The IBM 350 Ramac storage disk at the Computer History Museum. Credit and Creative Commons License.

We’re approaching the 70th anniversary of the hard disk drive (and despite a  popular misconception, hard drive sales are still going strong). Without HDDs, modern computing wouldn’t be possible, and when the IBM 350 was introduced in 1956, it jump-started a revolution in data storage. 

Here are a few strange facts about the IBM RAMAC’s 350 “disk storage unit” and its extraordinary impact on computing. 

1. The first commercial hard drive wasn’t available for purchase. 

The IBM 350 was introduced as the central component of the IBM 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) computer system. Capable of storing 3.75 megabytes of formatted data, it was a revelation — but you wouldn’t actually buy it. 

At the time, computers were big mechanical systems that required frequent servicing; if you didn’t have an on-staff engineer to maintain the system, you couldn’t justify buying the entire device. 

Instead, businesses could rent the hard drive along with the RAMAC system for $3200 per month (the modern equivalent of about $37,500). 

2. The IBM 350 weighed more than a ton.

What set the IBM 350 apart from other storage solutions was its ability to access data randomly, without going through each bit of data sequentially. Programs and files could be accessed in any order. That’s how we use data today, but it wasn’t possible until the introduction of magnetic storage.

So, why was random data access important? For fairly boring reasons: In business accounting, transactions needed to be handled as they occurred, which necessitated a new form of data storage.

But to create that storage, IBM had to do some literal heavy lifting. The RAMAC 350 storage unit had 50 24-inch discs (platters) and weighed about a ton (1,730 pounds). A separate air compressor unit was necessary for operation; that added another 441 pounds. 

3. It was almost canceled because it threatened IBM’s punch card business.

Prior to the introduction of magnetic storage devices, data was stored on paper punch cards. A computer system could “read” the holes in the card stock, which correlated to binary data. 

In the mid-1950s, IBM had an effective monopoly on punch card storage. Their 12-row, 80-column punched card format was a standard — and a substantial source of profit for the company. The RAMAC 350 storage unit could hold enough data to fit about 62,500 punched cards, and access the data randomly. 

That’s why the IBM Board of Directors was skeptical about the IBM 350: Hard disk drives would allow data to be written and rewritten, without requiring paper input. That was seen as bad for business, and the Board canceled the drive’s development. 

Fortunately, IBM was a large company, and its San Jose laboratory continued to work on the RAMAC 350. By the time the unit was ready for market, the growing needs for data storage in business accounting had made magnetic storage inevitable, and IBM’s president gave the RAMAC 350 the official go-ahead. 

Learn more about the history of data storage.

For more info on the history of hard drives — and data storage in general — read: The Rapid Growth of Storage Technologies: How Data Capacities Changed (And How They’ll Keep Changing).

If you’ve lost data from a RAMAC 350, you’re on your own. But if you’ve lost data from another hard drive, solid-state drive, RAID array, or any other device, we’re here to help. Datarecovery.com provides risk-free evaluations, and we support our services with a no data, no charge guarantee: If we’re unable to recover the files you need, you don’t pay for the attempt.

With industry-leading technology and fully equipped laboratories at every location, we provide reliable resources for hard drive recovery, ransomware recovery, and more. Call 1-800-237-4200 to speak with an expert or submit a case online.

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HAMR isn’t brand-new tech, and many other manufacturers are experimenting with similar lasers. If you’re new to the concept, here’s an overview:

• Hard drives and other magnetic storage devices have a limited areal density (the amount of data that can be stored on a given unit of space).
• When hard drive platters have extremely high areal densities, the write process becomes less reliable due to interference. In other words, writing a magnetic charge might cause unwanted changes in neighboring areas of the disk.
• Heating the hard drive can address this issue. The platters utilize “grains” of materials that only change their magnetic properties at high temperatures. 
• On HAMR drives, a laser brings the grains to a high-enough temperature to allow the read/write heads to write data.

Seagate’s latest HAMR drive architecture, the Mozaic 3+ platform, is reported to store 3 terabytes (RB) of data on each platter. That allows for up to 30 TB per drive — a much higher capacity than other enterprise-grade hard drives currently available.

Will HAMR hard drives change data storage?

