- Buffalo skeleton hard drive makes file storage for living, moving art
- Want to see your data be read in real time? This drive it delivers visually
- Not only storage, it’s a show – only 50 units available
To mark its 50th anniversary, Buffalo has introduced a special edition external HDD, called Skeleton Hard Disk (HD-SL). This drifted genimagines the company’s skeleton model from 1998 and offers a rare look at a hard drive in action – something even the best SSD settings can’t give.
Through its transparent window, users can see the magnetic head move as it reads and writes data, improved by a companion Windows app called “Seekwizard.”
The software provides the drive to perform demonstration search patterns – such as sequential and random seeker – transform HDD into a visual showcase with mechanical data pick up.
A special edition to bring back memories
Founded in 1975 by Makoto Maki, Buffalo celebrates its development from a sound-focused company to a larger player in PC-peripheral devices. Its original skeletal hard drive released in 1998 had a 4.3 GB of capacity and contained a transparent coverage.
The 2025 special edition is limited to only 50 units, and while the design nods for nostalgia, HD-SL has an advanced aluminum chassis, precisely painted and anodized in matte black that repeats the style of 3533 Yarn Drive player Buffalo launched in the late 1970s.
Inside, HD-SL 4TB offers storage space and connects via USB 3.2 Gen 1, with backward compatibility down to USB 2.0. It also supports the Micro-B port.
The drive is pre-formated in exFAT for broad operating system support, although USB-C users will have to deliver their own adapter.
Weighing about 1.5 kg and measuring 126 × 185 × 115 mm, it is bulker than today’s slim laptops – but the appeal is clearly different.
The product is scheduled to be shipped in June 2025 to 100,000 yen (about $ 688) after a lottery -based sale ending on May 25.