Western Digital introduces the WD Red Pro 26 TB. This hard drive with substantial capacity is aimed at NAS and DAS systems. WD is also launching one of the latter themselves.
Western Digital packs 26 TB into its new WD Red Pro. The drive consists of eleven physical disks spinning at 7,200 rpm, housed in a 3.5-inch helium-filled enclosure. Western Digital opts for CMR technology where data is written directly to the drive, without the capacity wizardry of SMR, which is less suitable for NAS and RAID use. SMR drives with 26 TB capacity have been on the market from WD for a while.
WD claims that the disks support a sequential transfer speed of a robust 272 MB/s. The WD Red Pro 26 TB can handle 550 TB per year and is built to be active 24/7 in a storage server such as a NAS. You connect the classic drive via SATA. The WD Red Pro 26 TB will soon be available for a suggested retail price of 760 euros excluding VAT.
DAS up to 208 TB
Western Digital takes the opportunity to launch some devices that are not necessarily based on the new drive. For instance, the new G-Drive appears: a device containing a 26 TB Ultrastar HDD built to connect directly to your computer. WD targets creative professionals.
The G-RAID Project 2 variant has space for two 26 TB drives, providing a total capacity of 52 TB. Building on that momentum, the G-RAID Shuttle 4 also appears with four bays, good for a maximum capacity of 104 TB, and finally the Shuttle 8 in which you can fit 208 TB. The devices support RAID and come delivered in RAID 5, which provides higher speeds, redundancy, but a lower usable capacity. For the last device, the suggested retail price is already $8,299.99. The devices will soon be available in our region.