Seagate claims highest density 3.5" hard drive

Scotts Valley (CA) - Seagate today announced the first desktop hard drive to store 250 GB on a single platter.

According to Seagate, the technology achieves an areal storage density of 180 Gb per square inch and will be used in the 7200.10 series of hard drives. Apparently, Seagate does not aim to set a new storage capacity record for this segment just yet, as the firm said that the new platters will be introduced in the "industry’s first 250 GB-per-disc, 3.5" disc drive."

The advantage of running a single platter in a drive comes down to lower power consumption, lower operating temperatures and less noise. Seagate did not disclose how much power the new drive will consume, previous 7200.10 drives with multiple platters, however, are rated at 7.5 watts - which is more three times the consumption of current 250 GB 2.5" drives, which rotate their discs at lower speeds (5400 rpm instead of 7200 rpm), but typically consume only around 2 watts during read and write processes.

Competing 3.5" technologies, including the 1 TB drive from Hitachi GST, store 200 GB per platter and achieve an areal density of 144 Gb per square inch. At least theoretically, the new platters will allow Seagate to roll out hard drives with five platters and a total capacity of 1.25 TB.

While Seagate can claim that it offers that highest density on 3.5" drives, competitors are offering substantially higher capacities in 2.5" models. Hitachi’s recently announced 2-platter 2.5" drive with 250 GB is rated at 205 Gb per square inch.