Toshiba to Sample 2-Platter 7mm HDDs in November

[exfileme]

Toshiba will sample two-platter hard drives in November.

Toshiba to Sample 2-Platter 7mm HDDs in November : Read more

 

[rohitbaran]

Meh.Manufacturers should give the option to put an SSD in all laptops and then consumers can carry an external HDD for storage rather than slugging the whole machine with a slow HDD inside.

 

[DRosencraft]

If you're looking for more storage than speed (as suggested in the article) then this makes sense. There are a lot of people who on the low end would appreciate having all that storage but don't care about the glam and speed offered by SSDs. Can't say I necessarily agree, but if you're a HDD manufacturer, why wouldn't you try to fill that need?

 

[Amdlova]

SSD for system and HDD for heavy storage... can put dual on the notebook or ultra books. have a deep space in non days. external devices its likely a joke! if u don't have the right place to place your external...

 

[danwat1234]

All hard drive manufactures are getting in on this new thin-ness. 7mm for 2 platters instead of the usual 9.5mm. 9.5mm for 3 platters instead of the usual 12.5mm.... Maybe a drive will be released that is 4 platters at 12.5mm in thickness, or, might they actually get beyond 500GB/platter with laptop drive and beyond 800GB or 1000GB/platter for desktop drives? I think they are still developed HAMR/SMR/bit-patterning tech.

 

[Chainzsaw]

Not too sure why they bother making 7mm HDD's anymore - they are not very reliable. A tablet really should be using even a cheap SSD due to the fact they have no moving parts.

Food for though: I have taken apart many HDD's including 7mm ones - these HDD platters are very fragile - they actually shatter like glass - where as regular 3.5" HDD's platters just bend. What this means is that 7mm HDD's are more prone to damage caused by sudden accidental drops which obviously is bad for Tablets or notebooks. I know because I've replaced many laptop HDD's due to accidental drops (anywhere from 1 to 4 feet off the ground).

I would gladly pay for slightly less storage space for more robustness (SSD). Not to mention - the speed benefits of SSDs are great even on the lower end scale.