While hard drive manufacturers are looking at the future, at least one company is apparently ready to smash the 3TB barrier with the introduction of the first 3TB drive to market later this year. Seagate apparently has a 3TB model on their roadmap for release later this year according to our sources.

From what we hear, the first 3TB Seagate will launch a variable speed drive that that can spin at speeds of between 5900 to 7200 RPM which the company considers its green model. Later on, after they have gained more experience in producing the 3TB drives the company will launch a performance-oriented 3TB model that will spin at the 7200 RPM speed.

Of course, these drives will build on the technology that Seagate has deployed in their latest generation of 2TB drives. However, don’t expect these drives to come cheap. We expect the 3TB models to be expensive when they arrive; and compatibility with older operating systems such as Windows XP will be a problem.

It is likely that the 3TB drive will be targeted at users running Windows Vista/Windows 7 or Mac OS X or Linux variants that already offer native support of drives beyond 2TB with a solution that is better than what we have seen today. Some emulation might end up being available, but it is likely that it will introduce a performance hit.