With Seagate's magnetic HAMR recording technology breakthrough, we could see a single 120TB HDD

We've covered Seagate's HAMR, or Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording, tech for HDDs, which is set to breathe new life into traditional platter-based storage by dramatically increasing the potential capacities. Last year, the company began shipping its first 32TB HAMR-based Corvault systems to customers, and with HAMR HDDs featuring more than 3TB per platter, that TB number will only increase. Dramatically.

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Seagate's HAMR, or Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording, harnesses the power of lasers and magnets, image credit: Seagate.

New research from NIMS, Seagate Technology, and Tohoku University shows that multi-level dual-layer HAMR storage is possible, unlocking even more data density. Per the headline, 120TB of storage on a single drive is on track to become a reality - the only catch is that, based on Seagate's HAMR roadmap, it might take a decade to get there.

However, if this new 'multi-level' tech becomes a reality, current HAMR storage capacities will dramatically increase to 60+ TB. Let's examine how it works.

If you're an expert in "nanogranular magnetic layers," be sure to read the entire research paper. It goes to great lengths to show how multi-level magnetic recording is possible with HAMR-based HDDs. It involves recording data on dual-layer granular media, a concept that has been around for a while, solved here with the creation of a new type of granular media with FePt-C nanogranular film separated with the ability to record on each layer via different magnetic fields and temperatures.

HAMR storage involves lasers heating and cooling densely packed data in a nanosecond to create high-capacity drives. In dual-layer form, the lasers and magnetic fields are adjusted during the writing process, allowing data to be recorded independently on each layer. And it doesn't stop there. The research says that recording on three or even four layers or levels is possible - which would mean an insane capacity - enough to install every Steam game in your library and then some.

• Read more: Seagate has begun shipping its new HAMR hard drives with over 30TB of capacity
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• Read more: Seagate Exos CORVAULT 4U106 system offers 2.5PB of Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording storage
• Read more: Seagate launches the world's largest hard drive at a very reasonable price