The arrival of the first commercially available 1 terabyte (TB) hard disk drive marked a major milestone in data storage history. As computer applications and digital media grew increasingly complex in the early 2000s, the demand for higher capacity drives skyrocketed. Hard drive manufacturers raced to develop the next breakthrough in areal density that would push capacity to the terabyte level.
The Push for Higher Capacities
For decades, hard disk drive capacity steadily doubled approximately every two years, a trend known as Kryder’s law. This was fueled by advances in areal density, allowing drive heads to read more and more data packed into the same surface area of a platter. However, this exponential growth predictably slowed around the turn of the 21st century as engineers struggled with the physical limitations of magnetic storage technology.
By the early 2000s, consumer desktop PC hard drives commonly offered capacities between 40-120GB. However, these were quickly outgrown as applications and file sizes rapidly increased. Multimedia files such as digital photos, music, and video began eating up disk space. Games with rich 3D graphics and expansive worlds required multi-gigabyte installations. Operating systems like Windows XP and storage-hungry productivity software demanded more and more free space.
It was clear that the dominant desktop hard drive standards at the time, the 3.5-inch form factor and PATA/IDE interface, were ill-suited for crossing the terabyte threshold. 3.5-inch hard drives maxed out at around 500GB using two platters, while the 137GB limit of PATA interface was already restricting larger drives. Hard drive manufacturers realized bigger form factors, additional platters, and new interfaces like SATA would be key enablers for 1TB drives.
First Terabyte Prototypes
Given the clear demand for higher capacities, major hard drive makers began previewing their first terabyte prototypes in the early 2000s, even before the technology was ready for prime time.
In January 2003, Western Digital demonstrated the first 1TB hard drive prototype at Storage Visions 2003. The 3.5-inch drive crammed three 334GB platters inside, achieving an areal density of 100 Gb/in2. This protoype required 5 disks totaling 18 read/write heads to reach 1TB. Unsurprisingly, it was far too complex and expensive for mainstream production. Nonetheless, it provided a glimpse of the rapid progress on areal density.
Hitachi also showcased early 1TB prototypes in 2003 and 2004. In September 2003, it announced a 1TB model based on four 250GB platters. In January 2004, it followed up with a five-disk prototype using 187GB platters with areal density of 115 Gb/in2. Like Western Digital’s competing drive, these early prototypes were technology demonstrations rather than products intended for sale.
First Commercial Offerings
In early 2007, Hitachi finally introduced the first 1TB hard drive ready for commercial deployment, the Deskstar 7K1000. Highlighted specs and features included:
- 3.5-inch form factor
- 5 x 200GB platters for 1TB total capacity
- SATA 3.0Gb/s interface
- 7200 RPM spindle speed
- Native Command Queuing (NCQ)
- 8MB cache buffer
- 1,260 Gb/in2 areal density
The Deskstar 7K1000 retailed for $399, far too expensive for mainstream desktop PCs. Instead, Hitachi targeted applications like high-end PVRs, video surveillance, and data mining that desperately needed massive drive capacities. The extreme areal density and 5-platter design was ahead of its time in 2007.
Seagate and Western Digital lagged slightly behind, shipping their first 1TB models in spring and summer 2007, respectively:
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 – April 2007, $399 MSRP
- Western Digital Caviar GP – June 2007, $399 MSRP
Like the Deskstar 7K1000, these initial offerings carried a hefty price premium over 500GB drives selling for under $150 at the time. OEM system builders and IT managers eyed the fresh 1TB milestone cautiously rather than jumping to adopt such expensive bleeding-edge drives.
1TB Drives Go Mainstream
Within a year of the first commercial releases, densities and manufacturing methods improved enough for 1TB models to enter the mainstream desktop PC market. By 2008, Seagate and Western Digital offered new 7200 RPM 1TB drives for under $300. While still carrying a slight premium over 500GB, these were affordable enough to appear in pre-built consumer PCs.
Equally important, the second generation 1TB drives pared down the complex 5-platter designs to simpler and cheaper dual-platter models:
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 – January 2008, $279 MSRP
- Western Digital Caviar Black – February 2008, $299 MSRP
This new wave of offerings cemented terabyte-class drives as the new mainstream capacity for performance-oriented PCs. 500GB models stuck around as a lower cost tier while 2TB drives waited as the new elite luxury capacity.
The areal density race to 1TB also paved the way for larger form factors to push capacities even higher. Seagate soon leveraged the technology to release the first 1TB 3.5-inch enterprise drive in June 2008, as well as the first 2.5-inch 1TB notebook hard drive that September.
The First 1TB SSDs
Hard disk drives continued to dominate the early days of terabyte storage, but a new challenger was brewing. Solid state drives began displacing traditional hard drives in high-end systems thanks to their radically faster speeds, higher durability, and far superior power efficiency. However, extremely high cost per gigabyte meant SSD capacities lagged far behind HDDs in the early days.
The first 1TB consumer SSD arrived in January 2013 with the Kingston HyperX 3K. It carried a staggering $2,450 MSRP, over 6X the price of 1TB hard drives at the time. Adoption was predictably limited to only the most demanding power users.
Like hard drives, SSD prices and densities improved at a rapid clip. By 2015, 1TB models from top-tier brands like Samsung and Intel could be found under $400. Today 1TB SSDs retail for well under $100, now truly matching hard drives for everyday mixed-use systems.
Conclusion
Hard drives crossing the 1TB threshold marked a major inflection point for desktop storage. What began as an outrageously expensive aspiration rapidly became the standard for mainstream PCs within just a couple years. Affordable terabyte drives helped usher in the era of high resolution media content we enjoy today.
While HDDs continue advancing capacities, SSDs are now poised to take over as the primary storage for most computers. But hard drives aren’t going away any time soon, as new form factors and shingled recording boost densities beyond multiple terabytes for mass data storage needs. And as NAND flash pushes solid state drives into the petabyte era, another revolution in data storage awaits just around the corner.