Saturday, November 23, 2013

Taking this disk for a drive on the 6 train



Yesterday, while waiting for the downtown 6 at Astor Place, EVG contributor Derek Berg talked with this gentleman holding the giant disk… he is a veteran computer guy who was transporting this hard disk (the IBM 2302?) from the late 1960s to his new office…



Perhaps this held the battle plans for 51 Astor Place?
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10 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 23, 2013 at 8:36 AM

    That's my first MP3 player! It came pre-loaded with the first two verses of ELO's "Evil Woman" (that's all it could hold) and needed 37 AA batteries. Sometimes being an early adopter sucks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. RichardNovember 23, 2013 at 11:19 AM

    I don't know how Pioneer ever expected the LaserDisc to catch on.

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  3. EV GrieveNovember 23, 2013 at 11:22 AM

    I have one of these at home with 7 episodes of "McCloud" on it.

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  4. Crazy EddieNovember 23, 2013 at 11:34 AM

    Great pictures and story Derek. Thanks, made my day so far.

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  5. Derek BergNovember 23, 2013 at 2:03 PM

    Crazy Eddie, well thank you. Btw the disc was from Equitable, the company that my wife worked for in the IT department for 20 years.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousNovember 23, 2013 at 8:14 PM

    I believe that disk held the plans for the original Death Star.

    ReplyDelete
  7. A Megabyte Ain't What It Used To BeNovember 23, 2013 at 11:55 PM

    In the interests of accuracy in media (no pun intended EVG), that's not actually a "hard disk drive" but rather a single magnetic coated platter that was contained in a storage unit, probably an IBM RAMAC from the photos I've seen of them:

    http://www.storagenewsletter.com/rubriques/hard-disk-drives/history-first-hdd-ibm-ramac-350

    The Ramac 350, that we look at many years ago at IBM's San Jose facility, has to be seen to be believed. The unit consists of an enormous device 60 inches (152cm) long, 68 inches (172cm) high and 29 inches (74cm) deep with a gigantic electric motor attached to a solid axis that held 50 coated aluminum disks - or 100 surfaces - one inch thick and 24 inches (610mm) in diameter, for a mere 5MB raw capacity or 4.4 million characters.

    All the electronics, motor, actuators, heads, were contained in the enclosure; this was the magnetic media.

    ReplyDelete
  8. EV GrieveNovember 24, 2013 at 9:03 AM

    @ A Megabyte Ain't What It Used To Be said…

    Well done! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousNovember 24, 2013 at 11:27 AM

    Wow 5 megabytes. I think my toothbrush has got more memory.

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  10. VivekSFebruary 24, 2014 at 4:36 PM

    I work with this gentleman in NYC. :-) he is one of the veterans we have at our workplace. He has this disk and lot many other interesting stories from ancient computer days :-))

    ReplyDelete

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