One of the things we'd expect to hurt a mechanical hard drive's lifespan has been harnessed in a way that could in fact significantly benefit it – heat. According to a team of researchers led by a Thomas Ostler at the University of York in the UK, they have discovered a new method of magnetic recording that could greatly improve the performance of mechanical HDDs; this by firing a short burst of heat (at around 800 °C) using a fine laser for less than a trillionth of a second.

Testing has confirmed that this highly controlled and precise amount of heat results in staggering performance increases that could pave the way for hard drives capable of recording and reading terabytes of information per second. Further to this, the process is also said to use less energy than traditional magnetic recording which is always a big plus.

Think you can fathom out the results of their studies? The figures have been openly shared out here.

Via: NewScientist

KitGuru says: We take no responsibility for drive failures if you feel the need to go and benchmark your Raptor in the oven.

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