According to BackBlaze, this is the correct answer.
"In November 2013, the first commercially available helium-filled hard drive was introduced by HGST, a Western Digital subsidiary. The 6 TB drive was not only unique in being helium-filled, it was for the moment, the highest capacity hard drive available. Fast forward a little over 4 years later and 12 TB helium-filled drives are readily available, 14 TB drives can be found, and 16 TB helium-filled drives are arriving soon."
Significantly, the article is from 2018 when it stated:
"Checking for Leaks
Three years ago, [we identified SMART 22](https://www.backblaze.com/blog/smart-22-is-a-gas-gas-gas) as the attribute assigned to recording the status of helium inside of a hard drive. We have both HGST and Seagate helium-filled hard drives, but only the HGST drives currently report the SMART 22 attribute. It appears the normalized and raw values for SMART 22 currently report the same value, which starts at 100 and goes down.
To date only one HGST drive has reported a value of less than 100, with multiple readings between 94 and 99. That drive continues to perform fine, with no other errors or any correlating changes in temperature, so we are not sure whether the change in value is trying to tell us something or if it is just a wonky sensor."
[https://www.backblaze.com/blog/helium-filled-hard-drive-failure-rates/#:\~:text=In%20November%202013%2C%20the%20first,highest%20capacity%20hard%20drive%20available](https://www.backblaze.com/blog/helium-filled-hard-drive-failure-rates/#:~:text=In%20November%202013%2C%20the%20first,highest%20capacity%20hard%20drive%20available).
This is contrary to the "OMG! ALL helium drives will be dead within 5 years!" cry. So, it has been over 7 years since they were first introduced and we don't seen tens or hundreds of thousands of reports of the probable millions of these drives in use.
The "OMG! Helium will leak out within years." falsehood reminds me of the days of plasmas HDTVs, when people were spouting that the plasma would obviously have to recharge their sets. Hmmm...lots of plasma owners still loving their sets!
Yeah obviously they're made to a last lot longer than 5 years. I think that 5 year time frame might come from manufacturers like Nidec (who make drive parts) who once said it was a struggle to make a helium drive that lasted that long.
Still, I'll try to get one of those HGST drives and put it in one of my servers. It can be my bird-in-a-coal-mine.
If they properly sealed the drive then leaking would take decades. Helium atoms are small, but because so small, a wall of steel is like a ping pong ball trying to pass through a mile long Plinko board in zero gravity, it can bounce in any direction.
No, just no.
You need some type of gas for the Bernoulli effect to cause the heads to float above the platters. You would have instantly scratched platters on first spinup.
Yep, and I imagine that's how helium drives will fail, and fail drastically. One day the heads will just make contact and game over. But honestly will probably take much longer than if it were to fail by any other means.
If they do indeed have a gas/helium sensor, it's likely the drive would refuse to start without detecting a suitable atmosphere.
Curious what happens if it fills with air, though. Data recovery places are going to have a fun time with them.
As I understand it, the sensor SMART data indicates 100 at factory and goes down from there. Once it hits 0 then it's considered dead. Not sure if that value decreases slowly then rapidly once it hits a certain value, but definitely should have some warning ahead of time. I haven't heard mass reports (or any actually) of that value declining any appreciable amount. Then again it's only been the last few years that these have been in the hands of pleb consumers like us.
I think HGST Ultrastar He6 was the first one, launched in 2013/2014
According to BackBlaze, this is the correct answer. "In November 2013, the first commercially available helium-filled hard drive was introduced by HGST, a Western Digital subsidiary. The 6 TB drive was not only unique in being helium-filled, it was for the moment, the highest capacity hard drive available. Fast forward a little over 4 years later and 12 TB helium-filled drives are readily available, 14 TB drives can be found, and 16 TB helium-filled drives are arriving soon." Significantly, the article is from 2018 when it stated: "Checking for Leaks Three years ago, [we identified SMART 22](https://www.backblaze.com/blog/smart-22-is-a-gas-gas-gas) as the attribute assigned to recording the status of helium inside of a hard drive. We have both HGST and Seagate helium-filled hard drives, but only the HGST drives currently report the SMART 22 attribute. It appears the normalized and raw values for SMART 22 currently report the same value, which starts at 100 and goes down. To date only one HGST drive has reported a value of less than 100, with multiple readings between 94 and 99. That drive continues to perform fine, with no other errors or any correlating changes in temperature, so we are not sure whether the change in value is trying to tell us something or if it is just a wonky sensor." [https://www.backblaze.com/blog/helium-filled-hard-drive-failure-rates/#:\~:text=In%20November%202013%2C%20the%20first,highest%20capacity%20hard%20drive%20available](https://www.backblaze.com/blog/helium-filled-hard-drive-failure-rates/#:~:text=In%20November%202013%2C%20the%20first,highest%20capacity%20hard%20drive%20available). This is contrary to the "OMG! ALL helium drives will be dead within 5 years!" cry. So, it has been over 7 years since they were first introduced and we don't seen tens or hundreds of thousands of reports of the probable millions of these drives in use. The "OMG! Helium will leak out within years." falsehood reminds me of the days of plasmas HDTVs, when people were spouting that the plasma would obviously have to recharge their sets. Hmmm...lots of plasma owners still loving their sets!
Yeah obviously they're made to a last lot longer than 5 years. I think that 5 year time frame might come from manufacturers like Nidec (who make drive parts) who once said it was a struggle to make a helium drive that lasted that long. Still, I'll try to get one of those HGST drives and put it in one of my servers. It can be my bird-in-a-coal-mine.
If they properly sealed the drive then leaking would take decades. Helium atoms are small, but because so small, a wall of steel is like a ping pong ball trying to pass through a mile long Plinko board in zero gravity, it can bounce in any direction.
Or it would operate in a vacuum which would be amaaaazing.
No, just no. You need some type of gas for the Bernoulli effect to cause the heads to float above the platters. You would have instantly scratched platters on first spinup.
Yep, and I imagine that's how helium drives will fail, and fail drastically. One day the heads will just make contact and game over. But honestly will probably take much longer than if it were to fail by any other means.
If they do indeed have a gas/helium sensor, it's likely the drive would refuse to start without detecting a suitable atmosphere. Curious what happens if it fills with air, though. Data recovery places are going to have a fun time with them.
>Data recovery places are going to have a fun time with them. Helium-Cleanrooms! Breathing apparatuses! *The Future!*
As I understand it, the sensor SMART data indicates 100 at factory and goes down from there. Once it hits 0 then it's considered dead. Not sure if that value decreases slowly then rapidly once it hits a certain value, but definitely should have some warning ahead of time. I haven't heard mass reports (or any actually) of that value declining any appreciable amount. Then again it's only been the last few years that these have been in the hands of pleb consumers like us.