Density of hard disk drives expected rise unabated

We won't be running out of hard disk space soon, if the state of hard disk engineering as outlined by Hitachi Global Storage product planning chief Tetsuya Kokubo is any indication. Speaking at Japan's Information Terminal Festival this week, he noted that data densities of hard disk drives (HDD) are expected to continue rising from the current 400Gb/inch to 600Gb/inch over the next 12 months. This should increase all the way to 1.2Tb/inch by 2012, and finally hit 2.4Tb/inch either in 2013 or 2014.

A typical spinning HDD typically consists of two to three--or even up to five--individual platters inside the hard disk enclosure. Assuming a five-platter HDD, the engineering progression outlined above could translate into HDD capacities of 15TB within the next two years.

This is certainly huge, though how this competes with the newer flash-based Solid-State Drives (SSD) remains to be seen. Whatever the case, I would not worry about storage space for HD movies and megapixel photos, if I were you.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Register Hardware

Related Articles:
Samsung Spinpoint M7 hard disk drive for rugged storage
Seagate unveils 1.5 Terabyte desktop drive
Hard disk makers agree on disk encryption standard