External hard drives provide additional storage space for computers, tablets, smartphones, gaming consoles, and other devices. As digital content like photos, videos, music, and games continues to grow in size, the need for large capacity external hard drives is greater than ever. The highest memory currently available for consumer external hard drives is around 16 terabytes (TB).
What Factors Determine External Hard Drive Capacity?
There are several key factors that determine the maximum capacity available for external hard drives:
Physical Size
The physical size of the hard drive enclosure determines how many internal platters can fit inside. More platters equal more capacity. Most consumer external drives are 3.5 inches wide, but larger drives up to 5.25 inches are available which can hold more platters.
Areal Density
This refers to how densely data can be packed on each platter. Higher areal density means more bits can be stored per square inch. Current hard drive technology can reach up to around 1 terabit per square inch.
Number of Platters
Consumer external hard drives typically have between 1-5 internal platters stacked on top of each other within the enclosure. More platters directly correlate with more potential capacity.
Recording Techniques
New recording techniques like shingled magnetic recording (SMR) and microwave assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) can allow drive manufacturers to squeeze more data onto each platter. However, SMR may impact performance.
| Factor | Impact on Capacity |
|---|---|
| Physical Size | More platters can fit into larger enclosures |
| Areal Density | Higher density allows more data per square inch |
| Number of Platters | More platters provide more total storage space |
| Recording Techniques | New techniques like SMR and MAMR increase density |
What is the Largest External HDD Currently Available?
The highest capacity external hard drive currently on the market for consumers is the Western Digital My Book Duo drive which offers a massive 16TB of storage space.
Key details about this enormous external HDD include:
– Enclosure size is 5.25 inches wide to fit extra platters
– Uses helium-filled HDD technology with seven platters
– Supports USB 3.1 Gen 2 for fast data transfer speeds
– Configurable in RAID-0 or RAID-1 for performance or redundancy
– Requires external power adapter to support large capacity HDDs
– Retails for around $550 USD giving a cost of about $0.03 per GB
No other external consumer hard drive comes close to the 16TB My Book Duo. The next highest capacity is the Seagate Backup Plus Hub at 14TB.
Smaller and more portable external HDDs max out at around 5TB currently. Drives like the Seagate Backup Plus Portable at 5TB and the WD My Passport at 5TB are the largest 2.5-inch portable options. They don’t offer the same massive capacity as the desktop-style drives with larger enclosures but provide ample space for most users in a compact form factor.
Largest External HDDs for Home Users
| Drive | Capacity | Key Details |
|---|---|---|
| WD My Book Duo | 16TB | 5.25″ enclosure, 7 platters, helium-filled |
| Seagate Backup Plus Hub | 14TB | 3.5″ enclosure, lower cost per GB |
| WD Elements Desktop | 14TB | Simple but large single drive |
| Seagate Backup Plus Portable | 5TB | Max portable capacity 2.5″ drive |
| WD My Passport | 5TB | Stylish smaller option |
Largest External HDDs for Businesses
For business users who need external storage to backup large servers or transfer huge files, even larger capacity drives are available.
Here are some of the biggest external HDDs aimed at businesses:
| Drive | Capacity | Key Details |
|---|---|---|
| Seagate Exos X16 | 16TB | Enterprise-class performance |
| WD Gold | 16TB | Rugged reliability features |
| Seagate IronWolf Pro | 14TB | Specialized for NAS enclosures |
| G-Technology G-RAID | 24TB | Dual drive enclosure using RAID |
These drives offer higher performance, more robust construction, and other enterprise features like RAID compatibility. They come with a higher price tag but offer unmatched capacity.
What is the Largest External HDD Capacity Possible?
While 16TB is the upper limit for consumer external hard drives today, higher capacities are technically possible by continuing to improve the factors like areal density and platter count.
Here are some potential ways even bigger external HDDs could be achieved:
– Increasing physical size beyond 5.25 inches for more platters
– Stacking more platters within a standard enclosure
– Further improving areal density through new recording technologies
– Using non-traditional designs like sealed enclosures filled with helium
If drive manufacturers employed all these tactics, technical studies have proposed capacities up to around 50-60TB in a single external HDD could be possible using current perpendicular magnetic recording techniques. However, such a drive would require more platters and consume significantly more power.
Future advances in recording like heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) and bit patterned media (BPM) along with higher areal density could potentially allow capacities upwards of 100TB by the 2030s. But such drives would likely be cost prohibitive for home consumers.
Realistically, the path forward for home external HDDs in the nearer term will remain steady but incremental growth to around 50TB over the next 10 years using existing technologies and limitations of 3.5 inch drive enclosures.
External SSDs Offer Different Capacity Considerations
Solid state drives (SSDs) built on flash memory chips provide an alternative external storage option compared to mechanical HDDs. While SSDs are currently more expensive per gigabyte than HDDs, they offer much faster data access speeds because they have no moving parts.
Maximum capacities for external SSDs are currently much lower than external HDDs, topping out at around 8TB for consumer models. However, SSD technology is rapidly evolving. Capacities up to 64TB have been demonstrated in lab tests.
Within a few years, high capacity external SSDs in the 30-40TB range may become cost effective for many consumers. They still won’t match the maximum HDD capacities but their performance benefits may make them an attractive option over HDDs for some users.
Choosing the Right External Drive Capacity
Determining how much external storage you actually need depends on your specific usage. A few factors to consider:
– How much existing data do you need to backup or store? Photos, videos, documents, etc.
– What resolution are your files? HD video takes more space than lower res files.
– Do you plan on expanding your content creation over time? Raw footage can quickly eat up TBs.
– Does your computer have additional internal drive slots to expand capacity?
– Do you have a fast internet connection if cloud backups are an option?
For most home consumers, external hard drives in the 2TB to 5TB range are sufficient. But media creators working with very large files may want 10TB+ capacities.
With SSDs currently topping out at around 8TB but offering much better performance over HDDs, that can provide a good middle ground if both speed and capacity are priorities.
Ultimately the maximum capacity possible for external hard drives continues to increase. But not everyone needs to max out their storage. Finding the optimal blend of speed, capacity, and value matters more for meeting individual usage needs.
Conclusion
In summary, the largest external hard drive currently available for consumers is 16TB which is achieved through large drive enclosures and multiple platters. Enterprise models go even bigger with capacities hitting 24TB. While room exists to technologically improve areal density and platter counts moving forward, there are practical limits to how large home external HDDs can become.
For now, capacities in the 10-16TB range allow ample storage for the majority of users. SSD technology also continues to evolve for those who value performance over maximizing gigabytes. With the right combo of affordability and capacity, external drives provide convenient storage expansion to our limited internal computer drives for years to come.