Ultrastar He6 HDD Uses Helium to Maximize Capacity

[JMcEntegart]

Western Digital's HGST is using helium to tackle industry-wide challenges in scaling current areal density technologies.

Ultrastar He6 HDD Uses Helium to Maximize Capacity : Read more

 

[drwho1]

looks interesting.

 

[jimmysmitty]

I would like to see this using Seagates 1TB platter tech. 7TB HDDs would be pretty neat.

 

[GeeLouie]

The world is running out of helium and these bozos are using it in hard drives? pathetic

 

[lianqiw]

What is the price?

 

[psychodegu]

Once we perfect fusion tech, we will have an infinite supply if helium.

 

[Nada190]

WHEN? 4TB is so LITTLE!!! Make a 100TB HDD please.

 

[vaughn2k]

Wonder how would also this hardrive perform reliably?

 

[jimmysmitty]

GeeLouie, NightLight this is a warning to cut it out. Anything further will come with more than a warning.

Wonder how would also this hardrive perform reliably?

Reliability wise it might last longer if it runs cooler. Heat is one of the biggest killers when it comes to mechanical (and electrical) devices as it causes the parts to expand, and when they cool they contract.

We will have to wait and see but WD also has a HDD based on the technology so I wouldn't doubt seeing others also adopt it as it seems promising.

 

[GeeLouie]

a warning for what? We cannot discuss? Show me what is against the guidelines because my posts were very mild.

 

[usertests]

These hard drives use very little helium compared to other industries that use it. Your alarmism is not informed. Even if there is a helium crisis and the price went up 100x I expect the premium from the helium itself to be very small. And if the seals work like they're supposed to, maybe WD could reclaim helium from dead drives (they won't need to).

 

[warmon6]

Nice to see tech that was reported a while back finally seeing some action! Not like most things that's looks interesting but never come around.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Helium-Filled-Hard_Disk-hdd-western-digital,17573.html

 

[Darkk]

Helium supply is not much of an issue at this point. Look at airships! Imagine one airship could supply hundreds thousands of hard drives. The insides of a hard drive is already packed tightly so it wouldn't take much volume to fill it up.

 

[techguy911]

Price of helium is skyrocketing not a mere 100% or even 300% but 400% and it's still on the rise there is an extreme shortage world wide.
I think mechanical hard drives should die and go away this is 2013 price of ssd's are going down if made in mass production prices will continue to fall.
Failure rates of mechanical drives are on the rise ever since the flood i have been sending back 80% of the drives i sell they fail within 2-6 months the re-certified they send back have a 100% failure rate not a single one i got back last more than 30 days out of 200 drives.

 

[IndignantSkeptic]

I always thought hard disks were in a vacuum.

 

[smeezekitty]

The biggest reason why we are running out of helium is because we are not recycling it.
And there are HUGE industrial users. Hard drives (even if all new drives used it) would be very small in comparison.

 

[warmon6]

I always thought hard disks were in a vacuum.

As much as some of use would wish that, It wouldn't happen.

The read/write heads needs to have a little bit of air (or some type of gas) to keep them the proper distance away from the platter when the platters are spinning.

Without it, well.... you might not want to know....

 

[IndignantSkeptic]

I always thought hard disks were in a vacuum.

As much as some of use would wish that, It wouldn't happen.

The read/write heads needs to have a little bit of air (or some type of gas) to keep them the proper distance away from the platter when the platters are spinning.

Without it, well.... you might not want to know....

Can you explain why the gas is necessary?

 

[smeezekitty]

I always thought hard disks were in a vacuum.

As much as some of use would wish that, It wouldn't happen.

The read/write heads needs to have a little bit of air (or some type of gas) to keep them the proper distance away from the platter when the platters are spinning.

Without it, well.... you might not want to know....

Can you explain why the gas is necessary?

Because the head "floats" on it. It creates a gap between the head and the spinning platter.

Without gas the head would just grind against the platter.

 

[f-gomes]

Not vaccum. They need air for cooling purposes, I think. (Not sure, though)

 

[WyomingKnott]

a warning for what? We cannot discuss? Show me what is against the guidelines because my posts were very mild.

From one of your deleted posts: "Are you even an adult? Because if you are, then shame on you!" Let's keep this civil, without personal attacks.

 

[ram1009]

Helium is 1/7 the density of air so how can it be a superior cooling medium?

 

[Fokissed]

Helium is 1/7 the density of air so how can it be a superior cooling medium?

It has ~10 times the thermal conductivity.

 

[gm0n3y]

@jimmysmitty,
What is with the warning? GeeLouie didn't say anything wrong. Is this a paid post or something? Just disable comments if you don't want negative ones.

As for the helium, there is actually a helium shortage. The main problem is that helium is a finite resource on Earth and we shouldn't be wasting it. That being said, I don't consider this use to be a waste. Now party balloons are definitely part of the problem.

 

[bunz_of_steel]

What if the Klingons attack and steal all our helium or we run out?... lol This is a funny thread and couldnt resist, I'm JK here. I for another would like to know what price to pay for something like this as well as performance outlook.