{"id":13534,"date":"2021-12-20T16:23:07","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T21:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/?page_id=13534"},"modified":"2026-06-02T14:59:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:59:22","slug":"hard-disk-drive-display","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/vintage-computing\/hallways-displays\/hard-disk-drive-display\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard Disk Drive Display"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Hard Disk Drive Display\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n
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The above is an image map and you can click on the items for more information<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hard Drive Components<\/a>
\nHard Drive Form Factors<\/a>
\nHard Drive History: Notable Drives<\/a>
\nHard Disk Drive Interfaces<\/a>
\nImprovement of Hard Drive Characteristics Over Time<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Hard Drive Components<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A hard disk drive (HDD) is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage and one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnetic material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some key components of the hard drive are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. An HDD has a spindle motor that spins the disks. <\/strong>This defines the rotational platter speed measured in rpm.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. An HDD has an actuator (motor) that positions the read\/write head<\/strong> assembly across the spinning disks. This will read or write data to the disks.
    <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"Hard<\/a>
    Hard disk drive multi-platter read\/write head<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
  3. HDDs are connected to systems by standard interface <\/strong>cables such as PATA (Parallel ATA), SATA (Serial ATA), USB or SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) cables. This connects the drive to the computers motherboard or interface card.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. A hard drive’s Printed Circuit Board (PCB)<\/strong> connects various components that allow the hard drive to function. If you have ever handled a hard drive, you may recognize the PCB as the green or blue board on the bottom of the device.<\/li>\n\n\n\n

     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/a>IBM 0667 5\u00bc Inch Hard Disk Drive<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    On display are the main hard drive components. The PCB was removed as well as the hard drive cover exposing the read\/write head and spinning disks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Year:<\/strong> 1986<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Capacity:<\/strong> 70 MB<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Interface:<\/strong> EIDE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Platter Size: <\/strong>5.25″<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Description<\/strong>: This drive was in a production server at the School of Computer Science in 1990.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/a>Hard Drive Form Factors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\"14-Inch-Hard-Disk-Platter-Size\"\n\"5-1\/4-Inch\"\n\"3-1\/2-Inch\"\n\"2.5-Inch\"\n\"1.8-Inch\"\n\"1-Inch\"\n\"0.85-Inch\"\n\"24-Inch\"\n\"IBM-0667\"\n\"Seagate-Barracuda\"\n\"Segate-ST506\"\n\"Seagate-Cheetah\"\n\"IBM-350\"\n\"Miniscribe-8425S\"\n\"Hard_Drive_Layout\"\n\"HDD_Interfaces\"\n\"Hard_Drive_Improvement\" <\/map>\n\n\n\n

