Seagate HAMR HDD Wins the market

Hard drive manufacturer Seagate has launched its largest hard drive to date: a model with a capacity of 32 terabytes. This is made possible by HAMR technology (Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording), which the company has been developing for over 15 years.

Mass production is underway

Seagate has been experimenting with HAMR since 2007 to implement higher storage densities on hard drives. Despite several announcements about upcoming releases, the launch continued to be delayed. But then the time had finally come and Seagate brought HAMR-based hard drives into mass production with the Exos M series. Initially, smaller quantities were delivered to selected customers.

The broad market launch is now being addressed. On the product page of the Exos M HDDs, which Seagate recently put online, there are now two new models: one 32TB hard drive with Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) and one 30TB version with Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR). However, there doesn’t seem to be a dealer in Germany at the moment.

One advantage of the new Exos M hard drives is their compatibility with existing hardware. Unlike previous HAMR prototypes, the new models do not require special systems to be deployed. This is an important step to ensure widespread acceptance of the technology and lower the inhibition threshold for an upgrade.

On par with WD

However, it remains unclear whether the Exos M has technically significant changes compared to the first Mozaic 3+ HAMR hard drives. Details released are limited, and the product page gives no indication of any fundamental differences.

Seagate’s main competitor in the field of high-capacity hard drives is Western Digital (WD), which also recently introduced a 32 TB hard drive – albeit based on ePMR (Energy-Assisted PMR) technology. Although Seagate introduced its HAMR model a little earlier, WD started general sales more quickly. Both companies are therefore almost neck and neck in the race for the largest capacity.