History of hard disk drives

The commercial usage of hard disk drives began in 1956 with the shipment of an IBM 305 RAMAC system including IBM Model 350 disk storage.

For many years, hard disk drives were large, cumbersome devices, more suited to use in the protected environment of a data center or large office than in a harsh industrial environment (due to their delicacy), or small office or home (due to their size and power consumption). Before the early 1980s, most hard disk drives had 8-inch (actually, 210 - 195 mm) or 14-inch platters, required an equipment rack or a large amount of floor space (especially the large removable-media drives, which were frequently comparable in size to washing machines), and in many cases needed high-amperage and/or three-phase power hookups due to the large motors they used. Because of this, hard disk drives were not commonly used with microcomputers until after 1980, when Seagate Technology introduced the ST-506, the first 5.25-inch hard drive, with a formatted capacity of 5 megabytes.

The capacity of hard drives has grown exponentially over time. With early personal computers, a drive with a 20 megabyte capacity was considered large. During the mid to late 1990s, when PCs were capable of storing not just text files and documents but pictures, music, and video, internal drives were made with 8 to 20 GB capacities. As of early 2007, desktop hard disk drives typically have a capacity of 100 to 500 gigabytes, while the largest-capacity drives are 1 terabyte.

1950s - 1970s

The IBM 350 Disk File, invented by Reynold Johnson, was introduced in 1956 with the IBM 305 RAMAC computer. This drive had fifty 24 inch platters, with a total capacity of five million characters. A single head assembly having two heads was used for access to all the platters, making the average access time very slow (just under 1 second).

The IBM 1301 Disk Storage Unit, announced in 1961, introduced the usage of a head for each data surface with the heads having self acting air bearings (flying heads).

The first disk drive to use removable media was the IBM 1311 drive, which used the IBM 1316 disk pack to store two million characters.

In 1973, IBM introduced the IBM 3340 "Winchester" disk drive, the first significant commercial use of low mass and low load heads with lubricated media. All modern disk drives now use this technology and/or derivatives thereof. During the 1980s, the term "Winchester" became a common description for all hard disk drives, though generally falling out of use during the 1990s. Project head designer/lead designer Kenneth Haughton named it after the Winchester 30-30 rifle after the developers called it the "30-30" because of it was planned to have two 30 MB spindles; however, the actual product shipped with two spindles for data modules of either 35 MB or 70 MB.

1980s - PC era

Internal drives became the system of choice on PCs in the 1980s. Most microcomputer hard disk drives in the early 1980s were not sold under their manufacturer's names, but by OEMs as part of larger peripherals (such as the Corvus Disk System and the Apple ProFile). The IBM PC/XT had an internal hard disk drive, however, and this started a trend toward buying "bare" drives (often by mail order) and installing them directly into a system.

External hard drives remained popular for much longer on the Apple Macintosh and other platforms. Every Mac made between 1986 and 1998 has a SCSI port on the back, making external expansion easy; also, "toaster" Macs did not have easily accessible hard drive bays (or, in the case of the Mac Plus, any hard drive bay at all), so on those models, external SCSI disks were the only reasonable option.

Timeline

1950s - 1990s

First disk drive
1956 IBM 350 RAMAC – 5 Megabytes, fifty 24" disks

First use of zoned recording
1961 Bryant Computer 4240 – 90 Megabytes, twenty four 39" disks

First disk drive with air bearing heads
1962 IBM 1301 "Advanced Disk File" – 28 Megabytes, twenty five 24" disks

First 14" disk drive and first with removable disk pack
1963 IBM 1311 "Low Cost File" – 2.69 Megabytes, six 14" disks

First voice coil actuator, first single disk cartridge drive
1965 IBM 2310 "Ramkit" – 1.024 Megabytes, one 14" disk

First disk drive with ferrite core heads
1966 IBM 2314 -- 29.17 Megabytes, eleven 14" disks

First track-following servo system
1971 IBM 3330-1 "Merlin" – 100 Megabytes, eleven 14" disks

First flexible disk drive, read-only
1971 IBM 23FD "Minnow" -- .0816 Megabytes, one 8" disk

First flexible disk drive to set industry standard for 8 inch diskettes
1973 IBM 33FD "Igar" -- .156 Megabytes, one 8" disk

First disk drive with low mass heads, lubricated disks, sealed assembly
1973 IBM 3340 "Winchester" – 35 or 70 Megabytes, two or four 14 disks

First disk drive with rotary actuator
1975 IBM 62 GV "Gulliver" – 5 or 9 Megabytes, one 14" disk

Re-introduction of disk drive with fixed disk media
1976 IBM 3350 "Madrid" -- 317.5 Megabytes, eight 14" disks

First flexible disk drive with two sided recording
1976 IBM 43FD "Crystal" -- .568 Megabytes, one 8" disk

First 5.25 inch flexible disk drive
1976 Shugart Associates SA400 -- .2188 Megabytes, one 5.25" disk

First disk drive with thin film heads, and 2,7 encoding
1979 IBM 3370 "New File Project" – 571.4 Megabytes, seven 14" disks

First 8 inch rigid disk drive
1979 IBM 62PC "Piccolo" – 64.5 Megabytes, six 8" disks

First 10.5 inch rigid disk drive
1981 Fujitsu F6421 "Eagle" – 446 Megabytes, six 10.5" disks

