Hard Drives, v2.0

The growth of hard drive areal densities has slowed dramatically in recent days. When StorageReview first launched over six years ago, for example, drive densities doubled every three to four months with no end in sight! By contrast, it has been more than a year since drives such as the 83 GB/platter WD Caviar and MaXLine II appeared. While techniques to increase platter densities themselves have continued, limitations arise in the read and write heads- they just are not up to reading and writing data reliably from bits so closely packed together.