The EE25.2 Series drive is designed to operate at extreme altitudes—up to 16,000 feet. But it has gone much higher.

Imagine scaling a mountain in summertime, where conditions change from sweltering heat and oppressive humidity at the base to cold temperatures and low oxygen as the altitude rises. Most people—and products—have extreme difficulty functioning under such stresses, but Seagate’s new EE25.2 Series™ hard drive was built to withstand hardships. 

The second-generation of the 2.5-inch EE25 Series hard disc drive (The two “E’s” stand for “Extreme Environment”) was subjected to extensive research and intensified testing techniques that led to improvement in what the drive can take and what it can store. The drive, which offers up to 80GB of storage, is even being used in place of flash technology in some devices. 

“We already had the most rugged drive on the face of the planet, and then we increased its endurance and capacity, and added a higher-speed SATA interface,” said Mark Jourlait, vice president of global marketing at Seagate. “SATA offers higher throughput for data-intensive and real-time applications like video and real-time data capture. Combined with the rugged features of  the EE25.2, we can now reliably perform high-speed storage applications anywhere, anytime.”

Cars, Planes, Boats—It Goes Anywhere

Rob Pait, director of global CE marketing at Seagate, said a number of new applications have emerged that require rugged protection of their data. While its predecessor was aimed primarily at the automotive market, the EE25.2 also supports entertainment, information and navigation systems for aircraft, boats, cars, embedded PCs, and mobile surveillance. Pait said the new drive has been engineered to withstand even greater levels of vibration, shock, humidity and altitude. 

“You won’t see performance degrade as you approach environmental extremes,” he said.

One superior aspect of the EE25.2 Series drive is its ability to self-preserve. The inherent dangers of every possible drive destination have been considered—from the continuous vibration a drive faces in an airplane’s entertainment system to the precipitation and humidity it experiences in a boat’s navigation system. The EE25.2 Series drive has an ability to sense and prevent potential damage that would be inflicted on a standard hard drive.

Toughness Saves Money, Too

With its tough features, the EE25.2 Series drive is perfect for budget-conscious system designers, negating the need for custom dampening and cushioning systems, pre-heaters, fans and other costly components.

The original EE25 Series hard drive accompanied a 2005 summit attempt of Mount. Everest, the world’s highest peak. Climbers used the drives to document their journey to 17,500 feet—short of their summit goal, but far higher than the drive’s specified operating altitude of 10,000 feet. Despite frigid temperatures, wet snow, and extreme altitude, the drive experienced no failures. 

Earlier this spring, a EE25.2 Series drive nearly reached the top of the world when a UK climbing team achieved Everest’s 29,029-foot summit. That new-generation drive is specified to operate at up to 16,000 feet, and the team took it well beyond those specs - - up to 23,100 feet. The drive also withstood temperatures that dipped as low as minus 23 degrees.

“This hard drive goes where no drive has gone before—into really harsh, rugged environments,” Pait said.  “In the past, you’d never dream of taking a hard drive to those extremes.”