has started shipping 6TB Ultrastar He6 hard drives designed for corporate users and data centres.

The drives are hermetically sealed and filled with helium, which is one seventh the density of air. Thanks to HGST’s HelioSeal technology, the new drives can be liquid cooled – in fact they are capable of operating submersed in liquid.

The seven platter design is lighter than standard five platter 3.5-inch drives and no, helium has nothing to do with it. It has the highest data density of any 3.5-inch drive and the lowest power consumption per TB of storage. It also generates less heat than a standard five-platter drive.

HGST is already working with HP, Netflix, Huawei and CERN to certify the drive and give their servers a squeaky voice.