Western Digital Launches 4 TB Nearline HDDs

By Wolfgang Gruener
published

The WD RE SAS and WD RE SATA nearline drive series are also available in capacities of 1 TB, 2 TB and 3 TB for SAS as well as 2 TB and 3 TB for SATA. The 4 TB drive integrates five 800 MB platters.

According to the manufacturer, the 7,200 RPM drives promise a reliability of 1.4 million hours MTBF for the SAS versions and 1.2 million hours MTBF for the SATA models. WD said that the drives also include the company's NoTouch ramp load technology, which reduces wear of the recording heads as the heads do not touch the disk media.

Pricing starts at $139 for the 1 TB SAS model, and goes as far as $479 for the 4 TB version. The SATA models are $20 cheaper than their SAS counterparts.

Wolfgang Gruener
29 Comments Comment from the forums
  • RealBeast
    About time, I really want to see some competition in the larger (4Tb) drive space. Although with all the consolidation in the manufacturers I suppose it is unlikely in the near term.
    Reply
  • luciferano
    7.2KRPM 4TB drive... Those are probably pretty darned fast for an HDD.

    Also, typo in the article. The 4TB drive is not using five 800MB platters. That's be 4GB, not 4TB, so it's using five 800GB platters if it has five platters and has a total capacity of 4TB.
    Reply
  • bloodypulp
    The hard drive manufacturers are sandbagging innovation, by milking their old technology.
    They have the capability to produce 5 x 1TB platter drives. 3 x 1TB platter drives have already been available for awhile.
    Reply
  • Shin-san
    According to the manufacturer, the 7,200 RPM drives promise a reliability of 1.4 million hours MTBF for the SAS versions and 1.2 million hours MTBF for the SATA models
    Then start giving us back our 3-5 year warranties
    Reply
  • jhansonxi
    Many years ago I had an IBM Ultrastar 36GB 10K RPM SCSI drive that had 10 platters. Fast but very hot. Not cheap either.
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    1.2 million hours MTFB, but still a 1 year warranty...
    I am the market for 4 large drives, the first manufacturer to have a 2TB drive at $100, or 3TB at $130 with a real 3-5 year warranty will get my business!
    Reply
  • Spanky Deluxe
    About time the 4TB drives come back. The Seagate one is impossible to track down as it is. I've been waiting for 5TB drives for close to a year now ever since that guy from Seagate said they'd be out soon.

    It's been very irritating watching the traditional hard drive market stagnate while the cost of SSDs is decreasing like mad.
    Reply
  • nurgletheunclean
    $459 is a joke. When 3TB (1TB platter) drives are readily available for $130.
    Reply
  • $459 is a joke. When 3TB (1TB platter) drives are readily available for $130.


    Your comment is a joke because you're comparing server grade drives to consumer level junk.
    Reply
  • frombehind
    nurgletheunclean$459 is a joke. When 3TB (1TB platter) drives are readily available for $130.
    Its an enterprise drive bro... warranted to run basically 24/7 for 5 years.

    Desktop drives are NOT INTENDED to run 24/7 and even with say 8 hours a day operations, they are only built to last 3 years on average.
    Reply