A Four Terabyte Hard Drive?

By Digital Trends Staff October 15, 2007

Hitachi has announced that it’s made a breakthrough in disk drive read-head technology that could mean the quadrupling of hard drive capacities. Thecompany claims that could mean a four terabyte (TB) hard drive on your desktop and one TB on your notebook. Company researchers have more than halved recording heads so they’re now inthe 30-50 nanometer (nm) range – 2,000 times smaller than the width of an average human hair. Hitachi expects to have this technology up and running on its computers by 2009, and for it to reach itsfull potential by 2011. Hitachi will present its new research at the 8th Perpendicular Magnetic Recording Conference (PMRC 2007), to beheld 15th -17th October 2007, at the Tokyo International Forum in Japan. “Hitachi continues to invest in deep research for the advancement of hard disk drives as we believe there is noother technology capable of providing the hard drive’s high-capacity, low-cost value for the foreseeable future," Hiroaki Odawara, Research Director, Storage Technology Research Center, CentralResearch Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. Said in a statement. "This is an achievement for consumers as much as it is for Hitachi. It allows Hitachi to fuel the growth of the ‘Terabyte Era’of storage, which we started, and gives consumers virtually limitless ability for storing their digital content."

Editors' Recommendations

Digital Trends Staff

Digital Trends has a simple mission: to help readers easily understand how tech affects the way they live. We are your…

Computing

Get 20% off this 4TB external hard drive for PC, Mac, PS5, andXbox

Seagate Portable 2TB External Hard Drive

One of the most frustrating limitations of today's computers and video game consoles is their available storage space. One of the easiest solutions to this problem is an investment in external hard drive deals, which currently includes a 20% discount on the 4TB model of the Seagate Portable. From its original price of $125, it's down to a more affordable $100 on Amazon. This is a limited-time offer though, so there's a chance that you miss out on the savings of $25 if you don't proceed with your purchase right now.

Why you should buy the Seagate Portable 4TB external hard drive
One of the major features of the Seagate Portable 4TB external hard drive is its compatibility with most systems. It's designed to work with Windows PCs and laptops out of the box -- just connect it using the included 18-inch USB 3.0 cable -- but it will also work with Mac computers and MacBooks after reformatting it for MacOS. The device will also work with the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5, though you can't install and play current-generation titles from it. Still, any additional storage space for these consoles are welcome, as today's most popular video games are pretty huge.

Computing

OneDrive is ruining my PC gaming setup

The OneDrive app on a Windows PC.

I don't use OneDrive, but Microsoft is hellbent on making sure I do. When you set up a new PC, OneDrive automatically starts syncing files based on the Microsoft account you sign in with. This isn't normally a problem, but if you're a PC gamer who switches devices often, it can cause quite a headache.

It's not an impossible problem to overcome, and you can always turn OneDrive off. But as someone who bounces around PCs often, I wish that Microsoft's cloud storage service was opt-in instead of opt-out.
Creating conflict

Computing

How to sync files and folders to OneDrive

Microsoft OneDrive files can sync between a PC and a phone

Cloud storage platforms are a great way to store and safeguard important files and folders, and Microsoft OneDrive is one of the best platforms for the job. Offering numerous ways to back up Windows and Microsoft 365 content, the OneDrive suite is available for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Kindle, and Xbox One, so you definitely won’t have to worry about compatibility.