back to article Seagate inflates 12TB helium drives, floats them to IT bods to test

Seagate is seeing the storage market shift from client server to mobile cloud applications and storage environments. Although responding to this, it is encouraged by the capacity needs of the remaining PC client as well as significant growth in non-PC-client devices and applications. It talks of a new customer base that …

  1. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    12Tb eh?

    I've got a few old RL02's in the cupboard - each 14" in diameter storing all of 10Mb - these babies were fast, the "Ready" light would come on about 20 seconds!

    I wonder how long it will be before 12Tb seems too small.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How big is the case it comes with?

    As I was under the impression Helium always leaks?

    Or should that be "How big is the guarantee it comes with?"

    1. JassMan
      FAIL

      Re: How big is the case it comes with?

      Luckily the name is only a marketing ploy if the article is to be believed:

      "air-filled 8TB drive has fewer heads and platters than WD's 8TB helium-filled drive."

      I would be much more worried about the guarantee on the WD drives. Not only will the thermal properties of the drive change as the helium diffuses out but that same diffusion causes embrittlement (admittedly less than hydrogen) of most metals and alloys. I believe some copper and aluminium alloys are less susceptible but I wouldn't hold out much hope for the permanent magnets or the rust on the platters.

      Hydrogen embrittlement is one reason I think pressurised hydrogen will never really catch on as a means of energy storage.

      1. Steve Todd

        Re: How big is the case it comes with?

        I'm not sure where you got the idea of helium embrittlement from, I can't find any reference to it myself (to the contrary, even when ion beam implantation of helium is used there doesn't seem to be a problem).

    2. Roj Blake Silver badge

      Re: How big is the case it comes with?

      As this is Seagate we're talking about, I'm certain that the rate of He leakage will be low enough that there will still be loads left in the drive when it suffers an unrelated failure after six months of use.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So seagate moves to helium drives at long last and follows Western Digitals move, have they ditched shingling technology on these, if so it might be the first good drive (in my own opinion) seagate has made in a long time.

    Whats going to be the warranty length on this, as when seagate went from 5 to 2 then to 1 years on most drives it does make suspect they dont have that much faith in their own products.

    @Roj, 6 months, i suspect your being optimistic there...

  4. snikk

    Sorry, but if it comes with a measly 1 yr warranty I say forget it...

    1. danwat1234

      Should be a 5 year warranty on these high end drives. Buy 2 so you can keep a synchronized backup of your primary one in case of failure.

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