Such innovations were brought to the market as the industry had exhausted all other options for record density improvements, like helium sealing to place more platters in one single case, or using smaller grains on the surface. To better understand the necessity of either laser- or microwave-powered data writing, let's consider basic HDD concepts. Keep reading to understand the difference between HAMR vs MAMR approaches.<\/p>\n
Hard Disk Drive Basics<\/h2>\n
Every HDD consists of a few magnetic platters, reading\/writing heads, an electric motor, and a controller board. When talking about data volume, the volume-defining component is the magnetic platters. You can place more data bits onto every inch, thus improving the capacity of each platter or place more platters in one HDD case to significantly improve the overall drive volume.<\/p>\n
![\"Hard](\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hdd-scheme.png\")
Basic components of every hard drive<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>This first approach has been used for the last ten years but now the industry faces physical barriers when it comes to further compaction:<\/p>\n Since manufacturers cannot place an infinite number of platters whilst maintaining the same 3.5\u201d form-factor, they are thinking up alternative approaches to overcome barriers in data compaction. Up until the end of 2017, the industry was focused on pre-writing by means of lowering magnetic hardness using laser heating (HAMR technology). This had lasted for ten long years, but there were always limitations on presenting the real product: material issues, more complex production cycles, dissipation of heat, etc.<\/p>\n But then Western Digital announced its own solution to density improvement without excessive heat - MAMR. They propose using small microwave oscillators to temporarily lower the magnetic hardness.<\/p>\n Since laser heating is used prior to writing operations, and the temperature can get up to 400C, this can cause surface degradation. So Seagate developed new HAMR hard drives with platters made using glass, allowing them to use higher temperatures for recording layer(s). They added a heat sink and an additional surface layer to control the heat flow. These and a few other required hardware improvements have been included to change the production cycle and supply chains, thus making the end product more expensive. Understanding that, Seagate relies on a lower price-per-TB value thanks to a significantly improved bit-density.<\/p>\n Typical heating-cooling data writing cycles use HAMR technology<\/p><\/div>\n\n
![\"CTA\"](\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/5442029\/9e4c00b0-6749-40f8-8786-f1d3db258cdc.png\")
<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n![\"Local](\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Guide-to-Local-Backup-Storage.png\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nHAMR Hard Drive Peculiarities<\/h2>\n
![\"HAMR](\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/image3-2-1024x583.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"CTA\"](\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/5442029\/23045ab4-654d-4d3e-8af6-45f3fc73419a.png\")
<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n![\"Writing](\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/image2-3.png\")
![\"MAMR](\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/image4-1.png\")
<\/p>\n