Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Current status and outlook of magnetic data storage devices

  • Review Paper
  • Published:
Microsystem Technologies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Big data analytics, cloud services, internet of things (IoT), personal mobile devices, social networks and artificial intelligence (AI) have created strong demand for enterprises to amass information. Studies show that the amount of data being recorded is increasing about 30–40% per year. Based on some estimates, in 2023, approximately 330 million terabytes of data were created each day. It is further estimated that 80–90% of data created never gets accessed again. Magnetic tape and hard disk drives and semiconductor-based solid-state drives are used to store data. Hard disk and solid-state drives are online, and tape drives are offline and used for archival storage of big data and backup. The market share of solid-state drives continues to increase; however, they are more expensive than hard disk drives in cost per TB. Over the years, areal recording densities of magnetic data storage devices have continued to increase by two digits annually because of the introduction of new technologies. Total capacity and units shipped have increased astronomically but price per TB continues to go down which keeps magnetic storage industry under constant pressure. In 2024, because of low cost per TB, hard disk drives are projected to control more than half of the world’s data and will remain robust for some time. In 2023, magnetic tape drives remained dominant for archival storage and backup because of high volumetric density and low cost per TB. This paper starts with a description of new technologies to meet growing areal density demands followed by an overview of the current market and outlook of magnetic data storage devices. Competitive solid-state drives for data storage are also discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

(Adapted from Bhushan 1996, 2018)

Fig. 2

(Adapted from Bhushan 1996, 2018)

Fig. 3

(Adapted from Bhushan 1996, 2001, 2018)

Fig. 4
Fig. 5

(Adapted from Bhushan 1996; Anonymous 2017)

Fig. 6

(Adapted from Anonymous 2018)

Fig. 7

(Adapted from Albrecht et al. 2006, Aoyagi et al. 2022)

Fig. 8

(Adapted from Anonymous 2017)

Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data sets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  • Albrecht D, Stipe BC, Strand TC (2006) Hermetically sealed electronics arrangement and approach. U. S. Patent No. 7123440B2

  • Anonymous (2017) HAMR Technology—Technology Paper. Seagate Technology. https://www.seagate.com/www-content/ti-dm/tech-insights/en-us/docs/TP707-1-1712US_HAMR.pdf

  • Anonymous (2018) Shingled Magnetic Recording + HelioSeal Technology. White Paper, Western Digital Corporation. https://media.bitpipe.com/io_15x/io_152122/item_2244017/white-paper-shingled-magnetic-recording-helioseal-technology-.pdf

  • Anonymous (2022a) WD Gold Enterprise Class SATA HDD, 22 TB Drive, Western Digital. https://www.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-gold-sata-hdd?sku=WD221KRYZ

  • Anonymous (2022b) Western Digital Shares Roadmap: 26 TB today, 50 TB tomorrow. Tom’s Hardware, May 11. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/western-digital-shares-roadmap-26tb-today-50tb-tomorrow

  • Anonymous (2023a) Seagate Ships First Commercial HAMR Hard Drives. July 28. https://www.anandtech.com/show/18984/seagate-ships-first-commercial-hamr-hard-drives

  • Anonymous (2023b) IronWolf Pro SATA Product Manual, Standard 512E model. User Manual for 22 TB drive, Seagate Technology. https://www.seagate.com/products/nas-drives/ironwolf-hard-drive/

  • Anonymous (2023c) Hard Disk Drive Specifications—Ultrastar® DC HC670, 3.5-inch Serial ATA Hard Disk Drive. 26 TB UltraSMR Drive, Jan., Western Digital. https://www.westerndigital.com/en-ap/products/internal-drives/data-center-drives/ultrastar-dc-hc670-hdd?sku=ultrastar-dc-hc670-26-tb

  • Anonymous (2023d) Fiscal Fourth Quarter & Year 2023 Financial Results. Western Digital, July 31. https://investor.wdc.com/financial-information/earnings-documents

  • Anonymous (2023e) Could a hard drive supply chain crisis push AI and digital Ads to the breaking point? Sept. 22. www.finisconner.com

  • Anonymous (2023f) Data storage market size, share, trends—Growth [2023–2030], Fortune Business Insights, Feb. https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/data-storage-market-102991

  • Aoyagi A (2017) Development of helium sealed hard disk drive. In: Proc. Mech. Eng. Congress, Japan, Paper # F161004

  • Aoyagi A, Stipe B, Wood R, Campbell S, Che X (2022) Helium sealed hard disk drive. J Magn Magn Mater 564(2):170146

  • Bahgat A (2023) What is SSD? Everything you need to know About Solid-State Storage. Kinsta Blog. https://kinsta.com/blog/what-is-ssd/

  • Bhatia CS, Rismani-Yazdi E, Sinha SK, Danner AJ (2013) Applications of DLC in magnetic recording. In: Encyclopedia of tribology. Springer, Boston, pp 86–95

