Seagate announces industry’s first 4TB hard drive

Seth Weintraub | Sep 6 2011 - 8:55 pm PT

We’re big fans of the Seagate GoFlex series of hard drives and, as of this evening, Seagate has pushed the size limit to an impressive 4TB on a single physical disk.

Currently the 4TB disk is only available in the form factor to the right for a significant $249 price tag. Obviously, the added density drives will filter down into other form factors including bare drives and RAID arrays in the coming weeks and months.

Seagate’ GoFlex enclosure got a facelift as well but alas, no Thunderbolt action for a few more months according to the press release.

As for the USB Desktop version pictured, we’re looking to get our hands on one for a review as soon as possible. It is available for pre-order now for $229 at Amazon.

Full press release below:

SEAGATE IS THE FIRST MANUFACTURER TO BREAK THE CAPACITY CEILING WITH A NEW 4TB GOFLEX DESK DRIVE

New Design, New Capacity, and a New Home for the Media You Love

CUPERTINO, Calif. — September 7, 2011 — Seagate (NASDAQ:STX) today announced it is shipping a new 4TB GoFlex® Desk external hard drive – the highest capacity hard drive in the industry. This latest addition to the GoFlex Family of external hard drives showcases Seagate’s new desktop design. The streamlined industrial design delivers a smaller footprint and better reflects the aesthetic of today’s modern offices while still providing all of the benefits of previous generations of the GoFlex drives. The new 4TB GoFlex Desk drive is now available from www.seagate.com and will be available from select online retailers within the month for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $249.99 USD. The entire line of GoFlex Desk products will also adopt the new industrial design in the coming weeks. The GoFlex Desk for Mac external drive featuring both FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 will be available in Apple stores by the end of the month.

“Yet another industry first for Seagate, we have reached a new high-capacity in the 3.5-inch hard drive form factor. At Seagate, we are committed to pushing the limits for our customers and will continue to adapt and innovate our products based on customer needs,” said Patrick Connolly, vice president and general manager of Retail products for Seagate. “This latest GoFlex® Desk drive offering, with its new industry-leading capacity point, is a statement of our continued commitment to meet consumer needs.”

As more of our entertainment and personal data become digitized, the significance of greater access to local storage becomes increasingly more valued. The new GoFlex Desk 4TB drive has the space to contain over 2,000 HD movies. This new GoFlex Desk external drive comes at a time when people are archiving more of their memories in the form of digital photo and video.

“IDC foresees there being an increase in global demand for personal storage capacity driven by the growing creation and acquisition of digitized videos, photos and music,” said Liz Conner, senior research analyst, Storage Systems, IDC.

Debuted in May of 2010, the award-winning GoFlex Family of hard drives provide an alternative approach to external storage solutions by allowing users to change interface adapters to stay current with the latest in interface technology. With USB 3.0 still undergoing adoption and the emergence of Thunderbolt technology in the coming months, the GoFlex adapter concept has been proven as an idea that works and Seagate plans to continue with this design for future iterations of the company’s external hard drives. The GoFlex drives are also Windows and Mac OSX compatible and have the flexibility to go between both operating systems. In addition to cross-platform compatibility, the GoFlex Desk drive can also be utilized with the GoFlex Home adapter if one chooses to use it as a network drive.

With the pre-loaded back up software, the GoFlex Desk external drive provides automatic, continuous back with encryption for all your files. The included USB 3.0 adapter also works with USB 2.0 ports making it easy to connect to your Windows or Mac computer. The adapter also features an illuminated gauge to display available space on the drive.

About Seagate

Seagate is the worldwide leader in hard disk drives and storage solutions. Learn more at http://www.seagate.com.

© 2011 Seagate Technology LLC. All rights reserved. Seagate, Seagate Technology, the Wave logo, and GoFlex are trademarks or registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. When referring to drive capacity, one gigabyte, or GB, equals one billion bytes and one terabyte, or TB, equals one thousand billion bytes. Your computer’s operating system may use a different standard of measurement and report a lower capacity. In addition, some of the listed capacity is used for formatting and other functions and will not be available for data storage. Actual data rates may vary depending on operating environment and other factors. Quantitative usage examples for various applications are for illustrative purposes. Actual quantities will vary based on various factors, including file size, file format, features, and application software. The export or re-export of hardware or software containing encryption may be regulated by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (for more information, visit www.bis.doc.gov) and controlled for import and use outside of the U.S. Seagate reserves the right to change, without notice, product offerings or specifications.