Hitachi promises 4TB hard drives by 2011

Funky hard drive making division of Hitachi, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies have just announced that they have developed the world’s smallest read-head technology for hard drives. The technology, which enabled Hitachi to make new heads in the 30-50 nanometer (nm) range is expected to bring 1TB notebook drives and 4TB desktop hard drives by 2011.

“This is an achievement for consumers as much as it is for Hitachi. It allows Hitachi to fuel the growth of the ‘Terabyte Era’ of storage, which we started, and gives consumers virtually limitless ability for storing their digital content.” said Hiroaki Odawara, Research Director at Hitachi.

The new heads are called "current perpendicular-to-the-plane giant magnetoresistive" (CPP-GMR) and are said to enable densities of up to one terabit per square inch (Tb/sq. in.). This new technology is set to be implemented in shipping products in 2009 and reach its full potential in 2011.

What will you do with all this capacity? I can only shudder at what you'll do because my imagination precludes speculation on such matters.