As Seagate’s chief executive Dave Mosley notes, the world desperately needs ways to store large amounts of data.

“As AI use cases put a premium on raw data sets, more companies are going to need to store all the data they can,” Mosley notes. “To accommodate the resulting masses of data, areal density matters more than ever.”

HAMR and similar technologies can allow data centers to expand their storage capabilities without drastically increasing the physical footprint of their facilities. 

But you probably won’t see HAMR hard drives at your local big box store anytime soon: Devices that use Mozaic 3+ will be marketed specifically to enterprises and cloud service providers. Consumers won’t need 30 TB of data storage, and the relatively high price of enterprise storage is hard to justify for standard applications.

Seagate’s first 30TB hard drive, the Exos® 30TB+, will be available early this year. Eventually, it’s expected to retail to the general public for about $450.

HAMR hard drives are reliable, but not perfect.

Seagate claims that the Mozaic 3+ nanophotonic laser heats an “infinitesimal heat spot” on the platters, which increases data write reliability. An iron-platinum “superlattice” alloy makes the grains much less susceptible to magnetic interference than conventional hard drive platters.

Even with these innovations, data loss is still possible — and eventually, inevitable, since all hard drives have mechanical components that fail over time. 

At Datarecovery.com, we’ve invested heavily in research and development to create effective data recovery techniques for HAMR drives, SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drives, and other next-generation storage technologies. 

To learn more about our services, call 1-800-237-4200 or schedule a risk-free evaluation online.

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By contrast, SSD shipments increased by 11% in the fourth quarter of 2021 and seem on pace for further growth, but there’s a silver lining for HDD manufacturers.

At Datarecovery.com, we perform professional recovery services on all types of digital media (along with Betacam tapes and select other analog media formats). Over the last decade, personal computers have relied more on HDD technology for long-term storage — but for server applications, HDD remains the standard. Here’s why.

Hard drives are slower than SSDs, but they’re better attuned to the needs of cloud computing.

The term “cloud” is ambiguous enough to generate debate (and derision) in IT circles. Essentially, the cloud is just servers — albeit complex servers with multiple layers of redundancy. 

Of course, these servers require physical storage media. Hard drives have slower read/write speeds than solid-state media — a standard hard drive can attain speeds of up to 160 MB/s, while an SSD can reach speeds of 550 MB/s. In personal computing applications, this makes SSDs a clear winner.

However, that advantage becomes less important at scale. Servers use RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) to distribute data across multiple hard drives, allowing server administrators to overcome typical HDD speed limitations.

In a performance report from ZDNet, RAID 5s with four hard drives achieved sequential performance of  218 MB/sec (1.744 gbps) read speeds and 193 MB/sec (1.544 gbps) speeds. 

And since the workload is distributed across the media, more hard drives typically means faster speeds. Cloud environments routinely utilize systems with dozens of drives. 

Hard drives have other benefits for large-scale applications: 

• SSDs have a limited number of read/write cycles, and servers need to write data constantly. While hard drives also have limited operating lifespans, they don’t have this exact limitation. 
• Hard drives are inexpensive. Even high-performance HDDs built for server usage are less expensive than SSDs per gigabyte.
• On average, hard drives support larger capacities per device. This isn’t universally true: The largest SSD, to date, can hold 100 terabytes — but has a price tag of $40,000. 

While hard drive shipments are slowing, the global cloud computing market is growing.

The cloud computing market is expected to pass the $800 billion mark by 2025. For HDD manufacturers, the writing is on the wall: Consumers will continue to switch to HDDs, but there are still plenty of opportunities for growth.

In the future, engineering challenges will need to be overcome to maintain the dominance of the HDD in the cloud computing space. Manufacturers will need to create more reliable drives with higher capacities and better read/write speeds — but for engineers, these challenges are hardly new.

To put that another way: The hard drive market won’t disappear anytime soon. It’ll change significantly, but the storage device that made the digital revolution possible still has an important role to play in its future.

If you’ve lost data due to a hard drive failure, server failure, or for any other reason, we’re here to help. 

Datarecovery.com provides free media evaluations, and our no data, no charge guarantee provides peace of mind as your case progresses. Get started by calling our team at 1-800-237-4200 or submit a case online.

