Western Digital to announce 3TB hard drives in 2010?

The current crop of hard drives max out at 2 TB. If you think this is merely adequate you’re no doubt looking forward to when 10TB flash drives are $5 at the dollar store. As cool as it is to dream, we still have several years before storage becomes that cheap or dense. Since I can’t give you news of a 10 exabyte drive, I’ll patch over the wound with a 3TB drive. Is it here? Not quite. But it’s coming. WD was the first to break out with the 2TB hard disk which was a feat of size and storage technologies. As is usual in the technology world, if you’re sitting still you’re moving backwards.

According to Dr Geoff Barrall, founder and CEO of Drobo, WD will release 3TB hard drives in 2010. If there’s 3TB single drives that means we’ll get 6TB dual drive variants. *smiles* The evidence behind his claims come from the fact that Drobo will be offering a 3TB drive next year — Drobo gets their drives from WD. You put the pieces together. The densities required to hit a 3TB drive (roughly 500Gbit/sq in….and 750GB/platter) are certainly achievable in the near term. Can manufactures do it? I know it’s not an exabyte, but will it suffice?

Ubergizmo > The Register