Western Digital has announced a new technological breakthrough that should hopefully see its drives’ capacities expanding up to 40 terabytes.
Currently, the largest HDDs store about 14TB of information. With file sizes of images and video only likely to increase as resolutions get higher, this will be welcome news for pro photographers and filmmakers.
The breakthrough essentially allows Western Digital to increase the density of the data it records onto the disk drive through the user of microwaves. The technique is known as microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR).
Some of Western Digital’s current My Passport drives
The firm explained how this is a more reliable method than using heat to expand the capacity of the drives (heat-assisted magnetic recording, or HAMR), as the heating process is technically challenging and can adversely affect the material of the drive.
Western Digital says it has already produced prototype MAMR drives. The firm expects to start giving engineering samples out in 2018, with models being available for consumers in 2019. The process is also expected to be refined further, resulting in future drives with capacities surpassing 40TB.
You can read the full announcement here. No word on pricing or precise dates yet, but we reckon video content creators who work in 4K will want to keep an eye out!
