Seagate creates World's Thinnest Portable Hard Drive at only 7mm thick

[CyberneticTitan]

 

At just 7-mm thick, Seagate calls its new Seven the slimmest 500GB USB 3.0 hard disk drive available. That’s thinner than an iPhone 6 Plus only with physical platters spinning at incredible speed inside of an all-steel chassis that hints at the mechanics within. The HDD is being launched to celebrate the 35th anniversay of Seagate introducing the world's first mass produced 5.25-inch hard disk for PCs.

 

Other than Seagate telling us it’s based upon the 5-mm Angsana drive, the company isn’t giving us much in the way of detail. But that’s ok, this disk isn’t about performance, it’s a message to the world that says, WE ARE SEAGATE now step aside, son. Look for the Seagate Seven to be widely available starting mid- to late-January for $99.99.

 

 

Original article: http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/4/7483635/seagate-seven-worlds-thinnest-500gb-hard-disk

 

I think it's a little too expensive for the money. You can get four times the storage for a larger drive. 2.5inch drive + an enclosure aren't exactly bulky either. However I have to give props to the design. Looks great imo.

[Hatsune Miku 「 」]

This year shall be the year of storage drives.

[Suffokation]

This is super cool!

[KungPaoChino]

For once, a harddrive looks amazing.

[Fate]

 

That's thinner than an iPhone 6 Plus

Will it bend in your pocket too?

[ZetZet]

wow it's beautiful

[Malandrix]

Looks real slick, I like it.

 

I don't really care about size though.

[dizmo]

I'd prefer something like a 1tb.

At 500gb, I'd still rather carry around 2 smaller flash drives.

[kameshss]

I'd prefer something like a 1tb.

At 500gb, I'd still rather carry around 2 smaller flash drives.

I'm looking for a 4TB portable HDD that requires no external powers! lol in this SLIM! lol more!

[Tagiau]

Will it bend in your pocket too?

The picture shows what looks like the drive bending. So yes, it will bend in your pocket, in your computer that is a completely different story. I would say possibly no. 

[Albatross]

I never thought I'd say a hard drive looked good.

 

Also, I don't get the obsessive need to get smaller and smaller.

 

 

 

[faissaloo]

It's awesome! But I think we both know it's gonna fail in like, less than a month

[cesrai]

People say HDD don't look good then put them in a damn enclosure.  

[Guest]

I don't get it. The only point of HDDs nowadays is that they're cheap.

It's like making a luxury freight train.

 

Also, the trend of calling anything with shiny metal surfaces 'beautiful' is getting silly.

[Markmjb]

First thing I thought of looking at the shape of that HDD:

(all hail my paint skills)

[Toddwjp]

Pointless, carry round a portable hard drive thickness has never been an issue, its not like a phone where reduced weight and thickness benefit holding it.

[euniqe]

just had a seagate usb3 external drive fail on me. wd usb2 external still going and way older. cpu drive a toshiba 2tb, also older.

 

seagate is dead to me.

[AlwaysFSX]

I would break that in a day.

[iAsuno]

Why? I see no point in this.

[Speedbird]

When it comes to hard drives, manufacturers should never sacrifice capacity for design. I'm sure that the drive could be 1TB at the same cost if it was 9.5mm.

[Arty]

rpm?

[TheMcSame]

rpm?

Probably 5400 RPM. It'll probably say it in the article.

 

 

OT: Looks good but I see no need for it. It's just a proof of concept if you ask me. 

 

However, there's 3 reasons I wont even consider this.

 

1. Seagate. Don't act like you haven't heard the horror stories. 

2. You can have a slightly bulkier external HDD with 400% more storage space for the same price (or even less).

3. I'd never carry a hard drive around. I'd be paranoid about it breaking, it only takes one good impact to destroy the drive. While that drive looks good I guarantee that enclosure does very little in terms of protection. If I want portable storage then I would get a USB stick or I would put up with half the space and buy an SSD and an enclosure.

[McMurderMonkey]

[DuckDodgers]

For $50 more one can find discounted (or second hand) 500GB SSD with SandForce controller, and for a few bucks more - an external USB-to-SATA adapter and there you have much more reliable and fast solution.

[Scheer]

1. Seagate. Don't act like you haven't heard the horror stories. 

2. You can have a slightly bulkier external HDD with 400% more storage space for the same price (or even less).

3. I'd never carry a hard drive around. I'd be paranoid about it breaking, it only takes one good impact to destroy the drive. While that drive looks good I guarantee that enclosure does very little in terms of protection. If I want portable storage then I would get a USB stick or I would put up with half the space and buy an SSD and an enclosure.

 

1. There are just as many horror stories from the rest of the manufactures... None are really any better than any others when you stand back and look at it. I'm sure you can find one test where Seagate is way worse than the rest... and another where WD is the worst, so on and so forth.

 

2. People pay for design and style, I think its dumb personally, but its always going to be that way. Its obviously not marketed towards tech enthusiasts. 

 

3. I don't think people give hard drives the credit they deserve. For how high of tolerances needed to work, it is amazing the abuse they will put up with. While spinning I could see one hard impact being able to break the drive... but when it is off it is MUCH less likely. I have my original 80GB external drive that I paid around $150 for in 2006 IIRC. It has been in my "tech bag" ever since and works to this day (the USB adapting part broke so I put it in a new enclosure), I still use it occasionally. I used to work on cellular towers, and on several occasions we had to take tracked Yamaha Rhinos to the top of mountains to get downed sites back up, the drive would nearly break my back but the good old hard drive never quit. I always took it with in case when I got to the top the hard drive in my laptop would be broken I would be able to restore and still do the work rather than waste 4 hours going down and back up. I've been the "computer guy" for that company for 9 years now, 15 guys have their laptops mounted to a stand in the trucks and drive 100k miles a year with 10k miles or so driving rough mountain roads. In 9 years I've replaced three hard drives (that I can remember atm, may have been a few more), and one of them was from a 6 foot drop onto rocks while the laptop was running.