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Microsoft’s flagship OS, Windows 11, does not specifically require a solid-state drive as part of its operating requirements. However, Trendfocus reports that the software giant has ordered its OEMs to ditch hard drives in favor of SSDs, which would help to establish more consistent performance across different hardware running Windows 11. 

In statements to Tom’s Hardware, Trendfocus Vice President John Chen noted that the new requirement could create budgetary issues from an OEM standpoint. A 512GB SSD retails for about $30-65 USD, while a 512GB hard drive retails for under $20. 

Switching to bootable SSDs will increase the average cost of computers — particularly desktops, since SSDs have become a de facto standard for laptops within most price ranges. 

But the performance improvements would be considerable, potentially improving Windows’ market share in consumer markets. 

Solid-state drives are faster than HDDs, but not necessarily safer.

One common misconception is that SSDs provide better resistance to data loss than hard disk drives (HDDs). This is only partially true: While SSDs are less susceptible to damage due to physical shock (for instance, dropping a laptop on the ground), they’re generally more susceptible to file corruption and certain electronic issues.

Like hard drives, SSDs also have a limited lifespan: Flash media has a limited number of write cycles, and when SSDs are in common use, they don’t tend to last as long. On average, SSDs in constant use — as is the case with boot media — last about 6-7 years, which is roughly equivalent to hard drive operating lifespans.

Put simply, we don’t believe that Microsoft is switching to SSDs to improve the data integrity of its flagship OS. The move is purely for enhanced performance. 

Whether your computer uses a hard drive or SSD, regular backup is essential.

In terms of speed, SSDs are a clear improvement over HDDs. However, many consumers have a limited understanding of the limitations of flash-based media — and some may erroneously assume that SSDs improve reliability. All storage media is susceptible to data loss. 

And since most consumers still use their boot media for data storage, regular data backup remains a crucial priority. Microsoft has addressed this — to some degree — by offering OneDrive, software that automatically backs up important files to Microsoft’s proprietary cloud. Unfortunately, OneDrive has limited storage capacity (unless consumers choose to pay for more storage).

Make sure that your backup strategy follows these guidelines:

• You maintain at least two copies of important files. We recommend keeping three copies — one on your computer, one on the cloud, and one on a separate physical storage device (such as an external hard drive or SSD).
• You back up data on a regular schedule. That might mean monthly, weekly, or daily backups, depending on the data in question. 
• You check your backups regularly. Occasionally, you should test your backups by loading files and ensuring that they’re up-to-date and usable. 

If you’ve lost data due to a hard drive failure, RAID failure, SSD failure, or for any other reason, Datarecovery.com is ready to help. Our no data, no charge guarantee ensures that you’ll only pay if we recover your files — and through regular investments in data recovery technology, we’re able to provide fast turnaround times, affordable pricing, and industry-leading success rates.

Contact us at 1-800-237-4200 or schedule a free media evaluation online. 

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Researchers reviewed available laptops from HP.com, Dell.com, and Lenovo.com and were unable to locate models with standard HDDs. While none of the manufacturers have publicized plans to move towards solid-state drive (SSD) exclusivity, none currently offer an HDD-equipped model to consumers in the United States. 

For years, laptop manufacturers have gradually moved away from HDD storage.

Of course, the report doesn’t mean the complete obsolescence of hard drives — the older storage technology is still essential for servers, large-scale storage environments, and conventional desktop PCs. 

Even so, hard drives simply aren’t the best storage option for portable computers. Even with major advances in HDD design, hard drives are more susceptible to physical damage than solid-state media. They also consume more energy and create more heat, which requires engineering considerations.

Solid-state drives are generally preferable for most consumers, but they have one major drawback: capacity. A 2.5-inch hard drive can hold upwards of 500 gigabytes (GB) while maintaining a low cost-per-gigabyte of storage. However, thanks to the rise of cloud computing and data backup services, most laptop buyers have little use for high-capacity storage devices.

Related: Hard Drive Storage Capacities May Increase to 30TB in 2023

While SSDs provide advantages, they’re still susceptible to data loss.

