Seagate has announced the 36 TB Exos M, officially setting a new record for the largest hard disk drive (HDD) on the market. This launch comes just a month after the company introduced its 3 2TB Exos M model, highlighting its aggressive push for higher-capacity storage solutions.
The new drive is targeted at data centers and select customers, including hyperscalers like Microsoft and AWS.
Seagate built the 36 TB drive on its Mozaic 3+ platform, using heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology to achieve higher storage density. HAMR allows Seagate to achieve 3.6 TB per platter, the highest area density in the industry, with plans to scale up to 10 TB per platter. This could eventually lead to 100TB HDDs.
HAMR also reduces the cost per terabyte by 25% and cuts power consumption per terabyte by 60%, ensuring HDDs remain competitive with SSDs in terms of cost and efficiency.
Seagate’s CEO, Dave Mosley, revealed that the company has successfully tested platter capacities exceeding 6 TB per platter, paving the way for 60 TB HDDs. These drives are expected to hit the market later this decade, depending on market demand.
Seagate’s 36 TB HDD outpaces rival Western Digital’s 32 TB drive, which uses 11 platters compared to Seagate’s 10. Similarly, Toshiba has tested 31 TB and 32 TB models with varying platter configurations.
Manufacturers design these high-capacity HDDs for enterprise use, targeting AI workloads, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and data inferencing. However, they likely won’t sell them directly to consumers. Currently, the largest retail HDD available is the 26 TB Western Digital Gold Enterprise HDD.
Despite the rise of SSDs, HDDs remain vital for data centers due to their lower cost per terabyte. Manufacturers are launching 122 TB SSDs soon, but their high price of $80 per TB limits them to niche applications.
Seagate’s focus on innovation guarantees HDDs will remain competitive in an SSD-dominated market, especially for enterprises seeking cost-effective, large-scale storage options.