Whopping 120MB (MEGAbyte) HD

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael
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Michael

I considered data-wiping an old Seagate ST4144 HD the other day prior to taking
it out of service, but then I thought why bother?, since it was going into the
trash. I like to look inside electronic and electrical stuff so I disassembled
the drive. (It's an RLL. Does anyone today know from RLL?!) This thing is a
doorstop! You could make a car engine out of all the steel and aluminum. I
tossed everything except the platter assembly ... it's a great paperweight and
lovely conversation piece. Five thick, shiny, silver-brown platters .... and
all that real estate to hold just 120MB. When the drive was new the average
power user's HD could hold 80MB drive, tops.
 
I considered data-wiping an old Seagate ST4144 HD the other day prior to taking
it out of service, but then I thought why bother?, since it was going into the
trash. I like to look inside electronic and electrical stuff so I disassembled
the drive. (It's an RLL. Does anyone today know from RLL?!) This thing is a
doorstop! You could make a car engine out of all the steel and aluminum. I
tossed everything except the platter assembly ... it's a great paperweight and
lovely conversation piece. Five thick, shiny, silver-brown platters .... and
all that real estate to hold just 120MB. When the drive was new the average
power user's HD could hold 80MB drive, tops.
Click to expand...

When I dismantled a 250kg 80s era 300MB drive, I got $70 in scrap
value for the aluminium casting. I'm now using the chassis as a tool
trolley.

- Franc Zabkar
 
Previously Michael said:
I considered data-wiping an old Seagate ST4144 HD the other day
prior to taking it out of service, but then I thought why bother?,
since it was going into the trash. I like to look inside electronic
and electrical stuff so I disassembled the drive. (It's an RLL.
Does anyone today know from RLL?!)
Click to expand...

Yes, I considerd once, a long time ago to get an RLL controller
instead of MFM. But I "inherited" a blasingly fast (1.5MB/s!)
ESDI disk instead. That was real hardware!
This thing is a doorstop! You
could make a car engine out of all the steel and aluminum. I tossed
everything except the platter assembly ... it's a great paperweight
and lovely conversation piece. Five thick, shiny, silver-brown
platters .... and all that real estate to hold just 120MB. When the
drive was new the average power user's HD could hold 80MB drive,
tops.
Click to expand...

Yes, there has been a little advancement in storage densities, my guess
is mostly due to increases in bloatware.

Arno
 
When I dismantled a 250kg 80s era 300MB drive, I got $70 in scrap
value for the aluminium casting. I'm now using the chassis as a tool
trolley.
Click to expand...

A drum? I have seen one in an exhibit once. Impressive hardware!

Arno
 
Franc said:
When I dismantled a 250kg 80s era 300MB drive, I got $70 in scrap
value for the aluminium casting. I'm now using the chassis as a tool
trolley.

- Franc Zabkar
Click to expand...


I read "250kg" + "300MB" a coupla times before it sank in. (Then I saw later
post, that the drive you were referring to was CDC ... i.e. "big iron") Yeah,
those things sure were some kinda big, compared to any PC HD. In another life I
had a lot of hands-on with IBM 3330's removable packs.
 
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