HDD barriers are breaking left and right. The latest innovation comes from Seagate, breaking the 1TB density barrier. Seagate will soon be offering the world’s first 3TB hard disk drive. Today, this size is more important than ever, with all of our images and downloads etc.

This 3.5” HDD for desktop PCs will help insure that you have plenty of space. The new HDD uses three platters. For now, Seagate hasn’t mentioned a shipping-date. The price is also unknown, but we should have some more info soon.

I-O Data has launched the I-O Data HDCA-UT3.0K external HDD. This storage device delivers 3TB of storage space and a USB 3.0 port, which is backwards compatible with the USB 2.0 interface we all know and love.

It is also compatible with Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS. Probably the most interesting feature is that it can also be used to record TV shows if you have a TV with a USB HDD recording mode. The new I-O Data HDCA-UT3.0K 3TB external HDD will cost you 27,720 Yen (or $314).

Seagate, who is always rolling out the latest and greatest hard drives now has another new offering. No surprise there. Their newest 3.5-inch hard drive comes equipped with 3TB of storage space.

It’s called the Barracuda XT and the drive features a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface, 64MB of cache memory and works at 7200 RPM. The 3TB Barracuda XT is available for purchase now if you have the scratch for just $279.

The Hitachi Ultrastar 7K3000 is the world’s first 7200RPM hard drive rated at 2.0 million hours MTBF and backed by a five-year limited warranty. It offers 50 percent more capacity at a 32 percent reduction in watts/GB compared to Hitachi’s previous generation Ultrastar A7K2000 drives.

The Ultrastar 7K3000 family are the first Hitachi 7,200 RPM drives in both 6Gb/s SATA and 6Gb/s SAS interfaces, for easier integration in a wider array of computing environments. The new Hitachi Ultrastar 7K3000 with a 6Gb/s SATA interface i available in 3TB and 2TB storage spaces, while the Ultrastar 7K3000 with a 6Gb/s SAS interface will be available in mid-2011.

The Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 comes in storage capacities of 1.5TB, 2TB and 3TB. That should give you more than enough space for your movies, music or whatever. These 3.5-inch 7200 RPM hard drives feature a 6Gb/s SATA interface and 64MB cache buffer.

They also offer improved performance over previous models. The Desktar 7K3000 has a halogen-free design, making it more eco-friendly, while the Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 is perfect for gaming and video editing.

We can never have enough storage, so it’s good that Seagate and Western Digital will soon be releasing their 3TB internal hard drives. There hasn’t been an official announcement yet, but pictures of the drives have surfaced of the Seagate Barracuda XT and Western Digital Caviar Green.

The Seagate drive will feature a 7,200RPM speed, along with a 64MB memory buffer, a 6Gbps SATA interface and an access time of 8.5ms. The WD drive will spin at a slower 5,400RPM and offer a 3Gbps SATA interface, a similar 64MB of buffer and an access time of 8.9ms.

Seems like just yesterday that an entire network attached storage box held just 3TB all told, but now Seagate boasts that capacity with a single five-platter drive, and so the NAS are getting larger as well. Seagate has added its 3TB drive to the 2- and 4-slot BlackArmor NAS boxes, taking capacity up to 12TB.

Both systems will come pre-populated with 3TB drives in each bay. The BlackArmor NAS 440 is configured with RAID 5 and ships with 10 backup software licenses right out-of-the-box, while the NAS 220 ships with RAID 1 configuration for automatic data mirroring and five backup software licenses.

If you’ve been wondering when we might see 3TB drives arriving, the answer is soon. At least according to Dr Geoff Barrall, founder and CEO of Drobo. He says that Drobos will be offering a 3TB drive by April 2010. Drobo uses Western Digital drives, so there’s a good chance that it could mean that Western Digital will be outing some 3TB drives of their own very soon.

Currently Western Digital offers a 2TB Caviar Black 3.5-inch SATA drive. A 3TB, 4-platter drive would need 750GB per platter – a 50 per cent increase over what the Caviar Black has.

Check out I-O Data’s latest 3TB external USB 2.0 HDD that looks like a NAS with a dedicated passive cooling system (fanless). It’s not the sexiest thing we’ve ever seen, but it’s pretty attractive.

The HDC2-U series sports two HDDs on the inside along with all of it’s hopes and dreams about a long working relationship with you. The HDC2-U will be available in Japan in the middle of July for about 50,900 Yen or $527.