Seagate High-Capacity Drive with 40TB HAMR HDD Sets New Standard for Data Centers

Seagate has taken a big step forward in the data storage industry by introducing a powerful Seagate high-capacity drive based on advanced HAMR (Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording) technology. According to The Economic Times, the company has started shipping limited samples of its new 40TB hard drives to selected customers. These drives are not available on the market yet, but they show a major improvement in how much data hard drives can store.

These 40TB server hard drives are designed mainly for use in large data centers, cloud storage systems, and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

Seagate Ships 40TB HAMR Hard Drive for Data Centers

The new 40TB HAMR HDD for data centers uses Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording, which makes it possible to store more data on each platter. Each hard drive includes 10 platters, and each platter can store 4TB of data, adding up to 40TB of total capacity. This is much more than traditional hard drives, which usually offer far less storage in the same amount of physical space.

These drives are part of Seagate’s new “Mozaic 4+” platform. This next-generation storage platform is specially designed for enterprise use. Seagate has shipped a few units to select clients for testing, and these trials will continue into 2026. Full mass production of these high-capacity drives is expected to begin in the first half of 2026.

Using HAMR, Seagate can increase the storage density of hard drives, which means more data can be stored in a smaller area. This helps large companies save physical space, reduce cooling costs, and use energy more efficiently in their data centers.

Seagate CEO Dave Mosley explained the benefits by saying, “Ten disks would get you to 40 terabytes… this gives better efficiencies in the data center.” Seagate’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) also mentioned that customer testing is underway and will expand throughout the next year.

This launch marks the beginning of Seagate’s broader HAMR roadmap, which includes even bigger drives in the coming years. The company plans to release a 44TB drive in 2027 and a 50TB drive in 2028. While the earlier target was 50TB by 2026, the delay shows how difficult it is to scale up this new technology.

Seagate Leads While Competitors Take Slower Path

Seagate is ahead in the race to create the largest hard drives, but other companies are also exploring similar technologies.

Western Digital (WD) is taking a slower approach. For now, they are using older technologies like ePMR (energy-assisted PMR) and OptiNAND to boost storage capacity. WD has said it will launch its own 40TB HAMR drive only by the end of 2026. The company believes HAMR becomes truly useful at 40TB and above, so until then, it is working on improving older methods like UltraSMR.

Meanwhile, Toshiba is working on another technology called MAMR (Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording). They plan to release a 35TB HAMR drive before 2026 and are exploring ways to combine HAMR and MAMR to reach higher capacities.

All these companies are focused on large-scale use of data centers. These high-capacity drives are not made for personal computers or gaming. They are aimed at businesses that deal with large volumes of data, such as cloud storage, cybersecurity, and AI applications.

Even though Seagate’s 40TB drive is not yet in stores, the fact that it is already being tested by major customers shows that Seagate is leading in the field of advanced storage. But turning this technology into a product that can be made and sold at scale is still a long and complex process.

With rising demand for data storage from AI, cloud services, and big data, the Seagate HAMR roadmap shows that future drives could go beyond 50TB and possibly reach 100TB in the next few years. If successful, these drives will completely change the way large companies store and manage data.