First 5.25 inch rigid disk drive
1980 Seagate Technology ST506 – 5 Megabytes, four 5.25" disks

First 3.5 inch flexible disk drive
1981 Sony OA-D3OV -- .4375 Megabytes, one 3.5" disk

First 3.5 inch rigid disk drive
1983 Rodime RO 352 – 10 Megabytes, two 3.5" disks

First 9 inch rigid disk drive
1982 Control Data 9715-160 "FSD" – 150 Megabytes, six 9" disks

First 8 disk 5.25 inch disk drive, with in-hub motor
1983 Maxtor XT-1140 – 126 Megabytes, eight 5.25" disks

First 8.8 inch rigid disk drive
1984 Hitachi DK815-5 – 460 Megabytes, eight 8.8" disks

First disk drive mounted on card
1985 Quantum Hardcard – 10.5 Megabytes, one 3.5" disk

First voice coil actuator 3.5" disk drive
1986 Conner Peripherals CP340 – 40 Megabytes, two 3.5" disks

First one inch high 3.5" disk drive
1988 Conner Peripherals CP3022 – 21 Megabytes, one 3.5" disk

First 2.5 inch disk drive
1988 PrairieTek 220 – 20 Megabytes, two 2.5" disks

First 9.5 inch rigid disk drive
1988 Hitachi DKU-86i – 1,890 Megabytes, eight 9.5" disks

First disk drive with PRML encoding
1990 IBM 0681 "Redwing" – 857 Megabytes, twelve 5.25" disks

First disk drive using magnetoresistive heads
1991 IBM 0663 "Corsair" – 1,004 Megabytes, eight 3.5" disks

First 1.8 inch disk drive
1991 Integral Peripherals 1820 "Mustang" – 21.4 Megabytes, one 1.8" disk

First 1.8 inch PC Card disk drives
1992 Integral Peripherals 1841PA "Ranger" – 42.5 Megabytes, one 1.8" disk

First 1.3 inch disk drive
1992 Hewlett-Packard C3013A "Kittyhawk" – 21.4 Megabytes, two 1.3" disks

First 7,200 RPM disk drive
1993 Seagate Technology ST12550 "Barracuda" – 2,139 Megabytes, ten 3.5" disks

First 6.5" rigid disk drive
1993 Hitachi H-6588-314 – 2,920 Megabytes, eight 6.5" disks

First 3 inch rigid disk drive
1995 JTS N0640-2AR – 641.7 Megabytes, two 3" disks

First embedded servo flexible disk drive
1995 Iomega Zip 100 – 100 Megabytes, one 3.5" disk

First drive using giant magnetoresistive heads
1997 IBM Deskstar 16GP "Titan" – 16,800 Megabytes, five 3.5" disks

First 10,000 RPM disk drive
1997 Seagate Technology ST19101 "Cheetah 9" – 9,100 Megabytes, eight 3.5" disks

First 10,000 RPM drive with 3 inch disks
1998 Seagate Technology ST118202 "Cheetah 18" – 18,200 Megabytes, twelve 3" disks

First 12,000 RPM disk drive
1998 Hitachi DK3E1T-91 – 9,200 Megabytes, nine 2.5" disks

First one inch disk drive
1999 IBM "Microdrive" – 340 Megabytes, one 1" disk

First 15,000 RPM disk drive
2000 Seagate Technology ST318451 "Cheetah X15" – 18,350 Megabytes, three 2.5" disks

1980s to present day

* 1980 - The world's first gigabyte-capacity disk drive, the IBM 3380, was the size of a refrigerator, weighed 550 pounds (about 250 kg), and had a price tag of $40,000.
* 1986 - Standardization of SCSI
* 1989 - Jimmy Zhu and H. Neal Bertram from UCSD proposed exchange decoupled granular microstructure for thin film disk storage media, still used today.
* 1991 - 2.5-inch 100 megabyte hard drive
* 1991 - PRML Technology (Digital Read Channel with 'Partial Response Maximum Likelihood' algorithm)
* 1992 - first 1.3-inch hard disk drive - HP C3013A
* 1994 - IBM introduces Laser Textured Landing Zones (LZT)
* 1996 - IBM introduces GMR (Giant MR) Technology for read sensors
* 1998 - UltraDMA/33 and ATAPI standardized
* 1999 - IBM releases the Microdrive in 170 MB and 340 MB capacities
* 2002 - 137 GB addressing space barrier broken
* 2003 - Serial ATA introduced
* 2005 - First 500 GB hard drive shipping (Hitachi GST)
* 2005 - Serial ATA 3G standardized
* 2005 - Seagate introduces Tunnel MagnetoResistive Read Sensor (TMR) and Thermal Spacing Control
* 2005 - Introduction of faster SAS (Serial Attached SCSI)
* 2005 - Perpendicular recording introduced in consumer HDDs (Toshiba)
* 2006 - First 750 GB hard drive (Seagate)
* 2006 - First 200 GB 2.5" hard drive utilizing Perpendicular recording (Toshiba)
* 2006 - Seagate announces research into nanotube-lubricated HDDs with capacities of several terabits per square inch, making possible a 7.5 terabyte 3.5" HDD
* 2006 - Fujitsu develops heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) that could one day achieve one terabit per square inch densities.
* 2007 - Hitachi GST introduces 1 terabyte hard drive