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Hard Disk Storage 1985

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Alex Eisenhut:
By 1992 Micropolis were already selling 2GB SCSI-2 systems.

https://manx-docs.org/collections/antonio/chrisq/Micropolis_-_Subsystems_for_PCs_and_Compatibles.pdf

james_s:
I guess it could have been late 80s, but even in the 90s a 1GB hard drive was huge. SCSI and ESDI coexisted for a while, I think the biggest ESDI drive I ever personally saw was 170MB. I think I finally got a 1GB drive around 1998, by that time a 3.5" IDE.

David Hess:
I still have my Maxtor 8760E 670MB 5.25" full height ESDI drive, which cost about $900 new.

ozcar:

--- Quote from: duak on July 06, 2018, 05:57:39 pm ---I got a 15 Mb Honeywell hard drive with a pack in 1978.  It used late 60's technology and was about the size of a washing machine.  The controller/formatter was apparently about the size of a fridge.  I was able to spin up the drive and load the heads and see some data with a 'scope.  The head actuator was hydraulic and was driven off the spindle by a big flat belt and was about as loud as a Shop-vac.  I later worked with an ex-DEC guy that said that the flat belt often fell off when it collected enough oil.  If it was writing at the time it would first overwrite the data with longer bits and then grind off the oxide as the heads moved away from that cylinder and stopped flying.

I saved the frame for a work table and used the motor for a grinder.  I'm thinking of using the spindle for something like a surface grinder.  I took the pack apart and found two roached platters where the heads crashed.

In late 1980 I got one of the first Shugart (not Seagate) 8" hard disks with, count 'em, 4 Mb.  With the SASI (precursor to SCSI) controller it came to about $2K.  I was playing with assemblers and a C complier at the time and it reduced run times by about 60-80% over dual 8" floppies.  I last ran it about 10 years later and it still worked.  It was a hoot to boot into CP/M in less than a second.  I still have it and one of these days I might try it again.  Any comments on whether the heads might peel the oxide off the platter because it hasn't been used for so long?  It didn't have a dedicated landing zone but I always tried to set it over the innermost cylinder when shutting it off.

I'd say that by 1985 small disks were commodities and the price per bit really started to drop.  Weren't there like over 20 manufacturers of small disk drives about then?

Cheers,

--- End quote ---

There were certainly some weird and wonderful early data storage devices. My list of favourites would have to include the Noodle Snatcher (aka the Washing Machine or Maytag). Here a bloke has a picture of one, and is of the opinion that it was designed by the Rube Goldberg division at IBM: https://billyjim47.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-life-with-technology-chapter-11.html

Actually it was apparently designed by the Alan Shugart division, or at least by a team that he headed. Yep, him of Shugart Associates, and later Seagate fame.

james_s:
I have a Maxtor 5.25" SCSI drive over at my mom's place, I think it's a 1GB unit. One of these days I should drag it home and see if it still works. I think there's still a 486 with a 650MB 5.25" SCSI drive too, I used that as a server back in the late 90s.

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