So partition the drive for a nippy ~80GB Windows drive and the rest as storage

[zalbard]

So partition the drive for a nippy ~80GB Windows drive and the rest as storage

Yep! Or grab a SSD to boot from! It's 2010 already!

[[XC] Oj101]

SSDs are still pricey but my next upgrade consists of OCZ Vertexs and a hexacore Phenom 2

[EniGmA1987]

Honestly I bet the 3TB drives will be just as expensive as a 128GB SSD, so if you are willing to drop down that much money on a giant storage drive you should be willing to get a really fast boot drive as well.

[[XC] Oj101]

Not everyone can afford to splash out twice

But I have my 6TB storage volume already so SSD here I come