Seagate is now shipping a 3TB drive that offers users an easy way to overcome the 2TB barrier without purchasing extra hardware or software.
As Seagate VP Dave Mosley explains, legacy PC BIOS designs and device drivers and older operating systems such as Windows XP are incapable of using or recognizing hard drive capacities beyond 2.1TB.
As such, existing desktop drives with more than 2.1TB of storage capacity must be deployed with additional software or hardware – and may also require extra device drivers.
However, the (3.5-inch) Barracuda XT includes free DiscWizard software, which painlessly allows the OS and device drivers to access a full 3TB of capacity on legacy systems using Windows XP and PC BIOS, as well as on personal computers equipped with newer versions of Windows or the new UEFI BIOS.
The 3TB Barracuda XT also features a 64MB cache, a Serial ATA 6Gb/s interface, and a speed of 7200RPM.
Although not officially announced, the HDD is likely to carry a $280 price tag.
