wrote:
On Wed, 05 Dec 2007 02:50:25 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:

On Tue, 4 Dec 2007 08:29:22 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:

http://www.neatorama.com/images/2006...puter-1956.jpg

In September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC, the first computer with a hard
disk drive(HDD). The HDD weighed over a ton and stored 5MB of data.

That's not a typo ..... 5MB of data.
If I remember correctly, the ones that DEC and DG built used head
motors that weighed 160 pounds and were made out of cast aluminum.

Damned things were bigger than washing macines.


I still have one of the multi-platter disk packs for my old CDC 300 megabyte
"washtub". The pack alone weighs about 40 or 50 pounds. The matching 300
megabyte winchester drives in the PDP11's took two people to install. One to
power lift the drive, and a second to guide it onto the rails.

The CDC required head re-alignment of all of those heads every few months. It
was quite a chore.

Head crashes then are today's operation.

I remember the screech of 2314's and 3330's when the heads crashed and
then the crying of the operators. Not a pretty sight.

Today the heads rid on the disks. Amazing!