Debunking 4 Myths About HDDs
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By
Brian Mallari
, Director of Product & Segment Marketing at Western Digital - Best Practices,
Western Digital’s Brian Mallari offers commentary on debunking the key myths about HDDs. This article originally appeared in Insight Jam, an enterprise IT community that enables human conversation on AI.
Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) have served as the backbone of the digital revolution for years – giving organizations a reliable storage medium for supporting the massive amount of data created, stored and archived each year. According to IDC, over 393 zettabytes of data will be generated annually by 2028 – up from just 39 ZBs in 2018. (IDC Source: Worldwide IDC Global DataSphere Forecast, 2024-2028, Doc #US52076424).
Keeping pace with this exponential growth will require continually evolving storage solutions. HDDs – long valued for their massive capacity, cost-effectiveness and low total cost of ownership (TCO) – are rising to the challenge. Today, nearly 80% of data stored in the cloud is on HDDs.
Still, misconceptions persist. As storage demands grow more complex, it’s important to separate fact from fiction. Here are four common myths about HDDs and the truth behind them.
Myth #1: HDDs are Outdated, Obsolete Technology
Some are under the impression that HDD storage solutions are slow. They’re clunky. They’re like the rotary phone in the smartphone era. Some believe that while HDDs once served a very important purpose, modern applications only need high-performance, low-latency storage solutions to keep up with things like AI-powered workloads, which are better suited to newer flash drives that value speed over capacity.
The Truth: HDDs are Ideal for Today’s Data Intensive Applications
Today’s HDDs are packed with cutting-edge innovations, delivering record-breaking capacities and incredible data density across a variety of consumer, client and enterprise use cases. It’s important to note that modern applications aren’t just about speed; they demand efficient, scalable and cost-effective storage solutions.
Consider a social media video that goes viral. Initially it needs high-speed flash storage to serve millions of viewers in real time. Once the buzz fades, that video no longer requires instant access making it far more economical to store on HDD where cost per terabyte is dramatically lower. With data volumes surging, new HDD advancements like energy-assisted magnetic recording (EAMR), higher track density and advanced materials innovations have been engineered to meet these needs. These innovations allow organizations to balance performance and capacity at scale ensuring they get the most value from their data, in environments including AI, cloud and edge.
Myth #2: HDDs are Being Phased Out
Much has changed over the past several years to perpetuate this myth. Personal computing has moved from desktop computers to flash-based mobile devices. Backups are now frequently done in the cloud. And on-demand streaming has replaced DVR storage. In other words, to the average consumer, HDDs are no longer taking center stage.
The Truth: HDD Deployments are Growing, Especially in the Cloud
HDDs remain the foundational storage technology and their deployment continues to rapidly increase in cloud data centers worldwide. Buoyed by data-intensive applications and new Gen AI capabilities, the cloud data center market is healthier than ever, requiring massive capacity to both store and utilize data. In fact, the very services that consumers use today—like cloud backups and on-demand streaming—depend on hard drives. HDDs haven’t vanished; they’ve simply moved from living rooms and laptops to hyperscale cloud data centers.
IDC estimates that about 80% of storage within the cloud will still be based on hard drives. (IDC Source: Worldwide IDC Global StorageSphere Forecast, 2024-2028. Doc #US52312824) In this era of explosive growth, the storage market isn’t a zero-sum game. HDDs continue to play a vital role in capacity-driven use cases where cost-efficiency, scale, and reliability matter most. In terms of acquisition cost, HDDs have a 6x advantage over flash1. Tiered storage strategies are becoming the norm, ensuring that organizations can align performance with application needs while minimizing cost. HDDs are a key part of that strategy, offering the scalability required to support the digital services we rely on every day.
Myth #3: Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) is a Terrible Technology
SMR drives were designed to increase areal density by overlapping tracks like shingles on a roof. They’ve earned a bad reputation outside of the data center as some see them as a workaround that sacrifices performance in favor of higher capacity and lower cost. Critics argue that SMR drives are too slow for real workloads and behave unpredictably under sustained writes leaving many to assume that SMR has no place in modern storage infrastructure.
The Truth: Host-Managed SMR HDDs Serve a Useful Purpose in the Data Center
SMR drives are often misunderstood. SMR isn’t a shortcut—it’s a deliberate innovation designed to maximize areal density and lower the cost per terabyte. When deployed in the right environments, such as hyperscale data centers, cloud backup systems, video surveillance archives, and content repositories, SMR drives deliver significant capacity and efficiency gains. Today they offer 20% more capacity than CMR HDDs. For workloads with sequential writes, and with the right software stack, SMR HDDs thrive and provide substantial TCO benefits.
Today’s host-managed SMR drives are purpose-built for these scenarios. Modern enterprise SMR drives are integrated intentionally into tiered architectures. With proper workload alignment, SMR enables high-capacity storage with lower TCO making it a strategic enabler of infrastructure at cloud scale.
Myth #4: HDD Data Can be Wiped with a Magnet or Drilled Holes
Old storage drives can be disposed of by rubbing a magnet across the shell or by drilling holes through the unit. Destroying the drive in this way makes it unreadable and safe for disposal.
The Truth: There’s a Right Way to Wipe Your Hard Drive
The reality is much more complicated. Bits are microscopic in size and no amount of physical destruction can damage every track on a drive – no matter how many holes you drill through it. HDDs should be wiped properly. This can include doing a full overwrite with the manufacturer’s software, built-in features, or a certified third-party developer. Highly sensitive data can be overwritten with a special secure erase or through degaussing – a process that exposes the drive to a strong, commercial-grade magnetic field. Consumer-grade magnets are not strong enough to make any difference to the data on a hard drive. Drives can then be recycled by the manufacturer or certified service provider.
Long Live the HDD!
HDDs aren’t going anywhere. While SSDs are increasingly being adopted to support high-performance workloads, HDDs remain indispensable for capacity at scale. There’s room for both as it’s not an either-or scenario. It’s what works best in the intended environment and use case.
The truth is clear: HDDs are ideal for today’s data-intensive applications, HDDs are not being phased out, SMR technology is not a flawed technology and proper drive sanitization and recycling is an important part of a drive’s lifecycle. As the world generates more data than ever before, HDDs will continue to rise to the challenge, delivering the innovation, scale and resilience our digital future depends on.
- Debunking 4 Myths About HDDs - January 30, 2026
Brian Mallari
Director of Product & Segment Marketing
Brian Mallari is a Director of Product & Segment Marketing at Western Digital, specializing in product strategy and execution. They provide leadership within the organization, actively engaging with management in engineering, sales, and operations. Their responsibilities encompass roadmap strategy, business case analysis, and complete product lifecycle management. They continuously review and recommend improvements to existing business unit or cross-functional processes.
