Seagate expects the first HAMR drives to boast double the storage capacity of current perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) hard drives when they hit the market later this decade, eventually leading to 3.5-inch hard drives with a capacity of up to 60 terabytes over the following 10 years. To help you better appreciate its latest achievement, Seagate pointed out that “bits within a square inch of disk space, at the new milestone, far outnumber stars in the Milky Way, which astronomers put between 200 billion and 400 billion.”
From the press release: “The maximum capacity of today's 3.5-inch hard drives is 3 terabytes (TB), at about 620 gigabits per square inch, while 2.5-inch drives top out at 750 gigabytes (GB), or roughly 500 gigabits per square inch. The first generation of HAMR drives, at just over 1 terabit per square inch, will likely more than double these capacities – to 6TB for 3.5-inch drives and 2TB for 2.5-inch models. The technology offers a scale of capacity growth never before possible, with a theoretical areal density limit ranging from 5 to 10 terabits per square inch – 30TB to 60TB for 3.5-inch drives and 10TB to 20TB for 2.5-inch drives.”