Seagate has claimed a global first after shipping its one billionth hard drive and has predicted it will be close to its second billion by the time its competitors catch up.

The storage giant claims the figure, which is equivalent to 79m terabytes of storage, is reflective of the amount of digital content being created in the world whether at home, in the office or even in the car.

According to analyst firm Gartner, more than 500 million drives were shipped last year compared to 1990 when less than 30 million were shipped.

Bill Watkins, chief executive of Seagate said: “This company has an amazing, colourful and important history, which continues to be written every day. Al Shugart and a few others started the company behind a convenience store in 1979 and enabled the birth of the first PCs.

“Today we are at the centre of the digital content revolution. So reaching this milestone is a great opportunity for us to reflect on our accomplishments and those of our predecessors, and also look forward to the great things we can still achieve as a company.”