Western Digital targets 100TB disk drives with HAMR and HDMR advancements

Forward-looking: The data storage landscape is evolving rapidly, driven by the proliferation of artificial intelligence and the growing demand for massive data lakes. Western Digital projects that HDD exabyte shipments will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23% from 2024 to 2028. To meet these increasing demands, the company is focusing on two key innovations that will drive capacity expansion and enhance storage efficiency.

Western Digital unveiled an ambitious roadmap for advanced storage technologies at a recent investor day meeting. It plans to leverage two advanced storage technologies in the coming years: heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) and heat dot magnetic recording (HDMR), which are expected to improve data storage efficiency and density in hard disk drives.

This announcement comes as Western Digital prepares to separate its Flash business, with the spin-off scheduled for February 21, 2025.

HAMR technology uses a small laser diode attached to each recording head ...