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4TB HDD – Record in Industry – by Seagate

In USB 3.0 external version only and at $250

Seagate Technology PLC is shipping a new 4TB GoFlex Desk external hard drive – the highest capacity hard drive in the industry.

seagate_4tb_goflex

This latest addition to the GoFlex Family of external hard drives showcases Seagate’s new desktop design. It delivers a smaller footprint and better reflects the aesthetic of today’s modern offices while providing the benefits of previous generations of the GoFlex drives.

The new 4TB GoFlex Desk drive is now available and will be available from select online retailers within the month for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $249.99 USD. The entire line of GoFlex Desk products will also adopt the new industrial design in the coming weeks. The GoFlex Desk for Mac external drive featuring both FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 will be available in Apple stores by the end of the month.

"Yet another industry first for Seagate, we have reached a new high-capacity in the 3.5-inch hard drive form factor. At Seagate, we are committed to pushing the limits for our customers and will continue to adapt and innovate our products based on customer needs," said Patrick Connolly, vice president and general manager of Retail products for Seagate. "This latest GoFlex Desk drive offering, with its new industry-leading capacity point, is a statement of our continued commitment to meet consumer needs."

The new GoFlex Desk 4TB drive has the space to contain over 2,000 HD movies. This new GoFlex Desk external drive comes at a time when people are archiving more of their memories in the form of digital photo and video.

"IDC foresees there being an increase in global demand for personal storage capacity driven by the growing creation and acquisition of digitized videos, photos and music," said Liz Conner, senior research analyst, Storage Systems, IDC.

Debuted in May of 2010, the GoFlex Family of hard drives provide an alternative approach to external storage solutions by allowing users to change interface adapters to stay current with the latest in interface technology. With USB 3.0 still undergoing adoption and the emergence of Thunderbolt technology in the coming months, the GoFlex adapter concept has been proven as an idea that works and Seagate plans to continue with this design for future iterations of the company’s external hard drives. The GoFlex drives are also Windows and Mac OS X compatible and have the flexibility to go between both operating systems. In addition to cross-platform compatibility, the GoFlex Desk drive can also be utilized with the GoFlex Home adapter if one chooses to use it as a network drive.

With the pre-loaded backup software, the GoFlex Desk external drive provides automatic, continuous back with encryption for all files. The included USB 3.0 adapter also works with USB 2.0 ports to connect to your Windows or Mac computer. The adapter also features an illuminated gauge to display available space on the drive.

Comments

Commenting the announcement of the new Hitachi GST With 1TB Per 3.5-Inch Disk Platter, we were lucky to wrote two days ago: "HGST and Seagate are proving that 3.5-inch HDDs with 4TB capacity will arrive soon using four platters at 1TB each." Soon is finally today, but with five disks, according to DiskTrend.

The Seagate GoFlex Desk family debuted in May of 2010 at 1TB on only one platter, also only in external version only, but seems to encounter some problems. The new 6Gb SATA 4TB GoFlex Desk uses not four 1TB but five 800GB disks, rotating at 7,200rpm.

Ar 4TB Seagate is the worldwide leader in term of capacity, but for an external unit (12.4x15.8x44mm and 1,080grams).

     MILESTONES IN THE HARD DISK DRIVE INDUSTRY

First HDD
at capacity
equal to
or more than

Company
Model Year*  Increased
 Capacity

 5MB IBM 350 Ramac
 1956  -
 10MB IBM 1301
 1962  x2
 100MB
IBM 2302-3  1965  x10
 500MB STC 8800 Super Disk
 1975  x5
 1GB IBM 3380  1981  x2
 100GB Seagate Barracuda 180
 2001  x100
 500GB HGST
7K500  2005  x5
 1TB HGST
7K1000  2007  x2
 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11
 2008  50%
 2TB WD  Caviar Green WD20EADS  2009  33%
 3TB Seagate  External GoFlex Desk  2010  50%
 4TB Seagate   External GoFlex Desk  2011  33%

* Year of actual first shipment, not date of announcement
(Sources: Disk/Trend and StorageNewsletter)

The official price is relatively high but $10 cheaper than its 3TB Barracuda XT Kitted internal device (?!). The 3TB FeeAgent GoFlex has been lowered at $200.

Curiously the company didn't announce any internal version as OEMs would love it for nearline storage systems being limited now to 3TB HDDs from HGST, Seagate and WD. Generally, HDD makers launch internal versions before external ones. There was in the past some exceptions with problems encountered with Windows for units at more than 2.2GB but they are solved. It's curious because inside the external GoFlex Desk 4TB drive there is an interval device. Possible marketing reason: Seagate wants to capitalize on this external unit, unique in term of capacity, to get more margin before offering a cheaper internal boxes to OEM and integrators.

For similar reason, the new product will be available from Seagate's Web site only for one month, and then for the channel.

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