Seagate MACH.2 multi-actuator technology breaks throughput record

The amount of data to be stored is growing steadily and so the capacity of the magnetic disks continues to increase. Hard disk manufacturers are put under increasing pressure because the performance of the read/write heads is physically limited.

13. 2 2019 - Sebastian Evers

With the MACH.2 hard drive, Seagate has announced a hard drive that will effectively enable double performance with two independently operating sets of several read/write heads. Microsoft engineer Aaron Oushat is also involved in the development of the technology.

The 16 TB hard drive with HAMR technology launched by Seagate in June 2019 does not offer a higher reading speed than the hardware-related maximum of 250 MB/s compared to the high capacity. A SATAIII connection, on the other hand, offers almost three times the performance. When Seagate MACH.2 technology is ready for the market, hard drives are also technically able to benefit from it.

Video-animation: https://blog.seagate.comb/enterprises/mach2-and-hamr-breakthrough-ocp/

Data recovery from Seagate MACH.2 hard drive

The technical structure is particularly interesting for us as a professional data recovery company. After all, changing/swapping defective and damaged read/write units is an elementary part of our daily work. Accordingly, our engineers are excited to see how complex the conversion of the MACH.2 models will be in the clean room laboratory. As soon as we have the opportunity to receive a model, we will carry out the first successful data recovery of a MACH.2 hard drive from Seagate with two independent read/write head circuits in the research laboratory.

Competitors rely on microwave technology in 2020:

Western Digital MAMR hard drives with "Spin Torque Oscillator"

With the help of the MAMR, Western Digital wants to enable hard disks with capacities of up to 40 TB by 2025 - WD hard disks with 20 TB should already be possible next year. The previous problem of increasing the storage capacity was a reduction in the size of the read/write units. The magnetic field strength of the heads would no longer be sufficient to write the data. Western Digital addresses the problem in two ways: With the so-called Damascene process, WD has found a way to downsize the heads. Furthermore, the microwave transmitter pre-magnetizes the ferromagnetic layer. In combination, a quick and safe magnetization of the surface is guaranteed. Seagate, however, relies on the further development of HAMR.

High capacities: high demands on data recovery

With the increase in storage capacity, the risk of data loss also increases. The more storage space is available, the more data is stored on a single storage medium. If the hard disk suffers a defect, only a data recovery can possibly remedy it - provided there is absolutely no data backup. With the ever increasing hard disk size, the amount of time and material that can be required in the clean room laboratory to restore lost data also increases. Depending on the extent of the damage, performing a data recovery from such large data carriers can be a ticking time bomb, because the risk of a fatal head crash hovers over the readout process like a sword of Damocles.