Seagate today announced the release of its Barracuda XT, the company's first 3-terabyte 3.5-inch hard drive—and one that the company claims is the easiest-to-install model on the market.
At issue here is a limitation that affects storage media larger than 2.19TB in size, and typically requires updated hardware and a post–Windows XP operating system to take full advantage of. (Read PCMag's article "The Problem with Big Hard Drives" for more information about this.)
Some hard drive manufacturers, such as Western Digital, have overcome the problem with hardware. And some component vendors, such as Asus, have found solutions that will work only for their own motherboards. Seagate, however, claims to have found a solution that lets everyone, on every operating system, to use the Barracuda XT.
To surmount the 2.19TB limitation, Seagate is including with every Barracuda XT the Seagate DiscWizard software, which lets users access the extra space by essentially turning it into a virtual drive. (This is similar to the way Asus' utility works.) Or, as a Seagate press release puts it, DiscWizard "makes it simple to configure the computer operating system and device drivers to access the full 3TB of capacity on legacy systems using Windows XP and PC BIOS and on personal computers equipped with newer versions of Windows." (DiscWizard is also available as a free download on Segate's Web site.)
In addition to its enormous storage capacity, the Barracuda XT also supports high-speed 6-Gbps SATA data connections and comes with a 64MB cache for optimizing burst performance. The Barracuda XT has a rotational speed of 7,200 rpm—standard for a full-sized desktop hard drive.
Seagate has priced the Barracuda XT 3TB hard drive at $279.99 list. For more information, visit Seagate's Web site.