Leaking hard drives

Nanotubes that leak a vapour of lubricant could provide a tenfoldincrease in hard drive capacity. The claim is made by hard drivemanufacturer Seagate, which is patenting the idea after research fundedby the US National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Moremagnetically stored information can be squeezed onto a hard disc byheating it. This changes the magnetic properties of the regions used tohold data so that they can be packed more closely together.

Unfortunatelythis heating evaporates the lubricant that lets a recording head travelover a disk smoothly. If the recording head crashes into the surfacethe whole disk then becomes useless.

Seagate's answer is to usea material made from millions of carbon nanotubes, embedded in the discdrive housing, to store the lubricant. As the disc spins, the lubricantwill leak out and cover the surface of the disc.

Because thedrive is sealed and the vapour cannot escape, the nanotubes could holdenough lubricant for a disc's lifetime. Seagate says the heat-assistedrecording method should provide an information storage density ofseveral terabits per square inch - 10 times more than is possible today.

Source: newscientist.comAdded: 4 July 2006