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The Hard Drive Turns 50

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the but-it-still-feels-10 dept.

JHU writes "When the hard drive was first introduced on September 13, 1956, it required a humongous housing and 50 24-inch platters to store 1/2400 as much data as can be fit on today's largest capacity 1-inch hard drives. Back then, the small team at IBM's San Jose-based lab was seeking a way to replace tape with a storage mechanism that allowed for more-efficient random access to data. The question was, how to bring random-access storage to business computing?"

13 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Speed testing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Has anyone run HD Tach on that original IBM hard drive?

  2. let the one-upsmanship begin! by red_crayon · · Score: 3, Funny

    I used a hard drive when they were the size of a suitcase.

    That's nothing. I used a hard drive when they were the size of a VW and held only 64 bytes. That's bytes not kb.

    --
    "Never bullshit a bullshitter" All That Jazz
    1. Re:let the one-upsmanship begin! by eliot1785 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I used hard drives back when they were only 10 bits and the size of two human hands. You had to signal to the computer which bits you wanted to be on and which you wanted to be off, by moving your fingers up and down. It was pretty tough.

      (128 and 4 were also illegal values, a further limitation of this system)

    2. Re:let the one-upsmanship begin! by Dwedit · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm pretty sure youo could easily go up to 20 bits, but the cops might arrest you if you try 21.

  3. Hard Drive Turns 50! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I've got a few in my flying car.

  4. Storage used to be really dangerous. by sporkme · · Score: 4, Funny

    My father talks about his younger days with the US Air Force as a mid-level computer technology worker in Anchorage. He speaks of how dangerous magnetic storage was in the early days, with all that weight in a drum, spinning up to 1200 RPM. We still jokes about the emergency procedures in the event of a catastrophic mechanical failure of operating storage media. The USAF's official line was to take cover in a corner behind other heavy equipment at the first sign of trouble. Techs used to work under constant threat of going three rounds with bouncing betty. Now all we have to worry about are laptop batteries.

    See Drum Memory

    --
    FairTax baby!
    1. Re:Storage used to be really dangerous. by Harmonious+Botch · · Score: 5, Funny

      A teacher of mine back in the 70's told us about a hard drive - the size of a large washing machine, early 60's - whose bearings froze up. All of that rotational energy was transfered to the case, which ripped loose and chased him around the room, bouncing off the walls.

    2. Re:Storage used to be really dangerous. by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Information wants to be FREE!

  5. Helps prove the point that by Freaky+Spook · · Score: 3, Funny
    I seem to recall reading this story TWICE before this one!

    50 Years on we have so much hard disk space available we just don't know what to do with it all.

    1. Re:Helps prove the point that by bangenge · · Score: 2, Funny

      I agree. There's only so much pr0n for everyone.

      --
      . o O ( TwO hEaDs ArE mOrE tHaN oNe... )
  6. Not so hard at 50 by Easy2RememberNick · · Score: 3, Funny

    At 50 years old I bet it's more floppy drive than hard drive.

  7. Even more historical by kyjl · · Score: 3, Funny

    September 14th, 1956: The first time porn is loaded onto a Hard Drive

    --
    Perl, n. A language spoken by Eskimos.
  8. That's nothing... by matushorvath · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...my hard drive turns 7200!