TechRadar’s article notes that laptop hard drives are “far slower [and] more fragile” than SSDs. That’s largely true — but consumers should remember that no storage technology is perfect.

While SSDs are less susceptible to physical damage (and therefore more likely to survive a fall), they have a limited operating lifespan. Solid-state media usually uses NAND flash chips, which store data with electrical charges; over time, the cells that hold those charges become less reliable. 

Techniques like wear leveling can extend the lifespan of SSDs by distributing write operations equally across the NAND memory. Unfortunately, wear leveling isn’t a magic bullet: Under normal operating conditions, an SSD may begin to fail after about five years. 

SSDs are also susceptible to other common causes of data loss including:

• Electrical damage
• Data corruption
• Virus or malware infection
• User error (including accidental deletion)

That doesn’t mean that you should avoid laptops with SSDs — solid-state storage is a better option overall. Just don’t assume that your brand-new laptop will hold your data forever, regardless of whether it arrives with a state-of-the-art storage device.

Related: SSD Lifespans: How Long Can You Trust Your Solid-State Drive?

Data backup remains an important practice for personal computer users.

At Datarecovery.com, we operate fully equipped laboratories at every location, and we’ve received cases with every conceivable configuration of storage media. Laptop data recovery makes up a large percentage of our daily caseload, and SSD-equipped models receive quite a bit of our attention. 

The takeaway: If you store important files on your computer, make sure they’re backed up to at least one other physical location. Cloud storage services are an effective option, but check your backups regularly to make sure that they’re usable. 

If you lose data from a hard drive, SSD, or from any other device, our team is ready to help. We offer free media evaluations, and our no data, no charge guarantee provides peace of mind as your case progresses. 

To start a new case, click here for our online evaluation form or call us at 1-800-237-4200.

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The Showa Denko Group produces hard disk platters, but doesn’t sell directly to consumers. The company’s innovations will likely show up in the products of the major hard drive manufacturers (in other words, if you think of the name of a major hard drive brand, there’s a good chance that Showa Denko is part of their supply chain). 

Why Hard Drive Capacities Are Growing

The new hard drives will use shingled magnetic recording (SMR) and energy-assisted magnetic recording to reduce the size of the data tracks on each platter, allowing for a much higher areal density. 

Related: What Is Shingled Magnetic Recording for Hard Drives?

While SMR and related technologies aren’t new, they’ve become more commonplace in recent years. Many enterprises depend on SMR hard drives for long-term storage applications, and with the rise of cloud computing, drive capacity — and total cost per gigabyte — are essential metrics.

“The new HD media have pioneered the age of HD media having recording density of 1TB/in2 or higher, and we successfully combined technology to produce fine crystals of magnetic substance with technology to improve rewrite-cycle endurance on the surface of HD media, while maintaining compatibility with shingled magnetic recording (SMR),” Showa Denko wrote in a press release.

“We will accelerate development of new HD media further, and aim to realize near-line HDD having storage capacity of more than 30TB by the end of 2023.”

Of course, hard drive manufacturers will need to tweak controllers, enclosures, and HDD firmware to take advantage of the new technology. While 26TB hard drives are already on the market, manufacturers may need some time to cross the 30TB threshold. 

Consumer Hard Drives Won’t Reach 30TB Anytime Soon 

Hard drive capacities will continue to improve, particularly for enterprise applications. However, the innovations that allow for 30TB capacities aren’t ideal for most consumers.

SMR hard drives overlap data, reducing the total size of each track. This increases density, but reduces drive performance, particularly when writing large files or when writing data randomly. 

Most consumers don’t have 30 terabytes of data, period — and few would sacrifice speed to get a near-endless amount of storage. The good news:  Manufacturers have introduced technologies to counteract performance concerns, including larger buffers and improved data management tools. Several companies have introduced SMR technology to the consumer hard drive market, and SMR drives are capable of providing excellent performance for many consumer-level applications. 

At extremely high capacities, HDD speeds may suffer, but for servers, write performance is less of an issue. RAID configurations can write data to multiple drives with extreme efficiency, and while SMR diminishes write speeds, many enterprises are willing to make that trade-off for the substantial benefits of higher drive capacities. 

