3TB hard drive from Seagate

[Bozo]

Cool!

 

[ddrueding]

Sweet. That means I'll be able to backup the data store onto single drives again. That makes life much easier.

 

[Stereodude]

So this will be the first HD drive that is not compatible with Windows XP (x86). Interesting...

 

[ddrueding]

Good observation Stereo. But XP workstations can still see shares that are >2TB, so it shouldn't impact too many people.

 

[jtr1962]

Actually, I read an article about hard disk manufacturers seriously considering migrating to 4K sectors instead of 512. The reason was 4K is commonly the smallest unit used by various file systems. I don't know if Seagate plans to do this with the 3 TB drives or not but it would make sense. Fewer sectors to manage, and it would increase the maximum size drive 32-bit XP can handle to 16 TB. Somehow I think it'll be a looooong time before we see drives that huge, and I'll guess SSD will get there first ( magnetic disks IMO won't get there ever ).

 

[Stereodude]

WD already has drives that use larger sectors. Apparently, it/they doesn't perform well under XP as a results of partition alignment issues.

However, I wasn't aware that larger sectors gets around the 2TB limitation Windows XP x86 has though. I'm pretty sure it doesn't. XP doesn't support GPT, and MBR maxes out at 2TB.

 

[LunarMist]

Actually, I read an article about hard disk manufacturers seriously considering migrating to 4K sectors instead of 512. The reason was 4K is commonly the smallest unit used by various file systems. I don't know if Seagate plans to do this with the 3 TB drives or not but it would make sense. Fewer sectors to manage, and it would increase the maximum size drive 32-bit XP can handle to 16 TB. Somehow I think it'll be a looooong time before we see drives that huge, and I'll guess SSD will get there first ( magnetic disks IMO won't get there ever ).

The 2TB EARS has 4KB sectors as does my 750GB notebook drive. The sectors can be aligned with a utility in XP, but performance in embedded systems is hit and miss.

 

[Pradeep]

The 2TB EARS has 4KB sectors as does my 750GB notebook drive. The sectors can be aligned with a utility in XP, but performance in embedded systems is hit and miss.

For embedded systems you probably want to set the jumper to force the "compatibility mode".

 

[LunarMist]

For embedded systems you probably want to set the jumper to force the "compatibility mode".

One would want to do that, but there is no such jumper on the notebook drives.

 

[LunarMist]

However, I wasn't aware that larger sectors gets around the 2TB limitation Windows XP x86 has though. I'm pretty sure it doesn't. XP doesn't support GPT, and MBR maxes out at 2TB.

That is my understanding as well. Has anyone tested it for sure?

 

[sechs]

I ain't putting a SAS controller back into my machine just for this drive.

 

[LunarMist]

:alb:Surely there will be 3GB SATA drives too.

 

[timwhit]

Who wants a Seagate drive anyway?

 

[LunarMist]

Other brands will achieve the same capacity in similar timeframes. I'm surprised that WD is not first, and they well may be first to the shelves.

What is that white rabbit for?

 

[MaxBurn]

What is that white rabbit for?

To follow to some goth club.

 

[Stereodude]

I drove behind an ugly light green Ford focus today that had the personalized plate of "WHT RBT"

 

[LunarMist]

I am uncertain as to why the rabbit appeared.

 

[jtr1962]

Other brands will achieve the same capacity in similar timeframes. I'm surprised that WD is not first, and they well may be first to the shelves.

Yes, probably Samsung and WD will release their own 3 TB drives in a relatively timely fashion after Seagate. What really excites me more than the increase in maximum capacity is the fact that this development should decrease prices of 1 to 2 TB drives. A 1.5 TB drive will now be two-platter instead of 3, and should hopefully drop to the $70 price range ( not that they're expensive now, but every little bit helps ).

 

[LunarMist]

Yes, probably Samsung and WD will release their own 3 TB drives in a relatively timely fashion after Seagate. What really excites me more than the increase in maximum capacity is the fact that this development should decrease prices of 1 to 2 TB drives. A 1.5 TB drive will now be two-platter instead of 3, and should hopefully drop to the $70 price range ( not that they're expensive now, but every little bit helps ).

Samsung will be bringing up the rear. I'm not sure aboujt Hitachi. They may skip 3TB for 4TB.

 

[time]

Hitachi and Samsung appear to be more conservative when it comes to adopting new technology. Frustrating if you want the latest and greatest, but reassuring to the rest of us.

 

[LunarMist]

Hitachi has more platters. They were first to achieve 500GB, 1TB and 2TB 7200 RPM drives. If others have 4x750GB this year, then Hitachi should be able to reach 5x800GB next year.

 

[time]

Yes, it allows them to be more conservative with areal densities if they choose.

 

[LunarMist]

The economics must make sense for Hitachi or it would not be the business model.

 

[Bozo]

3TB Seagate announced

 

[LunarMist]

Compatibility is poor. And here I was fretting over the large sectors.Compatibility is poor. And here I was fretting over the large sectors.

 

[Bozo]

A new motherboard is required for the new hard drive.

 

[LunarMist]

Is this Seagate drive available yet? Perhaps the guts could be accessed to remove the drive.

 

[sdbardwick]

Is this Seagate drive available yet? Perhaps the guts could be accessed to remove the drive.

Anandtech has a look at the drive.

 

[LiamC]

And it's not good in that enclosure

 

[MaxBurn]

Interesting, I forgot about the 2TB barrier.

Looks like the whole enclosure is a failure on this though, heat and having the proper USB3 connector are kind of glaring problems.

 

[flagreen]

I can't imagine what one does with 2TB of storage let alone 3TB! Lot's of photos I guess? I'd sure hate to have to defrag it.

 

[BingBangBop]

I can't imagine what one does with 2TB of storage let alone 3TB! Lot's of photos I guess? I'd sure hate to have to defrag it.

Backups!

 

[Mercutio]

I can't imagine what one does with 2TB of storage let alone 3TB! Lot's of photos I guess? I'd sure hate to have to defrag it.

I downloaded the entire content of FTVgirls.com once, which includes a great deal of 8000kpbs video. In one shot (one very long shot; the torrent took months to finish... and maybe I shouldn't be talking about "shots" in this context), I downloaded well over 500GB of, uh, stuff.

 

[Howell]

I have yet to break 200G of data. I'm a superstar.

 

[Howell]

That's including the OSs and several VMs.

 

[Chewy509]

I have yet to break 200G of data. I'm a superstar.

I'm at 222GB of data - about half are old backups. (monthly backups spread over 12 months). The other half are OS ISOs, my music and video clip collection and ebooks.

My total storage consists of a 64GB RAID array (4x 36GB in RAID10) for OS/Apps and current data, a 500GB for near-line storage and a 500GB HDD in an external enclosure (firewire) for backup. Plus a netbook for Uni.

For a home user aspect, except for people who do video editing or like to torrent movies, music, etc, or do a lot of photography I can't see the need for 1TB+ disks.

 

[Mercutio]

I have yet to break 200G of data. I'm a superstar.

Gah. I have more than 200GB of music on my laptop.

 

[Mercutio]

The laptop that doesn't have an SSD, at least.

 

[Stereodude]

For a home user aspect, except for people who do video editing or like to torrent movies, music, etc, or do a lot of photography I can't see the need for 1TB+ disks.

You guys need to get out more. oke:

I've got hundreds of gigs of lossless music just from CDs I've bought.

 

[ddrueding]

At home I'm down to 7x 2TB drives, with about 8TB of data (before duplication). I keep my backups off-site because I can.