Images: New hard drive technologies

Image 1 of 3

A graphic demonstrating the difference between conventional drives and patterned media drives.
In conventional drives, the bits, which store data in a drive and are magnetized in a particular direction, touch each other. Reducing the size of the magnetic grains inside the bits and the bits could lead to bit flipping, or data corruption.
In patterned media, the bits are isolated from each other and smaller, reducing cross talk and data corruption. The dot pattern, however, needs to be drawn through lithography, which is often expensive.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
Heat 'em up. There are two big differences from a conventional drive and a drive with heat-assisted magnetic recording technology.
First, there is a laser in the heat drive, which heats up the bits on the platter to record data. The bits won?t record or erase data without being heated. That?s because of the second big difference: the magnetic grains inside the bits are made from a different material.

Seagate Technologies
Microscopic images of patterned media. The smaller dots in the left-hand image measure 50 nanometers across, while the larger dots in the right image measure 500 nanometers. Hitachi is looking at the 50 nanometer dots.
The two different colors of the dots indicate whether the dots are magnetized in one direction or another.

A graphic demonstrating the difference between conventional drives and patterned media drives.

In conventional drives, the bits, which store data in a drive and are magnetized in a particular direction, touch each other. Reducing the size of the magnetic grains inside the bits and the bits could lead to bit flipping, or data corruption.

In patterned media, the bits are isolated from each other and smaller, reducing cross talk and data corruption. The dot pattern, however, needs to be drawn through lithography, which is often expensive.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

By Bill Detwiler

Bill Detwiler is Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and the host of Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. Prior to joining TechRepublic in 2000, Bill was an IT manager, database administrator, and desktop support specialist in the ...

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