Western Digital - first 44 TB hard disks, later 100 TB
[15:33 Wed,19.February 2025 by Thomas Richter]
Western Digital has unveiled its future roadmap for hard drive technologies, announcing the production of hard drives utilizing Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology starting at the end of 2026. The first HAMR-based hard drives will be launched in two variants: a 36 TB version based on Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR), and a 44 TB version utilizing Ultra Shingled Magnetic Recording (UltraSMR). In the CMR method, the magnetic tracks are clearly separated, while in UltraSMR the tracks overlap like roof tiles – an approach that allows for higher data density but also involves more complex data management.
Two cloud service providers are already testing the new HAMR drives, and Western Digital plans to have these hard drives qualified in cloud data centers by the end of 2026. Mass production is then scheduled to start, allowing for delivery in the first half of 2027. In the long term, the company expects to be able to offer hard drives with capacities of up to 80 TB (with CMR technology) and 100 TB (with UltraSMR technology) by 2030. In addition to HAMR, other techniques such as OptiNAND, an increased number of platters (the rotating disks in the hard drive), and mechanical improvements will be combined to achieve these capacity increases.
Western Digital&s path to HAMR was by no means straightforward. Initially, the company focused on Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAMR) technology, which uses microwaves to support the writing process and enable narrower, more stable tracks. Later, it switched to Energy-Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (ePMR) technology, which uses targeted energy to change the magnetic orientation of the storage medium. With the new development schedule, Western Digital now makes it clear that HAMR is the way to the future of hard drives and not MAMR – as only this approach enables storage capacities that far exceed those of today&s models.
Western digital Roadmap
Seagate already bet on the right horse
Western Digital is thus following its major competitor Seagate, which (already in December 2024) announced the mass production of its first Exos M hard drive series using HAMR to achieve storage capacities of up to 32 TB. Seagate plans to start production of hard drives with up to 50 TB from 2027.
Seagates Mozaic HAMR Technology
Conventional hard drives remain more affordable than SSDs
Currently, hard drives are already available from around 18 euros per TB – making them a more cost-effective solution for storing large amounts of data than solid-state SSDs, whose TB prices are about three times higher. While SSDs offer significantly higher speeds, there are numerous applications where a data transfer rate of approximately 200 MB/s is perfectly sufficient, such as in classic archiving. Hard drives can be particularly advantageous in linear editing projects, provided they are freshly loaded with material at the beginning of the project, thus counteracting fragmentation.
Higher storage density thanks to HAMR technology
Research into heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) has been intensive for almost two decades. This method aims to solve the problem of decreasing stability of the smallest magnetic storage units during miniaturization by using more stable materials. During the writing process, the area to be written is briefly heated to approximately 450 °C using an 800-nanometer laser, which reduces the magnetic field strength and thus allows for precise writing of a bit. To withstand these extreme temperatures, platters made of glass ceramic are used – instead of the conventional aluminum alloy – which currently allows data tracks of around 40 nanometers in width.
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