7 ms·

WD Builds High-Capacity, Helium-Filled HDDs

52 points by XERQ 14y ago

ChuckMcM 14y ago
Oh this will be fun, the only gas harder to keep inside is hydrogen. While its absolutely true that you get a huge benefit in head flying by switching to helium it also means that there is pretty much a guaranteed lifetime cap on the usefulness of the drives. As someone who tries to run drives 24/7 for 3 years before tossing them this probably makes my life harder. Especially if the 'failure' mode is that they just get slower and slower as the heads have a harder and harder time staying on track as other gases migrate inside.
- K2h 14y ago
  ha! that makes me think of failure modes of SSD's.. just getting slower (but for a different reason). Imagine if the florist who does helium party balloons starts offering the service to refurbish your HD.
  - jdc 14y ago
    Ordinary magnetic platter HDs slow down with age too, though I'm not sure why.
    - papercruncher 14y ago
      theory: your outer tracks are filled with data which is older and that you presumably read less
- Daniel_Newby 14y ago
  Simply swap the air in your facility with helium. As a bonus, corrosion and fires will be a thing of the past.
  - ChuckMcM 14y ago
    Sadly the heat conduction properties of helium would not make that really practical. One could consider submerging the data center under water (great heat conduction, relatively easy to keep it from migrating into a helium filled cavity) but finding data center techs with scuba experience, very tough.
    - Daniel_Newby 14y ago
      What about water vapor? It has a lot of heat capacity, and should have about half the momentum exchange with the hard drive head assembly. Preventing condensation would be the trick.
bazzargh 14y ago
So why not a vacuum? Vacuumed KERS systems rotate an order of magnitude faster. I get that a KERS system can afford heavier casing than a HD but still, if your cases can hold helium you ought to be able to hold a reasonable vacuum too.
- dmm 14y ago
  My understanding is that hard drive heads float over the platters on a cushion of air. That's why high altitude applications need special sealed hard drives.
  - klodolph 14y ago
    Specifically, in a vacuum the heads crash into the platter, damaging both.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
tarice 14y ago
Filling HDDs with Helium seems like a bad idea since the Earth is running out of Helium.[1] Increasing prices could very well make the technology infeasible before it even comes to market. [1]http://digitaljournal.com/article/321439 http://digitaljournal.com/article/321439
- Udo 14y ago
  As long as we have enough to fill it into toy balloons en masse and drive airships with it we'll probably have enough to fill up those drives. On the other hand you're right, Helium is a precious resource - one of many that could be feasibly mined elsewhere in the solar system (in the hopefully not-so-far future).
  - andrewflnr 14y ago
    As long as we're thinking about that timescale, it's one of the easier elements to fuse from "raw ingredients".
- dhughes 14y ago
  And it's the only compressed gas that gets down to -270C for cooling MRI machines, hydrogen only gets to -253C and is much more dangerous.
  - K2h 14y ago
    ... and they use it in NMR. I think the one at the local university takes several dewars of helium just to bring it online.
- wisty 14y ago
  The cost of helium will be insignificant. He has a molecular mass of 4, so 4 grams gives you 22.4 liters at standard temperature and pressure. So 1 gram of helium should give you about 50 drives (at 100cc each). Helium is like, 25 cents a gram. 2 cents a hard drive. If it goes up 100 times in price, it'll still be cheap compared to the cost of the drive ($2 a drive). It'll probably still be cheap, compared to the added cost of sealing the drive.
ars 14y ago
Something doesn't make sense here. Turbulence is related to viscosity as far as I know. Viscosity of air: 18.6 micropascal seconds. Viscosity of helium: 20.0. For comparison hydrogen is 9.0 and argon is 22.9. Actually - maybe a higher viscosity is better (it causes the turbulence to die out)? But in that case why not use argon? It's cheaper and a LOT easier to contain. Yet the article talks about light atoms?
- aidenn0 14y ago
  The turbulance is related to viscosity, but the force exerted on the drive head is related to turbulance and mass. The density of helium is an order of magnitude lower than the density of air.
ComputerGuru 14y ago
The link goes to the second page of a two-page article, here's a better link (all on one page): http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9231220/Helium_filled_WD_drives_promise_huge_boost_in_capacity?taxonomyName=Data+Storage&taxonomyId=19 http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9231220/Helium_...
alexchamberlain 14y ago
This is great.. but there is an international shortage of hydrogen, and unfortunately, I think MRI scanners should have first dibs. Having said this, it will be great when nuclear fusion is cracked and there is an abundance of the stuff.
- gordonguthrie 14y ago
  You mean helium, I presume.
  - alexchamberlain 14y ago
    Yes, I am a tool.
Achshar 14y ago
So what is the capacity of these new drives? Nowhere in the article it seems to be mentioned.