Datarecovery.com provides advanced hard drive data recovery services through four fully equipped laboratories. With industry-leading technology, we offer services for both consumers and enterprises, including individual hard drive recovery, cloud data recovery services and disaster recovery consultations. 

All services feature our no data, no charge guarantee. For a free estimate, click here or call 1-800-237-4200.

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First, a quick look at the problem: Hard drives have increased in capacity for the past 70 years, but at a certain point, massive increases in areal density (the amount of data storage per given unit of physical space) requires massive advances in engineering. 

That’s because hard drives store data on disks (called platters) with magnetic charges. Even with advances in platter construction, a hard drive’s read/write heads can only fit a certain number of magnetic charges into a given amount of space without sacrificing reliability.

However, the math changes if the read/write heads use new methodologies when writing data. One potential option: Heat up the platters. Temporary application of heat can make platter materials more receptive, potentially enabling them to receive more bits of data per region. 

In layman’s terms, heat-assisted magnetic recording applies heat to hard drive platters, allowing magnets to do their work more effectively. But how will the technology change hard drive form factors — and why is it necessary?

How HAMR Hard Drives Work

Conventional hard drives are limited by superparamagnetism, a physical limit to the size of the magnetic particles used to record data. Essentially, when ferromagnetic particles get small enough, they can randomly flip direction — which makes them too unstable for data storage.

Heat-assisted magnetic recording uses a standard hard drive form factor, but with an additional heating component attached to the read/write head assembly. Essentially, HAMR drives are normal hard drives with a laser diode attached. 

The laser diode targets a tiny spot on the platters, providing enough heat to allow the heads to flip the magnetic polarity of each bit. This makes data easier to write. As the platters cool down — a process that occurs almost instantaneously — the bits are “locked” into place, ensuring the reliability of the hard drive.

White papers from Seagate and other manufacturers show that the process is stable and capable of providing an areal density of 2 terabytes per square inch (2 Tbpsi). That’s a significant improvement over conventional technologies and could allow for hard drive capacities of 80TB or more over the next decade.

Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording: Challenges and Benefits

Modern consumer hard drives can store terabytes of data, which is certainly sufficient for the average computer user. With more data moving to the cloud, most personal computer users don’t need higher capacities from their physical storage media. 

But higher capacity hard drives have enormous benefits for server applications. In order to be appropriate for a server or other large-scale storage device, HAMR hard drives will need to meet several criteria:

• HAMR drives need to match current hard drive form factors. Otherwise, buyers would need to upgrade their equipment to use the new tech — which would defeat the purpose.
• HAMR drives need to be reliable. While RAID arrays offer redundancy, the cost of replacing hard drives can be considerable; HAMR drives need to offer the same reliability as conventional enterprise-grade hard drives.
• HAMR drives need to be affordable. The cost per gigabyte needs to be aligned with current market expectations.

Based on research released by major manufacturers, the first generation of HAMR hard disk drives will meet all of these requirements. 

Will consumer-grade HAMR drives become available in the near future?

Probably not immediately. As discussed above, HAMR technology is intended for enterprises that create, manage, and transfer tremendous amounts of data. For these organizations, speed is less important than capacity, since the overall speed of the server isn’t limited by the speed of any individual storage device.

Few consumers are interested in attaining the lowest possible cost-per-terabyte — particularly when HAMR drive capacities start at around 20 terabytes and cost upwards of $700. For most applications, conventional hard drives and solid-state drives offer plenty of storage space at a much lower price.

Is data recovery possible on HAMR hard drives?

HAMR hard drives present unique challenges for data recovery engineers. However, while the chances of data corruption can increase with a higher areal density, the diodes of HAMR drives do not significantly decrease the chances of a successful data recovery attempt. Of course, most (if not all) HAMR drives are installed in servers, and data recovery engineers need an advanced working knowledge of RAID functionality, experience with server databases, and other expertise to successfully restore data. 

At Datarecovery.com, we’re investing heavily in HAMR research and development in order to maintain high success rates for the next generation of servers. To learn more, contact us at 1-800-237-4200 or click here to submit a case online.

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Even so, cloud systems aren’t ideal for every application or every type of workload. Some organizations may need to maintain internal systems or data tape archives to maintain control over data — or to ensure compliance with privacy and security regulations. 

