Western Digital is one of the few companies who have decided to keep going against the norm and continue to develop and innovate in their hard disk offerings. Experts in the tech field have long declared that Hard Disks are dead to the industry, and to a certain degree they are right, with SSDs now ruling the market and most devices as well. However, it looks like WD still think that there is a bit more that HDDs can offer, which is why they have hit the market with the all-new 26TB WD Red Pro HDDs lineup.
This helium-based CMR drive is a beast. With a maximum interface transfer rate of 6Gb/s and an internal transfer rate of 287MB/s, it’s built to handle up to 550TB of data annually. That’s borderline revolutionary. OptiNAND technology, which uses embedded flash to streamline data tracking and efficiency, makes it a powerhouse for creatives and businesses alike. Whether you’re juggling 8K video files or managing critical workloads, this drive has your back.
At $569.99, the 26TB WD Red Pro HDD is priced identically to its enterprise-class sibling, the WD Gold. But here’s the kicker: it’s not just about capacity. It’s about reliability, scalability, and performance in multi-bay RAID systems. Nitin Kachhwaha, Director of Product Management at Western Digital, puts it best: “We’re redefining what’s possible to meet the evolving storage demands of creatives and professionals.” And with a five-year warranty, this drive is clearly built to last—though, alas, no free data recovery.
Obviously, Western Digital’s Hard DIsk roadmap is pretty ambitious, and it could be a double edged sword too if they are not careful.
