Not Lifeless But: WD Releases New 6TB 2.5-Inch Exterior Arduous Drives

UPDATE 5/17, 6 PM: Western Digital has confirmed that the brand new 2.5-inch T GB HDDs makes use of 6 SMR platters

The overwhelming majority of laptops these days use solid-state drives, which is why the event of latest, higher-capacity 2.5-inch laborious drives has all however come to a halt. Or reasonably, it nearly has. Plainly the two.5-inch type issue has a bit extra life left in it in spite of everything, as right this moment Western Digital has launched a slate of latest exterior storage merchandise based mostly on a brand new, high-capacity 6 TB 2.5-inch laborious drive.

WD’s new 6 TB spinner is getting used to supply upgraded variations of the corporate’s My Passport, Black P10, and and G-DRIVE ArmorATD transportable storage merchandise. Notably, nonetheless, WD is not promoting the naked 2.5-inch drive on a standalone foundation – not less than not but – so in the meanwhile it is completely reserved to be used in exterior storage.

Consequently, WD is not publishing a lot in regards to the 6 TB laborious drive itself. The utmost learn pace for these merchandise is listed at 130 MB/sec – the identical as WD’s current externals – and write efficiency goes unmentioned.

Notably, all of those 6 TB gadgets are thicker than their current 5 TB counterparts, which strongly means that WD has elevated their storage capability not by enhancing their areal density, however by including one other platter to their current drive platform (which WD has since confirmed). This, in flip, would assist to elucidate why these new drives are being utilized in exterior storage merchandise, as WD’s 5 TB 2.5-inch drives are already 15mm thick and utilizing 5 platters. 15mm is the best normal thickness for a 2.5-inch form-factor, and already incompatible with a good variety of transportable gadgets. Exterior drives, in flip, are the one place these even thicker 2.5-inch drives would match.

WD’s specs additionally gloss over whether or not these drives are based mostly on shingled magnetic recording (SMR) know-how. The corporate was already utilizing SMR for his or her 5 TB drives with a view to hit the required storage density there, and WD has since confirmed that that is precisely the case. Which is probably going why the corporate is not publishing write efficiency specs for the drives, as we have seen device-managed SMR drives backside out as little as 10 MB/second in our testing when the drive must rewrite knowledge.

Relying on the precise drive mannequin, all the exterior storage drives use both a USB-C connector, or the very quaint USB Micro-B 3.0 connector. Although whatever the bodily connector used, all the drives characteristic a USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) electrical interface, which is greater than ample given the drives’ physically-limited switch speeds.

Wrapping issues up, in accordance with WD the brand new drives can be found at retail instantly. The WD My Passport Extremely and WD My Passport Extremely for Mac with USB-C each retail for $199.99; the WD My Passport and WD My Passport for Mac are $179.99; the WD My Passport Works With USB-C is $184.99; the gaming-focused WD_Black P10 Sport Drive sells for $184.99, and the SanDisk Skilled G-Drive ArmorATD is $229.99. All of Western Digital’s exterior storage drives are backed with a three-year restricted guarantee.