  • Bhushan B (1996) Tribology and mechanics of magnetic storage devices, 2nd edn. Springer, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bhushan B (1999) Chemical, mechanical, and tribological characterization of ultra-thin and hard amorphous carbon coatings as thin as 3.5 nm: recent developments. Diam Relat Mater 8:1985–2015

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhushan B (2000) Mechanics and reliability of flexible magnetic media, 2nd edn. Springer, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bhushan B (2001) Macro- and microtribology of magnetic storage devices. In: Bhushan B (ed) Modern tribology handbook, vol 2—materials, coatings, and industrial applications. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 1413–1513

  • Bhushan B (2017a) Micro/nanotribology and micro/nanomechanics of magnetic storage devices. Nanotribology and nanomechanics—an introduction, 4th edn. Springer, Cham, pp 749–796

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bhushan B (2017b) Nanotribology of ultrathin and hard amorphous carbon films. Nanotribology and nanomechanics—an introduction, 4th edn. Springer, Cham, pp 593–640

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bhushan B (2017c) Nanoscale boundary lubrication studies. Nanotribology and nanomechanics—an introduction, 4th edn. Springer, Cham, pp 689–746

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bhushan B (2018) Historical evolution of magnetic data storage devices and related conferences. Microsyst Technol 24:1423–1436

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhushan B (2023) “Revisiting NASA Space Shuttle Tape Challenger Magnetic-Tape Data Recovery Investigation”, (Invited). Microsyst Technol 29:683–695

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhushan B, Phelan RM (1987) Overview of challenger space shuttle tape-data recovery study (invited). IEEE Trans Magn 23:3179–3183

  • Bhushan B, Zhao Z (1999) Macroscale and microscale tribological studies of molecularly thick boundary layers of perfluoropolyether lubricants for magnetic thin-film rigid disks. J Info Storage Proc Syst 1:1–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Burns Jr LL, Keizer EO (1959) Magnetic recording system. US patent No. 2915594, Dec. 1

  • Camras M (1988) Magnetic recording history and early recorders. Springer, Berlin

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Coughlin T (2023a) IEEE engineering milestone for perpendicular magnetic recording. Forbes Enterprise Tech, Oct. 9. https://www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.forbes.com/sites/tomcoughlin/2023/10/09/ieee-engineering-milestone-for-perpendicular-magnetic-recording/amp/

  • Coughlin T (2023b) 2023 survey summary for storage in professional media and entertainment. https://www.broadcastbeat.com

  • Fan A, Waltman RJ (2018) Dip-coating perfluoropolyether lubricants on rigid magnetic disks. Chem Data Collect 17–18:451–458

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herreria A (2003) How UltraSMR makes the industry’s highest capacity drives. Western Digital Blog, Jan. 2. https://blog.westerndigital.com/ultrasmr-the-highest-capacity-drives/

  • Hillpot J (2023) Could a hard drive supply chain crisis push AI and digital Ads to the breaking point? Sept. 22, 2023. www.Finisconner.com

  • Hiraide T, Aoki M, Kawakubo Y (2008) Effects of lubricants and their treatments on tribological characteristics of thin-film disks. Tribol Online 3:143–147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirana Y, Uefune K, Kouno T, Hayakawa T (2011) Disk drive and manufacturing method thereof. U. S. Patent No. 7,986,490B2, July 26

  • Iwasaki S, Hokkyo J (1991) Perpendicular magnetic recording. IOS Press, Amsterdam

  • Iwasaki S, Nakamura Y (1977) An analysis for the magnetization mode for high density magnetic recording. IEEE Trans Magn 13:1272–1277

  • Jiang B-Y, Zhang K, Machita T, Chen W, Dovek M (2023) Tunneling magnetoresistive devices as read heads in hard disk drives. J Magn Magn Mater 571:170546

  • Ma T, Bhushan (2003) Mechanical, hygroscopic, and thermal properties of ultrathin polymeric substrates for magnetic tapes. J Appl Poly Soc 89:3052–3080

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ma T, Bhushan (2004) Mechanical, hygroscopic, and thermal properties of metal particle and metal evaporated tapes and their individual layers. J Appl Polym Soc 92:1319–1345

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mee CD, Daniel ED (eds) (1996) Magnetic recording technology, 2nd edn. Mc-Graw Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller C (2023) Seagate arrives at the 22 TB disk capacity level. Block and Files, April 13. https://blocksandfiles.com/2023/04/13/seagate-22tb-disk-capacity/

  • Patel P (2017) Three advances make magnetic tape more than a memory—sony and IBM keep tape storage running apace, with these key developments. IEEE Spectrum

  • Singleton S, Chacos B (2023) Best SSDs of 2023: reviews and buying advice—the best solid-state drives can supercharge your PC. PC World, Sept 8

  • Suk M, Albrecht T (2002) The evolution of load/unload technology. Microsyst Technol 8:10–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Treseder RC (1983) Fermetically sealed disk file. U. S. Patent No. 4,367,503, Jan 4, 1983

  • Trinh TD, Sullivan M, Kirpekar S, Talke FE (2018) Effect of air and helium on the head-disk interface during load-unload. Tribol Lett 66:39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallace RL (1951) The reproduction of magnetically recording signals. Bell Syst Tech J 30:1145–1173

