8' disk

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Balchy

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Topic # 25872 4-Sep-2008 16:12

Anyone remember the 8" floppy? (insert witty suggestive remark here)

I found a whole stack of them at work the other day they hold an immense 1024 Bytes of data - awesome! I think I might frame it or put it on the wall as I doubt it will have a high resale value lol

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Bung

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Reply # 162164 4-Sep-2008 16:17

But think of the cost at the time. I've used an HP85 computer that had an add-on 8" floppy + 5MB harddrive unit that was approx $16,000 new.

Balchy

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Reply # 162165 4-Sep-2008 16:19

cheap at twice the price!

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Reply # 162166 4-Sep-2008 16:20

Yes, yes... Those ones. Preferred brands were Maxwell, Nashua and Verbatim. We had to use those at Uni, because of the old MP/M system we had for the students.

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Balchy

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Reply # 162167 4-Sep-2008 16:22

This one is a genuine IBM Deiskette 2D even has the patent number on the sticker, wanyone got any good ideas for what I can do with it?

coffeebaron

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Reply # 162188 4-Sep-2008 17:14

Dinner plate coaster

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TinyTim

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Reply # 162369 5-Sep-2008 09:09

Bung: But think of the cost at the time. I've used an HP85 computer that had an add-on 8" floppy + 5MB harddrive unit that was approx $16,000 new.

How big (physically) was that hard drive?

The first one I saw in the mid 80s would have had platters the size of a steering wheel. And it I'm sure it wasn't a sealed unit.

Balchy

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Reply # 162371 5-Sep-2008 09:12

TinyTim:
Bung: But think of the cost at the time. I've used an HP85 computer that had an add-on 8" floppy + 5MB harddrive unit that was approx $16,000 new.

How big (physically) was that hard drive?

The first one I saw in the mid 80s would have had platters the size of a steering wheel. And it I'm sure it wasn't a sealed unit.

Linked because my skills are somewhat lacking: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Floppy_Disk_Drive_8_inch.jpg

Bung

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Reply # 162420 5-Sep-2008 11:20

TinyTim:
Bung: But think of the cost at the time. I've used an HP85 computer that had an add-on 8" floppy + 5MB harddrive unit that was approx $16,000 new.

How big (physically) was that hard drive?

The first one I saw in the mid 80s would have had platters the size of a steering wheel. And it I'm sure it wasn't a sealed unit.

It was a sealed Winchester Drive that was about the size of 2 5.25" CD drives stuck together (or about the size of Balchy's image). The HD was actually paired with a 5.25 floppy, the 8" floppy units were in another box that wasn't being used by the time I started.

raytaylor

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Reply # 168929 4-Oct-2008 01:13

Isnt that 5 and a quarter inch?

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old3eyes

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Reply # 168945 4-Oct-2008 08:37

Balchy: Anyone remember the 8" floppy? (insert witty suggestive remark here)

I found a whole stack of them at work the other day they hold an immense 1024 Bytes of data - awesome! I think I might frame it or put it on the wall as I doubt it will have a high resale value lol

I still have one around here at home with Opus brand on it..

Regards,

Old3eyes

grant_k

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Reply # 168959 4-Oct-2008 09:17

Balchy: Anyone remember the 8" floppy?
...
they hold an immense 1024 Bytes of data

I think you will find it was 1024 k Bytes of data. This was the DS/DD standard, whereas the SSSD version held only 241kB.

grant_k

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Reply # 168960 4-Oct-2008 09:24

TinyTim: How big (physically) was that hard drive?
The first one I saw in the mid 80s would have had platters the size of a steering wheel. And it I'm sure it wasn't a sealed unit.

Those were Removeable Hard Disk cartridges. The ones I worked with were on a Wang VS system and it used Phoenix 70MB Removeable Hard Disk cartridges, about the diameter of a steering wheel as you say, and about as thick as 2 or 3 Auckland Phone Books stacked on top of each other. The Phoenix cartridges were coloured blue IIRC, and I think that other brands of mainframe also used them apart from Wang.

TinyTim

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Reply # 169229 6-Oct-2008 08:41

grant_k:
TinyTim: How big (physically) was that hard drive?
The first one I saw in the mid 80s would have had platters the size of a steering wheel. And it I'm sure it wasn't a sealed unit.

Those were Removeable Hard Disk cartridges. The ones I worked with were on a Wang VS system and it used Phoenix 70MB Removeable Hard Disk cartridges, about the diameter of a steering wheel as you say, and about as thick as 2 or 3 Auckland Phone Books stacked on top of each other. The Phoenix cartridges were coloured blue IIRC, and I think that other brands of mainframe also used them apart from Wang.

That would be it! It came from Tiwai aluminium smelter if I remember correctly.