52 points by XERQ 14y ago

Oh this will be fun, the only gas harder to keep inside is hydrogen. While its absolutely true that you get a huge benefit in head flying by switching to helium it also means that there is pretty much a guaranteed lifetime cap on the usefulness of the drives. As someone who tries to run drives 24/7 for 3 years before tossing them this probably makes my life harder. Especially if the 'failure' mode is that they just get slower and slower as the heads have a harder and harder time staying on track as other gases migrate inside.

K2h 14y ago
ha! that makes me think of failure modes of SSD's.. just getting slower (but for a different reason). Imagine if the florist who does helium party balloons starts offering the service to refurbish your HD.
- jdc 14y ago
  Ordinary magnetic platter HDs slow down with age too, though I'm not sure why.
  - papercruncher 14y ago
    theory: your outer tracks are filled with data which is older and that you presumably read less
Daniel_Newby 14y ago
Simply swap the air in your facility with helium. As a bonus, corrosion and fires will be a thing of the past.
- ChuckMcM 14y ago
  Sadly the heat conduction properties of helium would not make that really practical. One could consider submerging the data center under water (great heat conduction, relatively easy to keep it from migrating into a helium filled cavity) but finding data center techs with scuba experience, very tough.
  - Daniel_Newby 14y ago
    What about water vapor? It has a lot of heat capacity, and should have about half the momentum exchange with the hard drive head assembly. Preventing condensation would be the trick.

bazzargh 14y ago

So why not a vacuum? Vacuumed KERS systems rotate an order of magnitude faster. I get that a KERS system can afford heavier casing than a HD but still, if your cases can hold helium you ought to be able to hold a reasonable vacuum too.

dmm 14y ago
My understanding is that hard drive heads float over the platters on a cushion of air. That's why high altitude applications need special sealed hard drives.
- klodolph 14y ago
  Specifically, in a vacuum the heads crash into the platter, damaging both.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

tarice 14y ago

Filling HDDs with Helium seems like a bad idea since the Earth is running out of Helium.[1] Increasing prices could very well make the technology infeasible before it even comes to market. [1]http://digitaljournal.com/article/321439 http://digitaljournal.com/article/321439

Udo 14y ago
As long as we have enough to fill it into toy balloons en masse and drive airships with it we'll probably have enough to fill up those drives. On the other hand you're right, Helium is a precious resource - one of many that could be feasibly mined elsewhere in the solar system (in the hopefully not-so-far future).
- andrewflnr 14y ago
  As long as we're thinking about that timescale, it's one of the easier elements to fuse from "raw ingredients".
dhughes 14y ago
And it's the only compressed gas that gets down to -270C for cooling MRI machines, hydrogen only gets to -253C and is much more dangerous.
- K2h 14y ago
  ... and they use it in NMR. I think the one at the local university takes several dewars of helium just to bring it online.
wisty 14y ago
The cost of helium will be insignificant. He has a molecular mass of 4, so 4 grams gives you 22.4 liters at standard temperature and pressure. So 1 gram of helium should give you about 50 drives (at 100cc each). Helium is like, 25 cents a gram. 2 cents a hard drive. If it goes up 100 times in price, it'll still be cheap compared to the cost of the drive ($2 a drive). It'll probably still be cheap, compared to the added cost of sealing the drive.

ars 14y ago

Something doesn't make sense here. Turbulence is related to viscosity as far as I know. Viscosity of air: 18.6 micropascal seconds. Viscosity of helium: 20.0. For comparison hydrogen is 9.0 and argon is 22.9. Actually - maybe a higher viscosity is better (it causes the turbulence to die out)? But in that case why not use argon? It's cheaper and a LOT easier to contain. Yet the article talks about light atoms?

aidenn0 14y ago
The turbulance is related to viscosity, but the force exerted on the drive head is related to turbulance and mass. The density of helium is an order of magnitude lower than the density of air.

ComputerGuru 14y ago

The link goes to the second page of a two-page article, here's a better link (all on one page): http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9231220/Helium_filled_WD_drives_promise_huge_boost_in_capacity?taxonomyName=Data+Storage&taxonomyId=19 http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9231220/Helium_...

alexchamberlain 14y ago

This is great.. but there is an international shortage of hydrogen, and unfortunately, I think MRI scanners should have first dibs. Having said this, it will be great when nuclear fusion is cracked and there is an abundance of the stuff.

gordonguthrie 14y ago
You mean helium, I presume.
- alexchamberlain 14y ago
  Yes, I am a tool.

Achshar 14y ago

So what is the capacity of these new drives? Nowhere in the article it seems to be mentioned.