14 DAY TRIAL // One might think that hard disk drives could be used in automotive entertainment systems as easily as anywhere else, but that is not the case. If it were, products like the new HGST Endurastar J4K320 family would not need to be put together with such care.
Granted, normal HDDs would last for a while, assuming they would actually fit in automotive entertainment systems, but failure would be assured.
After all, cars move and jostle all the time, and then there are the vibrations from the road, the motor and wind to consider.
What we're getting at is that HDDs, having so many moving parts, need certain safeguards inside in order to avoid failure. Otherwise, the jostles could cause the reading pin to come into contact with the disk and scratch it.
HGST has introduced a new hard disk drive from the Endurastar family, called Endurastar J4K320.
This HDD has a single platter of 320 GB, 220% more than its predecessor, and can withstand high altitudes and extreme temperatures, not just normal car movements.
For those who want specifics, the drive will survive at altitudes of up to 5500 meters (18,044.62 feet) and operating temperatures of -30°C to +85°C (-22°F to 185°F).
The shock tolerance is high too, of 300G (2ms) during operation and 800G (ms) when not in use.
Most of these advantages stem from the patented Thermal Fly-height Control (TFC) feature, which can “compensate the head/media distance variations caused by altitude and temperature changes.”
"HGST has been working with the automotive industry for nearly two decades to develop the right hard drive products for use in cars," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing, HGST.
"These onboard systems integrate a combination of entertainment (video, audio, radio), navigation, connectivity, security services, diagnosis and much more to help provide a seamless in-car user experience."
As some may have guessed by now, given our mention of compactness, the new Endurastar J4K320 is a 2.5-inch unit, not a 3.5-inch drive, with a thickness of 9.5mm, a speed of 4260 RPMs and SATA interface (SATA 1.5 Gbps). It is the best of its collection, the others offering 250GB, 200GB, 100GB and 80GB capacities.