Western Digital new 8TB Red HDD

[ukbobboy]

Dear Forum Members

I'm sure most of you have heard that WD have released a new 8TB Helium Filled Red HDD, does anyone know if there is a ReadyNAS that can utilise this drive?

UK Bob

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@ukbobboy wrote:

Therefore, as it looks as if the laser enhanced HDs have been abandoned (or at least temporarily shelved), so will we now see helium filled HDs as the next generation of petabyte HDs (I believe 1PB = 1000TB)?  

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Last time I checked HAMR was still the long-term solution, with the first commercial disks expected sometime in 2018.  At least that is Seagate's marketing messaging.  Now that Seagate also has helium, it will be interesting to see if WD starts chatting up HAMR more.

Don't expect petabyte capacities any time soon - perhaps 100 TB by 2025.  Helium is likely a short term play (unless there is a way to use it advantageously with HAMR),  

I suspect that it's difficult for the manufacturers to figure out the right balance between SSD R&D and mechanical drive R&D. 

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However, the "new kid on the block" seems to be helium filled HDs, which you say you have ordered a couple.

Yes.  Currently my RN202 has 2x6TB jbod, and my RN102 has 2x3TB jbod.  Both are for backup.  The RN102 isn't large enough, so it is part of a NV+, Duo, RN102 backup combo. 

The plan is to set up both OS6 NAS as 8 TB + 6 TB jbod, and set aside the 3 TB drives in the RN102 as spares for my Pro-6.  That will let me retire the old v1 platforms as their disks fail.

I'll post back on how it goes - the disks should arrive Saturday, and it will take a while to get everything installed.  I might do a factory reset on the RN202 while I am at it.

[StephenB]

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@ukbobboy wrote:
 

I'm sure most of you have heard that WD have released a new 8TB Helium Filled Red HDD, does anyone know if there is a ReadyNAS that can utilise this drive?

I sure hope so, since I ordered two earlier this week. It looks like the OS6 plastic tray insert will need to be removed, since the drive doesn't have the two center mounting holes.

[ukbobboy]

Hi Stephen & Forum Members

I'm sure you realised that when I said 8GB I actually meant 8TB.

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Stephen

Sometime last year we corresponded about a new type of hard disk that was coming out, if I remember correctly these new HDs were going to use new laser tech to increase storage capacity. However, the "new kid on the block" seems to be helium filled HDs, which you say you have ordered a couple.

Therefore, as it looks as if the laser enhanced HDs have been abandoned (or at least temporarily shelved), so will we now see helium filled HDs as the next generation of petabyte HDs (I believe 1PB = 1000TB)?  Or is HD technology still on course to develop, produce and market laser enhanced HDs? 

UK Bob 

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@ukbobboy wrote:

Therefore, as it looks as if the laser enhanced HDs have been abandoned (or at least temporarily shelved), so will we now see helium filled HDs as the next generation of petabyte HDs (I believe 1PB = 1000TB)?  

---

Last time I checked HAMR was still the long-term solution, with the first commercial disks expected sometime in 2018.  At least that is Seagate's marketing messaging.  Now that Seagate also has helium, it will be interesting to see if WD starts chatting up HAMR more.

Don't expect petabyte capacities any time soon - perhaps 100 TB by 2025.  Helium is likely a short term play (unless there is a way to use it advantageously with HAMR),  

I suspect that it's difficult for the manufacturers to figure out the right balance between SSD R&D and mechanical drive R&D. 

---

However, the "new kid on the block" seems to be helium filled HDs, which you say you have ordered a couple.

Yes.  Currently my RN202 has 2x6TB jbod, and my RN102 has 2x3TB jbod.  Both are for backup.  The RN102 isn't large enough, so it is part of a NV+, Duo, RN102 backup combo. 

The plan is to set up both OS6 NAS as 8 TB + 6 TB jbod, and set aside the 3 TB drives in the RN102 as spares for my Pro-6.  That will let me retire the old v1 platforms as their disks fail.

I'll post back on how it goes - the disks should arrive Saturday, and it will take a while to get everything installed.  I might do a factory reset on the RN202 while I am at it.

[mdgm-ntgr]

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@ukbobboy wrote:

I'm sure you realised that when I said 8GB I actually meant 8TB.

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I don't see those references to 8GB in the thread

It certainly is nice to see more higher capacity disks become available.

[ukbobboy]

@mdgm-ntgr

I was probably having a brainstorm, can you delete that post for me.

UK Bob

[mdgm-ntgr]

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@ukbobboy wrote:

I was probably having a brainstorm, can you delete that post for me.

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I edited the 8GB to 8TB in the posts (that's why they show as edited). 

[ukbobboy]

@mdgm-ntgr

Ahhh, so I'm not going mad then. 

As for your remark:  "I edited the 8GB to 8TB in the posts (that's why they show as edited)". Well, I can't see any edit marks, remember you have moderator rights and, as such, can edit and see more things in this forum than most, I just have ordinary edit rights and can't see any changes or amendments that you have made.

Anyway, later.

UK Bob

[StephenB]

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@StephenB wrote:

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I'll post back on how it goes - the disks should arrive Saturday, and it will take a while to get everything installed.  I might do a factory reset on the RN202 while I am at it.

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The disks arrived (Friday actually), and so far so good.

Although one pair of mounting screws on the bottom of the drive are not in the usual position, the side mounts are.  So the tool-less plastic insert in the OS6 trays can be used.

I installed the drive in the RN202, and reloaded about 5 TB of data onto the new jbod volume.  Temperatures look good, and the drive is performing fine.

I did a factory reset on the RN102 (I was replacing both jbod drives), and am restoring the data now.