Seems this will be targeted at data centres:
The total unit shipment of HDDs continues to decline, with legacy HDD applications being replaced by SSDs. However, the data center and enterprise nearline HDD market has recovered in 2024, and demand continues to grow for HDD storage in big data applications, including AI, driven by the lower cost per bit for HDD data storage.
Seagate Technology began shipping 30+TB HAMR HDDs for data center evaluation and qualification starting in 2022 and is shipping these products in volume in the second half of 2024.3 Toshiba also announced that it will ship 30+TB HAMR and microwave-assisted magnetic recording HDDs by 2025.5 By 2026–2027, 50+TB HDDs will be possible using EAMR.
In my region, the largest capacity HDD that you can get is 22 TB for around ~$450.
I’ve been buying 22tb renewed from seagtaes eBay site for ~$250. Obviously renewed might be a disqualifier, but for half the price I can buy 2 and have an offline backup, then replace it with next gen when it eventually fails.
I doubt you can get 22 TB HDD for $250 where I live even if they are second hand.
The Seagate eBay site sounds like a decent deal for what it is.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ssn=seagate_store&store_name=stxrecerthdd&_oac=1&_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l49496 Looks like word got out and price went up a bit but 22tb @270
Meanwhile 100TB SSDs will be mainstream next year and Pure is forecasting 300TB DFMs for 2026. Seems like we may be in the final years of HDD, but we’ll see how long the price per useable TB stays lower.
