Running out of room on your PC for storing all those must-have music videos? Not to worry. A new monster hard drive from Seagate has you covered with 750 GB of space.
The new 7,200-rpm Barracuda can hold some 25 DVDs, 50 hours of home video, 15,000 songs, 15,000 digital pictures, and 50 computer games -- and still have 300 GB of free space left over.
The record-setting product is based on a cutting-edge technology called "perpendicular recording," a data  -storage strategy that stands bits of data on the end of a disk rather than on the flat surface of the media as with traditional recording technologies.
Perpendicular recording provides up to a five-fold increase in storage capacity over earlier magnetic-recording techniques, according to Seagate spokesperson Michael Hall.
Tech Breakthrough
By allowing more data bits to pass under the drive head in the same amount of time, the new technology also increases data throughput without having to increase the disk's rotation speed.
"This is the first major upgrade for recording data on disk drives since the first drive was created by IBM 50 years ago," Hall said. Until perpendicular-recording technology arrived, he explained, manufacturers had to reduce the size of data bits to increase storage capacity.
"The problem is that each bit is magnetized, and, as they get smaller, they lose their magnetic power and become unstable, causing a potential loss of data," he noted.
In fact, he added, the capacity of drives that are based on horizontal-recording technology has reached its limit.
Storage Applications
Applications for the new technology extend beyond laptop and desktop machines to include digital-music players, mobile phones, and even business-class hard drives.
Hall suggested that the new Barracuda drive will find its way into high-performance PCs and workstations, external storage products, and even servers.
"This is a significant breakthrough for the hard-drive industry because the longitudinal recording technology has been extended as far as possible," said John Rydning, research manager at IDC. "It sets the stage for further data capacity increases in 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch products."
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