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Nanotube Lube Replenishment for Massive Drives

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the elderly-celebrity-spokespeople-sought dept.

PetManimal writes "Techworld reports that Seagate has just patented something called 'Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording,' which features nanotechnology and could lead to a 1.46TB 2.5-in. drive. The article says 'Storing data properly in extremely small areas requires the magnetic material to be heated during the writing phase, but this causes the lubricant film deposited on top of the magnetized recording layer to evaporate. Seagate's patent resolves this problem by having a reservoir inside the disk casing that contains nanotube-based lubricant. Some of this is periodically pumped out as a vapor and deposited on the surface of the disk, replenishing the evaporated lubricant.'"

4 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. good idea! by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some of this is periodically pumped out as a vapor and deposited on the surface of the disk, replenishing the evaporated lubricant.

    Hey, I could use some of this this! Oh wait...it says disk...

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    This guy's the limit!
    1. Re:good idea! by op12 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, you probably read 2.5in and made a quick logical jump.

      ...I couldn't help myself - you left the door wide open on that one.

  2. Correct me if I'm wrong... by The+Living+Fractal · · Score: 5, Interesting

    .. But, after reading about this days ago, I was under the impression the lubricant itself wasn't 'nanotube based' but rather was distributed across the platters in a controlled fashion via nanotubes. Insofar that the tubes themselves only allow a certain, small, amount of the lubricant to escape and only when the absence of lubricant on the surface produces enough differential pressure to allow it.

    And, incidentally, the ten year life of the lubricant reservoir should be sufficient IMHO. I can't imagine in ten years we'll still be using the same hard drives anyway. I think Seagate is banking on it.

    TLF

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    1. Re:Correct me if I'm wrong... by The+Living+Fractal · · Score: 5, Informative

      http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/07/04/seagate_leaky_dr ives/

      TG Daily a few days ago.

      Perfluoropolyether is the lubricant. And it's not 'nanotube-based' at all. It's delivered via the tubes.

      From the article: "Vapor PFPE also surrounds the platter. As the drive spins, areas of the platter will get hot, which will wear out the lubricant. The vapor PFPE deposits on the platter to replace the worn out lubricant. The "condensing" vapor lowers vapor pressure which then draws out lubricant from the CNTs until the pressure is equalized."

      It does say the reservoir will provide ten years of 'practical' use. For someone who uses their hard drives a LOT (maybe someone without enough RAM? :)) I could see this lasting only 7-8 years. Still quite a while IMHO.

      TLF

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      I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.