Changes in physical size over time

The first hard disk drive, like so many innovations in computing, came from IBM. It was called the IBM Model 350 Disk File and was a huge device. It had 50 24-inch diskscontained inside a cabinet that was as large as a cupboard and anything but lightweight. This hulk of a storage unit could store a whopping 5 MB of data.

Above: An IBM Model 350 Disk File being delivered. Yes, that’s ONE hard disk drive unit.

Although hard disk drives kept improving, state-of-the art disks were built according to the concept “bigger is better” well into the ‘80s. Hard disk drives were normally used together with big mainframe computers, so this was not such a big deal. Entire rooms were already set aside for the computers.

Above: State-of-the-art hard disk drive from the ‘70s.

IBM introduced the first hard disk drive to break the 1 GB barrier in 1980. It was called the IBM 3380 and could store 2.52 GB (500 times more than the consumer options at the time). Its cabinet was about the size of a refrigerator and the whole thing weighed in at550 pounds (250 kg).

Above: The disk drive module of the IBM 3380.

Early in the ‘80s, smaller “consumer” hard disk drives designed to be used with the increasingly popular microcomputers (now known as PCs) started to appear. The first ones were 5 MB in size and had a form factor of 5.25 inches.

For a visual on how hard disk drive sizes have changed since the ‘80s until today, have a look at the below image with an old 8-inch drive all the way down to today’s 3.5-inch, 2.5-inch and 1.8-inch drives.

Above: Three decades of shrinkage.

Source:http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/02/18/amazing-facts-and-figures-about-the-evolution-of-hard-disk-drives/

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