Some questions to ask when deciding whether to engage a cloud migration project:

Will data migration reduce overall costs?

Generally, the operational expenses of cloud storage are less significant than the capital expenses of onsite equipment. However, it’s important to perform a detailed cost analysis prior to the first phase of the migration project — particularly for enterprises that are considering a hybrid model with both cloud and on-premises solutions.

Will data migration improve data integrity?

While modern cloud services offer extensive resources for assuring data integrity, some businesses may prefer to retain onsite archives to simplify compliance requirements or to maintain consistent access to certain types of data.

Will data migration improve our disaster recovery strategy?

Data loss is still possible after cloud migration (in fact, our laboratories regularly receive cloud data recovery requests from enterprises). Before migration, have a new backup strategy in place. While data backup is usually easier when working with a centralized storage solution (in this case, the public cloud), strategy is still essential.

What data will need to move to the cloud?

Many enterprises maintain archives of data tapes in a variety of mediums (for example, DLT-4 and LTO-8), along with physical servers, network-attached-storage (NAS) devices, and other storage systems. Additionally, data may be in disparate formats, which can lead to issues after migration occurs.

For a successful migration, the data will need to be converted to standard formats. Ideally, all data will be equally accessible at the end of the project — but depending on your goals, you may choose to migrate a subset of data to control costs.

Below, we’ll explain some of the best practices for data migration to the cloud. However, it’s important to recognize that every project is different: While we’re providing general tips, we strongly recommend working with an experienced data partner to control costs, shorten project timelines, and limit the overall burden on IT personnel.

To discuss your cloud data migration with expert technicians, contact Datarecovery.com at 1-800-237-4200 or submit a case online.

6 Best Practices for Data Migration to the Cloud

1. Clearly define the scope of the project.

Cloud data migration requires prioritization, and prioritization is not possible if you haven’t properly defined the scope of the project. Start by describing the characteristics of the data: 

• Data Storage Medium and Location
• Data Type and Format
• Size (Amount) of Data
• Dependencies Within Datasets

When reviewing these characteristics, you’ll need to plan for how the data will function within the cloud system. Eliminating redundancies and addressing inaccuracies will ensure a smoother transition (and in many cases, reduce the overall cost of the project).

2. Establish the goals of cloud data migration.

Your business may need to move to the cloud to enable future growth — but if your IT systems are relatively fixed, migration may be an unnecessary expense. Likewise, some enterprises can dramatically lower their expenses by eliminating physical servers, but for other organizations, this isn’t a significant reason to make the switch. 

Identify why your business should migrate data, then build a migration strategy that reflects your goals. Your goal is to undergo migration once — even if you choose a phase-based approach — and if you’ve properly defined the scope of the project, you can categorize and prioritize data in accordance with your objectives.

3. Identify a timeline for data migration, but be prepared to make adjustments

Many enterprises attempt to perform data migration to the cloud in a single operation (the “Big Bang” approach). In most cases, a phase-based approach is simpler and less expensive, but the nature of your IT systems will determine the timeline. 

Avoid rolling data migration into another project. To meet established timelines, you’ll need to keep your teams coordinated, and attaching migration to other IT priorities can lead to confusion. 

4. Analyze potential bottlenecks.

When planning the timeline, consider unexpected circumstances that could prompt an adjustment. For example:

• Physical Damage to Storage Media
• Data Conversion for Older Datasets
• Mapping Issues with Archival Databases
• Security Compliance Requirements During Migration

Working with an experienced migration partner can help to offset many of these challenges. Datarecovery.com can perform recovery on damaged tapes, manage conversion, and correct inaccuracies before the migration occurs, reducing the burden on IT personnel — and ensuring data integrity during the most crucial phases of the project.

5. Identify metrics (and begin tracking performance). 

Decision makers will expect to see results following migration. After all, migrating data to the cloud requires enormous resources, and without clear metrics, demonstrating the benefits can be difficult.

Some potential metrics for data migration include:

• Reductions in Capital Expenses
• A Smaller Physical Footprint for Key IT Systems
• Faster Data Access Times
• Less Downtime
• Improved Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Metrics

Depending on the data, you may need to track memory usage, disk/hardware performance metrics, application latency, and error rates. Start tracking metrics early; otherwise, establishing a point-of-comparison may be impractical, even if you operate the new system alongside the old system. 

