HGST Announces New Helium-Filled Hard Disk Drive Platform

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
*Caution: We here at Tom's Hardware do not recommend any end-user to break the seal on the helium-filled drives for their amusement.
Click to expand...

Nice, though I see this happening anyways when they become more mainstream. Though with the first versions of these being expensive it will not be a problem.
 
So in case of helium leakage failure, will it keep working (albeit at a lower energy efficiency) or is it going to be catastrophic failure? Will the drive self diagnose such degrading performance from leakage and report it?
 


Dunno who thumbed you down on this, but you are 100% correct. Most modern magnetic disc drives depend on a flying head to operate just a fraction of a micron above the platter. In fact, there are hundreds of patents on head designs for channeling the air (or helium) and auto-height adjustment control so as to maximize the read/write signal strength while minimizing impacts between the head and the platter due to such events as hitting dust or debris (which can cause the head to heat up and expand in microseconds, risking contact with the platter surface).

If someone were on an airplane 7 miles high that suffered loss of cabin pressure, the plane might crash but the disc drives on any operating laptops would definitely suffer a head crash.. Not that the owner would care too much as he struggled to put on his oxygen mask before passing out 😛.. Also explains why ordinary disc drives don't work so good on top of Mt. Everest..
 
Why not run the drives in a vacuum? I am sure there is a way of designing the head assembly so the head does not need a medium to help it 'float' over the platter.

As for the helium filling, will these drives come with tie down straps so they stay put ? 🙂

 
the amount of hydrogen in a disk wouldnt pose safety hazard if it escaped, but larger quantities used at the manufacturing plant could be a big issue
 
[citation][nom]freggo[/nom]Why not run the drives in a vacuum? I am sure there is a way of designing the head assembly so the head does not need a medium to help it 'float' over the platter.As for the helium filling, will these drives come with tie down straps so they stay put ? 🙂[/citation]

It's probably not that simple. If there's nothing at all between the head and the platters, then there's no force holding the head over them except for the rest of the head. The rest of it isn't a very good leverage for that and having a small amount of air is probably greatly beneficial to keeping the heads where they should be. It should provide greater stability and that's probably why we don't go for vacuums. The air pressure helps to hold everything together.

Helium may be less dense than our atmosphere, but unless I don't recall my physics/chemistry properly, being less dense doesn't necessarily mean less pressure. So, it can have similar pressure with less drag and that might help several aspects of the hard drives. I may have missed it if it was mentioned, but this might also help disks spin at even higher speeds. Maybe we can hit 20K RPM in some top HDD models with this and make 10K affordable within the next few years :)
 


It'd probably be cheaper to buy large helium tanks than to buy hard drives to crack them open.
 
It is certainly possible to build a hard drive using vacuum. It has been done in lab experiments. The problem is the strength and thickness necessary in the casing to prevent it from imploding make it a much more expensive option than helium.
 
[citation][nom]daj[/nom]the amount of hydrogen in a disk wouldnt pose safety hazard if it escaped, but larger quantities used at the manufacturing plant could be a big issue[/citation]
helium
 
[citation][nom]whitecrowro[/nom]vacuum is better[/citation]

while the head is the proper distance when nit in motion, when the disk is spinning, they act as a gyro and if you change their angle, the platter actually warps a little (take apart an old hard drive, then tilt it from side to side and look at the platters while it is powered on)

the wing style design of the head maintains an air space in between the head and the platter, allowing the head to move with the platter. Without that, things like vibrations generated by the motor or other parts of the case, would cause the head to crash
 
I've heard that having helium can result in cooling problems because air helps to cool internal hot spots. I could be wrong though.
Make a 5-platter 5TB 7200RPM regular hard drive already!
 
so you want bigger harddrives?

make a 5.25 drive again.

i have 3 5.25 bays that are not used, and im betting most computers have at least 1 that isn't used, even in the smaller cases.

today we only need a harddrive for storage, we dont need it for boot anymore, so the added seak time would be acceptable, but the added space on a single platter would turn them from 1tb a platter up to 2.25tb a platter (pie r squared of drive size gives you a rough estimate)

a 1 platter hdd, would not only be very reliable, it would also fit most peoples needs, and for storage, 2 platters already make it have more storage than the current best. add 4 patters and you are already getting about a year or 2 ahead of yourself in hdd size.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom