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I'm having a hard time finding a 2.5" hard disk drive that is larger than 2TB is there a reason why that is? So far the only one I could find is the Seagate Barracuda but that's it, nothing from Western Digital, etc.

Are there problems that arise when the laptop's HDD is larger than 2TB?

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  • @JaromandaX perhaps any links to those? 4TB 2.5" HDDs
    – Yisroel Tech
    Commented May 23, 2023 at 3:28
  • @JaromandaX yeah it's not hard to find >2TB SSDs but I'm looking for HDDs
    – user9564371
    Commented May 23, 2023 at 3:38
  • @JaromandaX the main drive is an SSD, this will be a secondary plainly for storage drive
    – user9564371
    Commented May 23, 2023 at 15:28

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There is no theoretical maximum, but you'll obviously only get what manufacturers make, and given that the 2.5" HDD market (basically limited to only some laptops which still aren't SSD anyway) isn't that big (in comparison to the 3.5" HDD drives which are used for all type of massive storage products and setups) and not that many people need - and are willing to pay for - laptops with built in storage that large, you end up with not that many options.

Before even asking who makes 4TB 2.5" HDDs ask who makes 2.5" HDDs (especially internal) at all? Almost no one does. So now when HDD capacity is increasing there is simply no demand for such a product.

Seagate Barracuda has even 2.5" 5TB drives (https://www.memoryc.com/28938-5tb-seagate-barracuda-2-5-inch-5400rpm-sata-iii-6gbps-128mb-cache-internal-hard-drive.html?sscid=51k7_to67k&) but indeed other than that there isn't much.

(Take into account the fact that SSDs are now cheaper than ever, so a 4TB 2.5" SSH - from one of the reputable but cheaper brands - will not cost you that much more than an HDD would've cost you. Which just exacerbates the fact that no one needs 2.5" HDDs...)

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    But don't SSDs have a finite number of reads and writes whereas an HDD has a theoretical unlimited reads and writes as long as the internal mechanism is still working? In that scenario, I'm not really looking for a fast storage per se but something that can be written and read for a very long time.
    – user9564371
    Commented May 23, 2023 at 3:48
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    Maybe. But the "finite" is quite a lot, and the "theoretical unlimited" doesn't mean unlimited since the HDDs always break... Especially for a "laptop" which isn't in almost any case a read/write powerhouse.
    – Yisroel Tech
    Commented May 23, 2023 at 3:53
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    @user9564371 as long as you have a backup (which you should have anyway) those "finite reads" are largely irrelevant and quite frankly the absolutely awful performance of 2.5" HDDs makes them an atrocious prospect for any system where you want some kind of responsiveness or usability. I've had SSDs that lasted longer than the computer itself and HDDs that failed after a year and vice versa, and I'd take the SSDs supposedly shorter lifetime over the HDDs chronically useless performance every time. If you need high endurance then look for SSDs with a high DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day) figure.
    – Mokubai ♦
    Commented May 23, 2023 at 4:16
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    @user9564371 If you need a 4+ TB drive and you don't need it to be fast then you probably won't be writing to it all day long. In such case modern SSD's write endurance will be more than sufficient.
    – gronostaj
    Commented May 23, 2023 at 5:03
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    Anecdotal use-case. I've had HDs last a decade & also die in a year. Same with SSDs. Currently the oldest boot drive in the building is a 9-year-old 1TB SSD. Power on hours 78,664 [that's 9 years continuous run-time, this machine very rarely sleeps or shuts down] Total LBAs 682,688 million. Used reserve block count 0. Still shows 100% good in SMART tests.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented May 23, 2023 at 6:36
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It is likely a combination of usage case, price and demand.

HDD's have a place, but not as the single/main drive in a laptop - compared with SSD's they are very slow and don't handle vibrations - and laptops are more likely to be dropped etc then SSD's, so the market for them is limited.

There is a hardware "bump" at 2tb that older (now ancient) systems can't handle, but that should not be a major factor anymore.

One of the limits is the density of data that you can fit in the profile of a laptop drive is a lot less then a desktop drive, and there may not be the economies of scale to justify (for example) filling the drives with Helium because the return is just not there relative to the cost. In other words, R&D money is likely better spent on developing SSD's

You can theoretically take an external 4tb drive, remove the shell and put it in a laptop and it should work (provided the laptop space is not to thin). You can also buy a 4 or 5tb 2.5" drive (eg https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/HDDSE4530/Seagate-BarraCuda-4TB-25-Internal-HDD-SATA3---5400 / https://www.amazon.com.au/Seagate-Barracuda-2-5-Inch-Internal-ST5000LM000/dp/B01M0AADIX )

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