We wrote about the Exos X26z, Seagate’s largest hard drive, back in December 2023. The 25TB enterprise HDD is a host-managed Shingled Magnetic Recording (HM-SMR) unit that doesn’t work with Windows or macOS. The Linux-compatible drive was designed exclusively for Seagate’s largest enterprise customers and has always been hard for others to get their hands on.
In fact, if Memory check I managed to get one to test, but the site had to go through eBay as it wasn’t available directly from Seagate or any of its official partners.
That has now changed, because you can buy the Exos X26z online via ServerPartDealsand it won’t cost you a fortune, either. The 25TB 3.5″ 7.2K RPM SATA 6Gb/s drive currently retails for $319.99 (discounts available for bulk orders).
Stop, HAMR time!
The drives for sale are “manufacturer recertified” and come with a two-year warranty. “New” and “seller refurbished” drives are listed (for $359.99 and $299.99, respectively), but they are currently sold out and there is no information on when inventory will be restocked.
The Exos X26z is only really useful for the largest hyperscalers and increases the capacity per slot by 25% compared to conventional hard drives. In the tests that Memory check When compared side-by-side with Seagate’s IonWolf Pro 20TB hard drive, the Exos X26z performed well on the drive. However, it’s important to remember that Seagate has since released hard drives that use Advanced Hard-Drive Recording (HAMR) technology.
Seagate has stated that its future drives powered by HAMR can break data capacity barriers. The company is ultimately aiming for 50TB, and unlike the Exos X26Z hard drive, these drives won’t be quite as hard to get hold of when they eventually arrive.
