Western Digital 12TB and 14TB Ultrastar He12 Drives Announced

News

by Jakub HanDecember 13^th, 2016

The Western Digital 12TB and 14TB Ultrastar He12 Helium-filled HDDs are, along with some new super-fast SSDs, the latest announcement by the hard drive manufacturer.

Everyone who deals with HD high-bitrate videos knows how massive files sizes can get, and that they need to be stored somewhere safe. If you’re thinking of building your own NAS at home, or just want a new high-capacity drive for your computer, check out the new Western Digital 12TB or 14TB Ultrastar He12 Helium HDDs.

According to WD, this is the fourth-generation of their helium-based, enterprise-class HDDs. The HGST-branded Ultrastar He12 has 12TB of storage capacity, making it the world’s highest capacity hard disk drive. The He12 offers either a 6Gbps SATA or 12Gbps SAS interface, both using Advanced Format. HelioSeal technology utilises helium with a density 1/7th that of air, enabling the use of thinner disks while maintaining a stable recording interface. There are eight discs in this drive, making it an industry first, as other drives only have up to seven discs. For detailed specs look at this HGST product page.

The company will extend the He12 platform further, leveraging SMR to provide more capacity from the same essential hardware. The SMR version of the drive will deliver 14TB.

Western Digital claims their new drives are also very safe, sporting features like:

• Data Security: Instant Secure Erase, sanitize and safely redeploy HDDs using the Instant Secure Erase feature
• SED Features: Help protect end user data with encryption (Self Encrypting Drive)
• Reliability: Amongst the industry’s highest MTBF rating at 2.5M hours with a 5-year limited warranty

When will you be able to get your He12 HDD? Well, although the company is currently sampling to select OEMs, the Western Digital 12TB Drives are expected to be available in the first half of 2017, with the 14TB SMR HDD expected around mid 2017. There is no information about pricing yet, but we can expect WD’s competitors to introduce their own 12TB drives at some point next year.

How do you deal with video material storage? Are you going to wait for these new bigger drives? Let us know in the comments!