6. Leverage external resources.

Public cloud providers offer useful tools for transferring databases, and some service providers provide hands-on support and training for IT staff. 

However, enterprises should always work with experienced data migration technicians — while cloud service providers can make the process simpler, few providers offer custom support for complex challenges such as managing dependencies of in-house applications. 

Start Creating Your Cloud Data Migration Strategy

Datarecovery.com is a leader in enterprise data migration. Our team can help you establish KPIs and data governance policies — and test your data migration strategy to identify areas for improvement. 

With fully equipped laboratories at each of our physical locations, we can also address media issues (such as damaged tape archives or failed RAID arrays), convert data to cloud-ready formats, and protect user data with best-in-class security controls.

Learn more by calling us at 1-800-237-4200 or submit a request with our online case form.

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If you’ve read the headline of this article, you know the answer. However, we’ll make it as clear as possible: As of March 2022, most 2TB USB drives are scams. Currently, internet retailers are flooded with fake flash drives, and consumers need to take precautions when ordering storage media online.

Are 1TB and 2TB flash drives real?

Yes and no. While some reputable manufacturers offer USB flash drives with high capacities of 1TB or more, they’re not inexpensive. For example, Kingston’s DataTraveler Max 1TB drive costs about $180 (with free shipping). The 1TB SanDisk Ultra® Dual Drive Luxe USB Type-C Flash Drive is slightly less expensive at $114.

But neither manufacturer offers a 2TB USB flash drive for general audiences, and for good reason: High-capacity flash media is difficult to produce reliably, and most consumers don’t need to store a tremendous amount of data on a USB stick. External hard drives and solid-state drives are much better tools for transferring large amounts of data.

Over the past year, we’ve received dozens of “2TB” flash drives from consumers. In every instance, the devices fraudulently advertised their capacities.

What’s inside a 2TB USB flash drive?

With a quick search, we found 2TB flash drives listed for under $40 on Walmart, Amazon, Newegg, and eBay. To reiterate, reputable flash media manufacturers do not sell 1TB flash drives for less than $100.

We disassembled several of these storage devices (and we’re using the term “storage devices” liberally) in our laboratory. Here’s what we found.

Unsurprisingly, the drive was inexpensively made (and easy to disassemble). The NAND flash chip was generic and had no markings to indicate a capacity.

The drive’s controller is a Chipsbank CBM2199E AP35981. We believe that the “manufacturer” made modifications using widely available utilities to modify the perceived size of the flash media.

Of course, we wanted to know how the scam actually worked.

Hex editors are widely used in data recovery and computer forensics applications. When accessing the flash drive with WinHex, the total capacity seemed to exceed 1.9 terabytes. When we looked closely at the firmware, however, we found this device truly had only 32 gigabytes of storage space.

If you purchase a 2TB flash drive for $20-40, here’s what you can expect:

• Most devices include a small flash chip (from 8GB to 32GB) with minor modifications to a small amount of writable space located on the beginning of the drive.
• When accessing the drive, most operating systems will see a 2TB volume (or a 1TB volume, depending on the manufacturer’s claims). However, the actual capacity of the device is much smaller.
• If the user tries to write a larger file to the flash media, the drive will appear to function normally — but obviously, it cannot write to the sectors that don’t exist. Larger files will appear usable after the “transfer,” but when the drive is unplugged from the computer, the data will disappear.
• Because the drive is operating as intended, the user will not receive any error notifications when transferring files that exceed the drive’s actual capacity.
• Many brands offering 2TB flash drives offer some type of warranty. However, they don’t provide a warranty against data loss (and since the storage devices are functionally useless, getting a replacement drive won’t solve the consumer’s problem).