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weller D, Parker G, Mosendz O, Lyberatos A, Mitin D, Safonova NY, Albrecht M (2016) Review article: FePt heat assisted magnetic recording media. J Vac Sci Technol B 34:060801

  • Wood R (2022) Shingled magnetic recording (SMR) and two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR). J Magn Magn Mater 561:169670

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Ohio State University, San Jose, CA, USA

    Bharat Bhushan

Authors
  1. Bharat Bhushan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bharat Bhushan.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Based on a distinguished banquet lecture titled “Historical Evolution of Magnetic Data Storage Devices and Related Conferences & Publications,” given at the 32nd ASME Annual Conference on Information Storage and Processing Systems (ISPS 2023), Milpitas, CA on August 28, 2023.

Appendices

Appendix A: An overview of various storage devices

There are two types of recording devices used with computers for data recording- primary and secondary. Primary memory is also called read–write memory or the main memory and is a short-term memory. The programs and data that the CPU requires during the execution of a program are stored in this memory. It is a volatile memory as the data is lost when the power is turned off. Example includes RAM (random access memory). Secondary device stores data for long-term memory or commonly referred to as storage. Secondary devices can be either internal or external. External devices are removable, portable units that connect to a computer via USB, Thunderbolt, or other interfaces.

A variety of recording technologies and storage devices are used for audio, video and data storage, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. These include magnetic, optical, semiconductor-based devices, hybrid drives, and combinations thereof.

Various devices based on recording technologies are listed below with their advantages and disadvantages. Also listed are typical usage of devices for various applications.

A.1 Various storage devices

2.1 A.1.1 Magnetic storage devices—hard disk drives and tape drives

Magnetic storage devices consist of hard disk drives (HDDs) and tape drives. Hard disk and tape drives play complementary roles. Hard disk drives are nearline and tape drives are used for archival storage of big data and backup.

HDDs use rotating disks or platters to store data. They are relatively cheap and can provide high storage capacity. They have moving parts and are susceptible to mechanical failure. Compared to solid-state drives (SSDs), a competing technology, HDDs have longer access time and slower read/write speeds. However, the cost per TB for HDDs is lower than SSDs.

Tape drives use magnetic tape to store data. They are commonly used for long-term archival storage due to their low cost per TB, lower than any other storage device.

2.1.1 A.1.2 Optical drives

Optical drives like CD, DVD, and Blu-ray drives use low-power laser beams to read and write data on optical disks. They are used for storage and have a low cost per disk. They have slow access times, which are not ideal for frequent data retrieval. They also have limited capacity compared to other storage options and are not commonly used.

2.1.2 A.1.3 Semiconductor-based devices

Solid-state devices use NAND flash memory to store data electronically. They include solid-state drives (SSDs) and USB flash drives. They have no moving parts, therefore have fast read/write speeds, more durable and energy efficient than HDDs. However, they are more expensive per TB compared to HDDs.

SSDs are commonly used for large storage. USB flash drives are small and portable storage devices. They are often used for transferring files between computers. They are extremely portable, durable, and easy to use. However, they have limited storage capacity compared to HDDs and SSDs.

2.1.3 A.1.4 Hybrid drives

These drives combine both HDD and SSD technologies. They use an SSD cache to store frequently accessed data and a traditional HDD for bulk storage. They provide a compromise between speed and storage capacity. They are not as fast as full SSDs for all data.

2.1.4 A.1.5 Miscellaneous

Network attached storage (NAS) devices are specialized file servers that connect to a network. They are used for centralized data storage and can be accessed by multiple users and devices.


Cloud storage services store data on remote servers accessed over the internet. Examples include Dropbox, Google Drive, and Amazon S3.


RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) Arrays are configurations of multiple HDDs or SSDs that provide redundancy and/or performance improvements.

2.2 A.2 Typical storage devices used for various applications

Customers include IT professionals, professional media and entertainment, satellite images, consumers, and large institutions. They would store data using laptops, desktops, enterprise computers, digital audio and video cameras, and various mobile devices.

Overwhelmingly, hard disk drives or solid-state drives hold the majority of the data; files, photos, programs, music, and movies, that the user wants to keep. Removable, external media storage devices such as USB flash drives and read/writeable CDs and DVDs are also secondary storage. Tape drives are used for long-term archival storage and backups.

This paper reports that enterprise and desktop computers use HDDs and SSDs roughly half and half. Professional media and entertainment industry uses professional video cameras for video capture. Based on Coughlin (2023b) in 2022–2023, the percentage distribution of recording media used by this industry was 70% SSDs and 29% HDDs and 1% recorded directly to the cloud. For archival storage, the percentage distribution of media used was 30% digital tapes, 19% cloud, 18% external HDDs, 18% local storage network, 12% blue-ray disks, 2% DVD disks and 1% others.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bhushan, B. Current status and outlook of magnetic data storage devices. Microsyst Technol 29, 1529–1546 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-023-05549-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-023-05549-z

Search

Navigation