Hitachi GST unzips to reveal hard internal 4TB whopper

Hitachi GST has a 4TB desktop disk drive on sale in Tokyo, although no product announcement has been made. This would be the world's first 4TB internal drive.

As reported by Xbit Labs, the Deskstar 5K4000 is a 4TB drive with a 32MB cache and 6Gbit/s SATA interface. It features Advanced Format and Coolspin technology, spinning at 5400rpm or 5900rpm.

There are pictures of the 4TB Deskstar here, showing it was made in Thailand - ironic given the flooding, here showing it was assembled in China in October this year using Thai-made components, and here.

The areal density is suggested to be 569Gbit/in² if it is a 4-platter drive, only it isn't.

Caroline Sumners, Hitachi GST's EMEA PR and marketing manager, said: "We are currently shipping a limited supply of 4TB Deskstar 5K4000 Internal Drive Kits into Japan. These drives are based on our field-proven and reliable five-platter design."

Western Digital, which is acquiring Hitachi GST, does not have a 4TB drive in its product set. Seagate has a 4TB FreeAgent GoFlex external drive, spinning at 7200rpm and is planning to introduce 4TB internal drives. Neither Samsung nor Toshiba have 4TB drives.

Supplies may be limited because of the Thailand flooding, and this could be behind the limited geographic release of the product. A price equivalent to €260 has been mentioned. ®