What is a petabyte?
A petabyte is a unit of digital information storage equal to 1,000 terabytes or 1 million gigabytes. It is commonly abbreviated as PB. The exact definition of a petabyte can vary slightly depending on whether it refers to a base-2 definition or base-10 definition.
In base-2 terms, which is commonly used for computer storage, 1 petabyte is equal to 2^50 bytes or 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes. This is referred to as a pebibyte. In base-10 terms, 1 petabyte is equal to 10^15 bytes or 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes (Source).
Some key points about the petabyte unit:
- 1,000 terabytes = 1 petabyte
- 1,000 petabytes = 1 exabyte
- Higher units include zettabyte and yottabyte
- Petabyte is commonly used to measure massive amounts of data storage
In summary, a petabyte represents a very large unit of digital information, at over 1 quadrillion bytes in base-10 terms. It is used to describe the capacity of extremely large-scale data storage systems.
History of large capacity hard drives
The first hard drive with a capacity over 1 terabyte (TB) was the Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 in 2007, which had a capacity of 1TB (Wikipedia). This drive was considered revolutionary at the time, as most consumer hard drives were in the 100s of gigabytes. According to Backblaze, Seagate was the first to ship a 1.5TB drive in 2009. In 2010, Western Digital shipped the first 2TB hard drive.
Over the next decade, capacities continued to grow steadily. In 2011, Seagate shipped the first 4TB hard drive. In 2013, Western Digital released the first 5TB and 6TB hard drives. By 2015, drives reached 8TB. In 2016, Seagate announced 10TB and 12TB drives (Backblaze). As of 2019, Western Digital announced a 15TB hard drive for data centers (Pingdom).
Overall, hard drive capacities have grown exponentially over the decades. In 1956, IBM’s first hard drive stored just 5MB of data. By the 2000s, consumer hard drives reached capacities in the 100s of GBs. And in the late 2010s, we now have data center drives reaching 10+TB.
Largest consumer hard drives today
The largest hard drives aimed at consumers today from major manufacturers typically max out between 16-20TB. For example, Seagate currently offers the IronWolf Pro 20TB HDD which is designed for NAS and desktop use. Western Digital offers the WD Red Pro 20TB for NAS systems as well. Toshiba recently announced its 18TB MG09 Series HDDs aimed at the desktop market.
While larger data center drives pushing 30TB+ exist, they are more specialized and expensive, beyond most home consumer needs. As of late 2022 and early 2023, the 16-20TB range represents the practical consumer sweet spot balancing price, capacity, and availability.
According to HorizonTechnology.com, hard drive manufacturers continue to push capacity limits each year, but face challenges with mechanical stability and areal density using current PMR recording technology. Most industry experts expect incremental gains in the 20-30% range annually, predicting 24-28TB consumer drives arriving around 2025.
Largest data center hard drives today
Data centers require enormous storage capabilities to handle the massive amounts of data they process and store. To meet these demands, hard drive manufacturers have developed specialized high capacity drives specifically for data center use.
Some of the largest hard drives available today for data center applications include:
- Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC670 – 26TB: This 3.5-inch hard drive provides an industry-leading capacity of 26TB using advanced servo and recording technologies. It features 10platters achieving 2.6TB per platter. The drive is optimized for enterprise-class performance, reliability, and workload capability (Western Digital Announces First 26TB Server Hard Drive).
- Seagate Exos X29 – 29TB: Released in 2023, this drive offers the highest capacity for a single hard drive at 29TB. It uses Seagate’s specialized sealed enclosure and requires a specialized storage device to be used. While not purchasable for individual use, it demonstrates the continuing growth in drive capacities (Seagate Launches 29TB Hard Drive).
These high capacity data center drives enable enormous storage potential in a small footprint, allowing data centers to efficiently store massive datasets while minimizing hardware requirements.
Manufacturing challenges
Producing hard disk drives with capacities over 1 petabyte presents significant manufacturing challenges. As drive capacities continue to increase, the areal density (amount of data stored per square inch) must also increase. However, there are physical limitations around how closely data tracks can be packed on the disk platters (TechTarget). The drive heads can only be made so small, and interference between closely spaced tracks impacts performance and reliability.
Drives over 1 petabyte would require new technologies like heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) and microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) to further increase areal density. However, these technologies add complexity and have not yet been proven viable for high volume manufacturing (LinkedIn). The costs and technical risks make it challenging for manufacturers to justify producing such large drives.
