Just curious what some of the thoughts are on some of these newer 6TB drives. Specifically ones that are sealed and filled with helium. It's a given these are going to have head failures. Is it going to be possible to repair and recover data from them?

picturing a lab where all the techs sound like chipmunks

I am guessing the lab will need to develop their own tools initially and maybe a way to tap a hole somewhere and have a pump system to refill it after an internal job is performed.

I am guessing also that donors will be way more expensive, jobs will be less frequent as the cost will certainly be higher, and jobs that are less frequent usually also raise the price.

Would be interesting to have a look at one.

I doubt we will ever see a Helium drive in for recovery.

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AFAICT, Kroll Ontrack are still looking into them, but it might be worth asking them if they are accepting these kinds of jobs. If they can't do it, then I doubt whether any small DR outfit will be able to.

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my relative is a watch maker and they just have a tub of gas they fill watches with as it is heavier than air they just fill a tub and hold the watch underneath the lip and put the lid on, while the cyclender trickles into the tub.

I'm guessing you could do the same with helium but you will have an upside down tub as it will float?

im guessing the hdd would be at atsmsopheric pressure ?

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You will see them at some point, mainly in Enterprise drives. Due to natural leakage the HDA will leak helium over time. Reliability goes down as the unit wears and helium is lost.

AFAiK THE HDA will probably have less that 100% helium due to the process. Target at the moment is between 0.3 to 1.0 atmosphere partial pressure.

Ultimately I'm sure we will see these drives AND refill them with our children's party ballon bottles

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

I think that they can be recovered in a Helium-Room !

Since these drives will likely be nowhere near affordable for the masses, therefore the use will be concentrated in data center and such, I predict finding drives for parts will be an issue. Unless the shop/company has connections, vendor contracts/privileges, etc.

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No way the Helium will stay in the drive. It can leak through most any gasket. Sounds like a vacuum pump and Helium supply and gauges will be in order. Gonna cost you if you want one recovered that requires opening...

I guess I was wrong, it is already available online for anybody to purchase.
http://eaegis.com/products/6tb-hgst-ult ... 7AodoH0AhA

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Without helium there will be more turbulence, I would expect lots of read errors and increased fly height IMHO

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

Reply from Kroll Ontrack (QLD, Australia):


Looks like the first Aussie customer will be the guinea pig.


Sheesh! No thanks!

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I would not want to use Oncrack as a "Benchmark"

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

One of te reasons for introducing Helium drives was to reduce over-eating that comes with the increase in the number of platters within the HDD; if the helium escapes, the drive will over-heat.

- What about the load on the spindle motor ?

- How will the difference in atmosphoric pressure within and outside the drive be dealt with ? I do not think that te Air-filter will be there any more ?

I have that same problem. :-)

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@Franc - Just curious, if you know, what was the failure on the drive?
Quite concerning if it just has been released and failed already.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Sorry if I misled you, but I don't actually have a failed drive. My enquiry to Ontrack was merely intended to establish whether they were able to handle such a job. Their response is basically telling their prospective customers that they have no idea whether they can do the job, and that it will cost the customer AU$1430 for OnTrack Australia to send an email to Ontrack USA to find out.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

like it

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

Surely some DR Companies would have to be "in bed" with certain HDD vendors. These DR Firms willing to pay for the info, or have worked in the manufacture and know people get the info on the new tech, or have large R&D depts start the ball roling, tools are built, tools are Reverse Engineered and the trickle of support comes from other vendors of DR tools. It is a waiting game I guess.

I wonder what the expected lifespan of the drive is, and what the actual will be. Also i wonder what the effect... such as chemical reactions over time, hardening, breaking down... of helium on things like PCB, solder, plastic, metal inside the drive, if any, and how well the drive withstands environment issues such as an A/C going down in a server room.