Technology Has Come a Long Way in a Very Short Time (19 pics)

This is a real 3.78 gig hard drive from the 70s and it shows just how much we have advanced technology over the last few years.

This is a late 70's early 80's hard drive, it weights 80 pounds, and has a whopping 3.78GB. It cost 250K, and was used by banks to store account data.

Here is a rear view

A closer rear view, shows the data connector at the bottom

Here is a front view, where you can see the spindle power cable.

These drives where built on rubber mounts to reduce shock when the are moved for maintenance on their tracks.

This is the input for that Halon gas that the drives where filled with while in operation. Halon gas is a deadly gas that is pumped into the drives that makes them fire-proof, if there was a fire, the room they where in would be filled with halon gas as well, giving any operators in the room only one minute to get out.

This is the underside, the drives weighed 80-90 pounds, so they where put on tracks to slide on for maintenance.

With the cover off, we can see the armature heads and the cylinder.

Side view

Higher side view absolutely sexy

there was a modern 300-400 gig credit card sized hard drive placed inside to give you guys an idea of how massive these 3.78 gig drives where.

Look inside the platters on the cylinder

Here is the top of the case, you can see the filters for the halon gas.

Here is the cover removed from the spindle Massive motor spindle.

Customized armature connectors.

Here is the armatures

A close up of the I/O heads.

One of the heads taken off to see the connectors where the wires would be soldered to the I/O head

Each head got its own serial number.