Hard Drives: 22TB Now also with WD Gold, WD Red Pro and WD Purple

US-made Western Digital is increasing the maximum storage capacity to 22TB in its other series of hard drives. From now on, hard drives for the WD Gold, WD Red Pro, and WD Purple families must offer the same storage space.

Western Digital offers the highest storage capacity

In May, Western Digital introduced the world’s first hard drives with a capacity of 22 TB and since then it has been ahead of the competition of the remaining 20 TB. It debuted with the data center-focused UltraStar DC HC570, which delivers 22 terabytes on ten conventional recording (CMR) platters. The simultaneously presented UltraStar DC HC670 contains 26 TB thanks to the cross paths (SMR).

A 22TB option is now available on WD Gold, WD Red Pro and WD Purple

As previously announced, Western Digital offers higher storage capacities in its other product lines. Today, the company announced that the WD Gold series for servers, the WD Red Pro series for professional NAS devices, and the WD Purple series for video surveillance now also offer 22TB models.

The manufacturer has not updated all store pages accordingly. WD Red Pro is already listed with 22TB and should be available in three to four weeks 600 dollars to be available.

Technology for 22TB with CMR and 26TB with SMR

The basic technology for today’s highest storage capacity for traditional 3.5-inch hard drives is the same for everyone: Compared to its 20TB predecessor, Western Digital has installed an additional magnetic disk (plate). The 3.5-inch helium-filled chassis now holds ten bowls instead of nine, each with 2.2 TB of storage space. The area density is about 1.1 terabytes per square inch (Tb/in²).

WD previously increased the data density of each disk with the help of its so-called OptiNAND technology: built-in NAND flash memory provides space for expanded metadata, such as information about magnetic interference in adjacent sectors or the position of the hard drive’s write heads.

In addition, ePMR is a mild form of energy-assisted magnetic recording that is not as complex as MAMR with microwaves or HAMR with lasers.