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Get Perpendicular

teraera08
Explainers
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this explainer2 months2011–2026 score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Remembered fondly as a fun, memorable animated explanation of how perpendicular disk storage works.

A Hitachi promotional cartoon in the style of Schoolhouse Rock explaining perpendicular magnetic recording for hard drives.

“It's a simple concept to explain, but animation sure makes it fun and lasting.” (HN, 2023)

2 recommendations · 2 citations · 1 jokes · Explainers · partly dated

5 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@basch Apr 2020 Cites it
on HN thread Western Digital admits 2TB-6TB WD Red NAS drives use shingled magnetic recording
That's what I'm wondering though. Nearly all the WD data center drives are marketed as Ultrastar. Is this marketing, or did the HGST entity supplant WD enterprise during "integration" in the last two years? [link] It looks like the only surviving product names are Ultrastar and CinemaStar. Nothing is labeled HGST anymore. Most of the HGST Helium disks were SMR, if I'm not mistaken. As of now, given the two HelioSeal series, one of the two is SMR. Side Note: Hitachi had such a great thing going with their Schoolhouse Rock meets Dino DNA commercial. I wish this would have continued. [this video]
Hitachi's Schoolhouse Rock style perpendicular recording commercial.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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