There are also concerns that the market demand is not sufficient to justify the R&D investments required for drives over 1 petabyte. Most applications today do not require individual drives at this extreme capacity (LinkedIn). While manufacturers continue working to push areal density higher, the focus remains on more modest, incremental capacity increases in the consumer and data center segments.
Market demand considerations
While data centers and enterprises utilize high capacity hard drives like the 20TB models available today, consumer demand for drives over 10TB remains relatively low. A 1 petabyte hard drive with 1,000TB of storage would far exceed the needs of mainstream home users.
According to a review on consumer demand for high capacity drives, most average users are content with hard drives up to 2TB for basic storage needs Hard Drive Capacity and The Road to 50TB – Horizon. Drives above 2TB up to around 10TB can appeal to gamers, creative professionals, and power users looking for extra storage capacity.
However, 1 petabyte hard drives are considered specialized products targeted for data centers and cloud storage providers. The market demand from regular consumers for such an extremely high capacity drive remains quite limited as of today.
Cost considerations
Producing extremely large capacity hard drives like 1 petabyte comes with significant manufacturing costs. According to Reddit users on r/DataHoarder, the cost to produce 1TB of storage is estimated to be around $5-10. Extrapolating that to 1PB would put the production cost somewhere between $5,000-10,000. However, economies of scale could potentially bring that number down for mass production.
The main costs in manufacturing high capacity drives are the platters, heads, motors and other mechanical components. As drive capacity increases, more platters and heads are required, driving up costs. Advanced production techniques like helium-filled drives help pack more platters into a drive, but that adds expense as well.
In addition to production costs, manufacturers need to consider what price the market will bear. While some data centers and government agencies may pay a premium for 1PB drives, average consumers likely won’t. Most industry analysts think 20TB hard drives hitting the market in the next few years will strike the right balance of capacity and cost.
Alternatives to large capacity drives
Although large capacity drives have their benefits for storage, there are also some alternatives worth considering:
RAID arrays allow combining multiple smaller hard drives together to act as one large logical drive. This provides benefits like increased performance and redundancy in case of drive failure. According to Alliance Computers, “RAID arrays are a powerful alternative to large capacity hard drives” (https://alliancecomp.com/ssds-are-a-powerful-alternative-to-hard-disks/).
Another option is cloud storage, which provides unlimited capacity without having to purchase physical drives. With internet connectivity, users can access files from anywhere. As Alteon notes, “Cloud storage is the perfect alternative for people who need an unlimited amount of space for their files, but who don’t want to purchase more physical drives” (https://blog.alteon.io/hard-drive-alternatives).
SSDs offer faster performance and durability over traditional HDDs. Though maximum capacities are lower, according to Alliance Computers, “SSDs are available in different shapes and sizes, from small thumb drives to large capacity hard drives” (https://alliancecomp.com/ssds-are-a-powerful-alternative-to-hard-disks/).
For those needing both speed and capacity, hybrid drives combine SSD and HDD technology in one unit.
Outlook on Future Drive Capacities
Expert industry projections suggest that 1 petabyte and larger drives could become commercially available within the next 5-10 years. According to a recent Forbes article, Seagate presented a technology roadmap planning for hard drives over 50TB by 2026 and drives over 100TB after 2030.
Additionally, analysis from Horizon Technology suggests Seagate aims to introduce 40TB+ drives in 2024, and 50TB+ drives in 2025-2026. Drives of this capacity would approach the 1 petabyte milestone.
However, manufacturing and market challenges remain. As drive capacities increase, further innovations in areal density and mechanical design are needed. Demand for petabyte-scale drives may also be limited to hyperscale data centers in the near term.
While 1 petabyte hard disk drives are not yet commercially available, expert projections indicate they could emerge within the next decade, representing the continued growth in storage capacity.
Conclusion
To summarize, while consumer-grade hard drives typically top out at around 8-10 terabytes today, data center and enterprise drives are now reaching capacities up to 100 terabytes thanks to technologies like shingled magnetic recording and microwave-assisted magnetic recording. However, the market for multi-petabyte consumer hard drives remains extremely limited. The costs involved in manufacturing drives with those capacities, combined with relatively low consumer demand due to the availability of cloud storage alternatives, means petabyte-scale drives are not feasible or practical for the average user. While future advancements may allow for larger consumer drives, there is currently no widely available single hard drive at the 1 petabyte capacity.