    <\/a>14 Inch<\/strong> Hard Disk Platter Size<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \"Hard<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Hard drive platters in a caddy. They can be dropped into the drive manually and then accessed via the mainframe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Year:<\/strong> 1961<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Description<\/strong>: This 14 inch 200 MB hard disk platter was used at Carleton Universities Computing Services (CCS) Honeywell CP-6 computer system which was in production from 1979-2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Name<\/strong><\/td>Year<\/strong><\/td>Capacity<\/strong><\/td>Platter Size<\/strong><\/td>Other<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
    <\/a>Priam 738<\/td>–<\/td>336 MB<\/td>5.25″<\/td>Interface<\/strong>: SCSI 50 PIN<\/td><\/tr>
    <\/a>2002 IBM Deskstar<\/td>2002<\/td>61.4 GB<\/td>3.5″<\/td>Description<\/strong>: Deskstar-line introduced first 1TB HDD<\/td><\/tr>
    <\/a>IBM Travelstar 4GT<\/td>1998<\/td>4GB<\/td>2.5″<\/td>Usage<\/strong>: Laptop HDD<\/td><\/tr>
    <\/a>Toshiba MK2006GAL<\/td>2006\/2007<\/td>20 GB<\/td>1.8″<\/td>Usage<\/strong>: Laptop\/iPod HDD<\/td><\/tr>
    <\/a>Hitachi 3k6 Microdrive<\/td>2006\/2007<\/td>4 GB<\/td>1″<\/td>Usage<\/strong>: iPod Mini HDD<\/td><\/tr>
    <\/a>Toshiba MK2001MTN<\/td>2004<\/td>4 GB<\/td>0.85″<\/td>Usage<\/strong>: Cellphone (World’s smallest HDD)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"
    Vintage hard drive ad<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    <\/a>Hard Drive History: Notable Drives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Hard drives have been engineered with spin rates as low as 1200 RPM and as high as 15K RPM. In 2022 most common RPM rates, in both laptop and desktop PCs, are between 5400 and 7200 RPM. The most common form factors for HDDs in enterprise systems in 2022 are 2.5-inch, also known as small form factor (SFF), and 3.5-inch, also known as large form factor (LFF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Name<\/strong><\/td>Year<\/strong><\/td>Capacity<\/strong><\/td>Platter Size<\/strong><\/td>Platter Rotation<\/strong><\/td>Access Time<\/strong><\/td>Weight<\/strong><\/td>Interface<\/strong><\/td>Description<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
    <\/a>IBM 350<\/td>1956<\/td>3.75 MB<\/td>24″<\/td>1,200 RPM<\/td>600 ms<\/td>910 kg<\/td>—<\/td>The first disk drive<\/td><\/tr>
    <\/a>Seagate ST506<\/td>1980<\/td>5 MB<\/td>5.25″<\/td>3,600 RPM<\/td>85 ms<\/td>2.1 kg<\/td>–<\/td>First 5\u00bc-inch hard drive<\/td><\/tr>
    <\/a>Miniscribe 8425S<\/td>1984<\/td>20 MB<\/td>3.5″<\/td>3,600 RPM<\/td>68 ms<\/td>0.80 kg<\/td>XT<\/td>Early 3.5″ hard drive<\/td><\/tr>
    <\/a>Seagate Barracuda ST136475LW<\/td>1992<\/td>36 GB<\/td>3.5″<\/td>7,200 RPM<\/td>7.6 ms<\/td>–<\/td>SCSI-2\/3<\/td>First 7,200 RPM drive<\/td><\/tr>
    <\/a>Seagate Cheetah ST37340SLC<\/td>1996<\/td>97 GB<\/td>3.5″<\/td>10,000 RPM<\/td>2.99 ms<\/td>–<\/td>Ultra3 SCSI<\/td>First 10,000 RPM drive<\/td><\/tr>
    Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000<\/td>2007<\/td>1 TB<\/td>3.5″<\/td>7,200 RPM<\/td>8.5 ms<\/td><\/td>SATA 3Gb\/s<\/td>First 1 TB 3.5″ hard drive<\/td><\/tr>
    Western Digital Ultrastar He10<\/td>2014<\/td>10 TB<\/td>3.5″<\/td>7,200 RPM<\/td>8.0 ms<\/td>0.66 kg<\/td>SATA<\/td>First 10 TB hard drive<\/a> (Helium filled drive)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n
    \n
    \n

    The IBM 350 disk storage unit, the first disk drive, was announced by IBM as a component of the IBM 305 RAMAC computer system on September 13, 1956. The RAMAC program is generally considered to be the fundamental patent for disk drives.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    \"\"
    An IBM 350 Hard Drive being transported<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \"Seagate<\/a>
    Seagate ST-506<\/strong> the world’s first 5\u00bc-inch form factor hard disk drive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    <\/a>Hard Disk Drive Interfaces<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    SCSI:<\/strong> Small Computer System Interface<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    IDE: <\/strong>Integrated drive Electronics<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    FC: <\/strong>Fibre Channel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    SAS:<\/strong> Serial Attached SCSI<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    SATA: <\/strong>Serial ATA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/a>Improvements of Hard Drive Characteristics Over Time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    Parameter<\/strong><\/td>IBM 350<\/strong><\/td>Developed to<\/strong><\/td>Improvement<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
    Capacity<\/strong><\/td>3.75 MB<\/td>20 TB<\/td>5,333,333:1<\/td><\/tr>
    Physical Volume<\/strong><\/td>1.9 m\u00b3<\/td><\/td>56,000:1<\/td><\/tr>
    Weight<\/strong><\/td>910kg<\/td>62g<\/td>1500:1<\/td><\/tr>
     Avg. Access Time<\/strong><\/td>600ms<\/td>a few milliseconds<\/td>~200:1<\/td><\/tr>
    Price<\/strong><\/td>~$30,000 (2020 dollars)<\/td><\/td>300,000,000:1<\/td><\/tr>
    Areal Density<\/strong><\/td>2,000 Bits\/Inch\u00b2<\/td><\/td>400,000,000:1<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Hard Drive Components Hard Drive Form Factors Hard Drive History: Notable Drives Hard Disk Drive Interfaces Improvement of Hard Drive Characteristics Over Time   Hard Drive Components A hard disk drive (HDD) is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage and one or more rigid rapidly rotating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":14452,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cu_dining_location_slug":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_page_type":[90],"class_list":["post-13534","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","cu_page_type-vintage-computing"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13534"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15836,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13534\/revisions\/15836"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_page_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_page_type?post=13534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}