Everything is getting bigger, disk drives included. Last week Hitachi and Seagate introduced some of the biggest drives - Hitachi topped the 1TB level, Seagate rolled out 1.5TB drives.

Hitachi announced two new Deskstar hard drives – The Deskstar 7K1000.B is intended for use in desktop PCs, the Deskstar E7K1000 is meant for servers. Each uses Hitachi’s perpendicular magnetic recording technology to supply as much as 375GB per disk The Deskstar 7K1000.B is available in a 160GB and 1TB configuration; the E7K1000 is available in 500GB and 1TB configurations.

Each model further supports Serial ATA interfaces and optional AES encryption.

These new DeskStar drives include a 32MB buffer, 1.2-million-hour Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF). They are designed for use in nearline arrays for archival storage. The drives are expected to ship by the end of the month.

Seagate unveiled its new 1.5TB disk drive - the Barracuda 7200.11 - which is intended for use in desktop PCs. The 7200.11 is 50% larger than the company’s previous 1TB drive.

The Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive has 1.5TBs situated on four platters. It features a 3Gbps Serial ATA interface and can sustain a data rate of as much as 120Mbps. Further the 7200 has a rotational speed of 7,200 RPMs.

It is expected to be available in August for $450.

The new Deskstar drives are expected to ship in July.

Deni Connor is principal analyst for Storage Strategies NOW.