Avoid scams when buying USB flash drives

• Purchase storage media from reputable manufacturers. Look for companies that have an established history of technical achievements. Datarecovery.com does not recommend specific manufacturers, but with some quick research, you can easily determine whether a company is trustworthy.
• Don’t trust the user reviews. Scammers can manipulate ratings, even on trusted websites like Amazon and eBay. We found one “2TB” USB drive with 161 ratings. In many cases, the reviews reference a completely unrelated product.
• Never buy used data storage devices. Flash media has a limited lifespan, and used devices have fewer remaining read/write cycles. Read more about how flash media storage works.
• Avoid “too good to be true” deals. Cheap storage media is just that — cheap — and your data is valuable. While you might pay more for brand-name storage from a trusted retailer, you’ll pay less in the long run.

Finally, keep at least two backups of all important files. If a storage device fails, Datarecovery.com can help — but by developing a strong backup strategy, you can avoid a data loss disaster.

The post The 2TB Flash Drive Scam: Why “High-Capacity” Flash Drives Are Fakes appeared first on Datarecovery.com.

Some drives will include this label on the internal drive cover

What is an advanced format hard drive — and how can you determine whether you own one?

Hard drives store data on a series of platters coated in a thin magnetic material. The data is organized into concentric areas called tracks, and each track is subdivided into sectors. The sector is the smallest unit of physical storage on the disk. Each sector is separated from the next sector by small gap, address, sync areas, which allows the hard drive’s actuator heads to read and write data accurately.

For decades, hard drive manufacturers used formats that restricted the size of each sector to 512, 520, or 528 bytes. As hard drive capacity grew, these sectors began to limit the potential capacity of the drive: The gap, sync, and address areas took up a larger amount of space on the platters.

Advanced format hard drives use a larger disk sector format of 4096, 4112, 4160, or 4224 bytes — essentially, 4 kilobytes. By expanding the size of the sectors, hard drive manufacturers can produce hard drives with larger capacities.

Do I Have an Advanced Format Hard Drive?

Many hard drives manufactured after 2010 use an advanced format. If your hard drive is relatively new or if it has a large capacity of 1 terabyte or more, it’s probably an advanced format (or AF) drive. All major operating systems support AF hard drives.

Check Your Hard Drive Sector Size in Windows

To quickly check if you’re using an AF hard drive, you can use the Windows command prompt. Here’s a quick guide:

1. Access the command prompt. You will have to start it as Administrator. To do that, click the “Start” button and type “cmd”. Then right-click the Command Prompt app, choose “Run as administrator,” and click Yes in the dialog.
2. Enter the command:

   fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo <drive letter>:

3. Look for the value “Bytes Per Physical Sector.”
4. Legacy format hard drives will have 512 (most common), 520, or 528 bytes per sector. AF hard drives will have 4096 (most common), 4112, 4160, or 4224 bytes per sector.

Check Your Hard Drive Sector Size in Mac OS X

Most post-2015 Apple computers use AF hard drives, but to check, you can follow this process:

1. In Mac OS, open “Utilities,” then select “Terminal.”
2. Enter:

   diskutil info / | grep “Block Size"

4. Look for the value “Device Block Size.”
5. Legacy format hard drives will have 512 (most common), 520, or 528 bytes per sector. AF hard drives will have 4096 (most common), 4112, 4160, or 4224 bytes per sector.

Mac OS will also provide a value for “allocation block size,” which is set by the file system. This can be changed when partitioning or formatting the disk. However, the “device block size” is set by the hard drive’s firmware and cannot be changed.

Advanced Format Hard Drives and Data Recovery

Because AF hard drives have improved error correction capabilities, they’re touted as more reliable than older drives; of course, every hard drive contains mechanical components, and data loss is always possible.

During the first few years of the transition from legacy sector formats to advanced formats, data recovery engineers had to use different software and proprietary tools to recover files into a usable state. Even so, the new format didn’t have a significant effect on data recovery success rates.

Today, data recovery engineers work regularly with AF hard drives. Datarecovery.com maintains high success rates for all hard drives, regardless of sector format, brand, or model; during our media evaluation, we provide clients with a detailed synopsis of the hard drive failure and provide an estimated chance of success.

If your hard drive shows signs of physical failure — such as an inability to boot, unusual noises, or corrupt files — the safest course of action is to turn the drive off and contact a professional data recovery provider. We support our services with a no data, no charge guarantee, and by scheduling a free media evaluation, you can receive a no-risk estimate. Get started by filling out our online case form here.

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