1956 5MB Hard Drive

nonblogger · **Posted:** Thu Apr 23, 2015 1:42 pm

Back in 1956, a PanAm plane was needed to to transport a 5 MB hard drive - http://boredomtherapy.com/rare-history-photos/

Now we have 2TB external HDs that fit in a shirt pocket. :shades

Chris · **Joined:** Wed Nov 05, 2008 1:55 am **Posts:** 2092

5MB?!

I have collectively somewhere around 20TB worth of hard drives in a 13" plastic container... which takes up maybe less than 5% of the physical space of that thing? Wow.

fordloco · **Posted:** Thu Apr 23, 2015 8:06 pm

Showing my age I guess but I remember learning to type in BASIC programs on my TRS80 and thought it was the greatest thing imaginable.

nonblogger · **Posted:** Fri Apr 24, 2015 10:35 am

fordloco wrote:

Showing my age I guess but I remember learning to type in BASIC programs on my TRS80 and thought it was the greatest thing imaginable.

I remember those TRS80s too. And Commodore 64s. And saving the programs on a :lol:

tape recorder!

chris217 wrote:

5MB?!

I have collectively somewhere around 20TB worth of hard drives in a 13" plastic container... which takes up maybe less than 5% of the physical space of that thing? Wow.

Some of our UHQ images would take up that entire unit. One picture! :lol:

tdubya68801 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 27, 2015 6:53 pm

I used Apple II's in high school and college. The one my high school borrowed (for my trigonometry class when I was a senior) had a cassette recorder on it. My first computer in 1993 was an IBM PS/1 486 with a 175MB hard drive and 4MB RAM. It had a 2400bps modem and it would probably take an hour to download an HD cap.

braniac · **Posted:** Thu May 14, 2015 10:09 pm

You guys are youngsters. How about this, 1972, DEC PDP8/L with paper tape input and output and a teletype keyboard/printer, hard drives didn't exist then. :Coyote

braniac · **Posted:** Thu May 14, 2015 10:13 pm

nonblogger wrote:

Back in 1956, a PanAm plane was needed to to transport a 5 MB hard drive - http://boredomtherapy.com/rare-history-photos/

Now we have 2TB external HDs that fit in a shirt pocket. :shades

The term hard drive didn't exist then. This was most likely a magnetic drum, a big cylinder coated with material on the outside that is similar to what is on hard drive platters today. (History lesson courtesy of your friendly braniac braniac)

nonblogger · **Posted:** Sat May 16, 2015 11:52 am

braniac wrote:

You guys are youngsters. How about this, 1972, DEC PDP8/L with paper tape input and output and a teletype keyboard/printer, hard drives didn't exist then. :Coyote

I was 5, but I did later read about such things. Makes me wonder what computers will be like in another 40 years. Will they continue to advance at a similar rate?

Wide World of Women

1956 5MB Hard Drive

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