Western Digital: HAMR hard disks coming in 2026

In a webcast for financial investors, Western Digital provided information on the upcoming roadmap. The most important thing: WD also relies on HAMR.

(Image: Western Digital)

Feb 13, 2025 at 11:05 am CET

2 min. read

c't Magazin

By

Lutz Labs

The division of Western Digital into two independent companies is a done deal: from February 21, the name Western Digital will stand for hard disks, while flash products will be sold by the soon-to-be-former subsidiary SanDisk. The designated CEO of Western Digital, Iriving Tan, presented some details of the roadmap for the next few years at a webcast for financial investors yesterday (Wednesday).

Western Digital Corporation (WDC) currently sells hard disks with a maximum capacity of 26 TByte. These work with the classic recording method (conventionell magnetic recording, CMR), but apply additional energy to the write head. WD calls this Energy-Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (ePMR). A model with 32 TByte and the overlapping recording method Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) has been announced.

WDC intends to further exploit this technology: the manufacturer is planning drives with 28 TByte (CMR) and 36 TByte (SMR) before the end of this year. WDC uses a special form of the SMR recording process called UltraSMR, which increases the gain in storage capacity by 20 to 25 percent compared to CMR.

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HAMR coming in 2026

Tan said that Western Digital could already build HAMR drives with 40 TByte today. However, this would not be economically viable; the company only wants to produce one million such hard disks per quarter in the future. The company does not necessarily want to deliver the highest capacity; it is also considering the costs of the drives for customers.

Roadmap from Western Digital — In the coming decade, WD plans to increase hard disk capacity to 100 TByte.

(Image: Western Digital)

Tan expects the first HAMR drives with 36 TByte by the end of 2026, but mass production is not expected to start until the following year. The associated UltraSMR variants are already expected to reach 44 TByte.

There are even more capacities on the roadmap, but Tan did not talk about this in his presentation. However, the company assumes that capacities of 100 TByte can be achieved in a single 3.5-inch drive with the help of HAMR and UltraSMR. Sometime after 2030, it will be the turn of a new recording technology: Heat Dot Magnetic Recording.