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All 3.5-inch drives from HGST will now be filled with helium

By Kenny Yeo - on 25 Sep 2014, 10:18am

All 3.5-inch drives from HGST will now be filled with helium


 

At a recent press conference held in Paris, France, HGST said that its seventh generation 6TB Ultrastar 7K6000 will be its last 3.5-inch air-filled drive, and future models will all be filled with helium.

This is despite the slow pickup for its helium-based drives. When quizzed about the number of helium-based drives that the company has shipped. "Hundreds of thousands" was the reply from Mike Gustafson, HGST SVP and GM, SSD, SW and Solutions.

This number is not a lot. HGST does not quote its own shipping figures and only that of parent company WD's, which stands at around 63.1 million drives and 7.1 million enterprise units. Hundreds of thousands, even if it was closer to a million, would only represent slightly more than 1% of WD's total shipping count. The likely reason for this is that helium-based drives are considerably more costly than traditional air-based drives, and consumers and enterprise users do not see the benefits.

However, HGST is confident that sales and interest in their helium-based drives will pick up and that increased volume production will gradually bring its prices down. HGST also mentioned that its helium-based drives will, from now on, use the newer shingled magnetic recording technology as opposed to perpendicular magnetic recording.

Finally, HGST said that its 2.5-inch drives will continue to be filled with air as these smaller drives are not subjected to the same friction and resistance problems that larger 3.5-inch drives face.

Source: Storage Newsletter

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