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Major Nikon

(36,827 posts) Thu Sep 17, 2015, 09:32 AM Sep 2015

5 mb hard drive circa 1956

10 replies

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5 mb hard drive circa 1956 (Original Post) Major Nikon Sep 2015 OP

Oh, the portable version! malthaussen Sep 2015 #1

A buddy of mine in law school hifiguy Sep 2015 #6

I worked at a place that was still repairing ten megabyte drives the size of washing machines. hunter Sep 2015 #2

I used to work on washing machine sized hard drives Major Nikon Sep 2015 #3

I started programming in 1968. SwissTony Sep 2015 #4

I worked at Datatimes, an online newspaper site in the 90s CBGLuthier Sep 2015 #5

Wow. 5mb. lovemydog Sep 2015 #7

I once showed a pic like this to a younger colleague at work..... lastlib Sep 2015 #8

Now a thumb drive holds a few GBs shenmue Sep 2015 #9

256 GB steve2470 Sep 2015 #10

malthaussen

(17,205 posts)

1. Oh, the portable version!

Reply to Major Nikon (Original post)

Thu Sep 17, 2015, 09:35 AM

Sep 2015

Truth: when I took my first programming course in 1973, the computer we used (made by Facit, of all companies) had exactly one KILObyte of RAM.

-- Mal

hifiguy

(33,688 posts)

6. A buddy of mine in law school

Reply to malthaussen (Reply #1)

Fri Sep 18, 2015, 05:01 PM

Sep 2015

was a computer geek long before it was fashionable.

He was so proud, in 1987, of a Sperry computer he paid $7K for.

"Last computer I will ever need. 10 meg drive and 256K of RAM. i'll never fill it up."

hunter

(38,321 posts)

2. I worked at a place that was still repairing ten megabyte drives the size of washing machines.

Reply to Major Nikon (Original post)

Thu Sep 17, 2015, 11:13 AM

Sep 2015

Also 8 inch floppy drives.

I still have an 8 inch floppy drivein my garage, but I haven't powered it up for many years and i'm wary of doing so now. I'm certain it needs to be recapped, at least.

Major Nikon

(36,827 posts)

3. I used to work on washing machine sized hard drives

Reply to hunter (Reply #2)

Thu Sep 17, 2015, 01:15 PM

Sep 2015

They used 100mb platter sets.

SwissTony

(2,560 posts)

4. I started programming in 1968.

Reply to Major Nikon (Original post)

Fri Sep 18, 2015, 11:50 AM

Sep 2015

We didn't have access to the computer directly, of course, bu we could look through the window as it sat - the size of a bus - in it's own air conditioned room.

A colleague and I were once advising a much younger colleague on some computing and statistical concerns. The senior colleague and I mentioned the word "mainframe". The junior colleague literally said "Em, what's a mainframe?"

My USB stick is 60GB. Even that's not big these days.

CBGLuthier

(12,723 posts)

5. I worked at Datatimes, an online newspaper site in the 90s

Reply to Major Nikon (Original post)

Fri Sep 18, 2015, 11:58 AM

Sep 2015

They had about 6 terrabytes of data worth of newspaper and magazine archives in a sealed, cooled, clean room environment.

In my bedroom now I have 7 terrabytes worth of hard drives filled with movies. All would fit in a reasonably sized briefcase.

lovemydog

(11,833 posts)

7. Wow. 5mb.

Reply to Major Nikon (Original post)

Fri Sep 18, 2015, 05:57 PM

Sep 2015

I remember someone telling me a 3gb hard drive would be 'more than I'll even need.'

lastlib

(23,252 posts)

8. I once showed a pic like this to a younger colleague at work.....

Reply to Major Nikon (Original post)

Sun Sep 20, 2015, 11:33 AM

Sep 2015

His question was, could they put more than one song on it? I wound up explaining to him that in the mid-1960s it was an amazing feat for NASA's unmanned lunar probes to send back digital images of the moon from space, that digital photos were previously unknown. He was shocked to learn that.