famicomaster2
Experienced Member
Hello, today I have reached a new milestone in my collection. I am but one drive away from having every record holder for the world's smallest hard disk drive in my collection.
The missing drive is the HP Kittyhawk, a 1.3" mobile IDE drive introduced in 1992, which was a major commercial failure, and is widely credited for dismantling HP's disk division.
Pictured below is a family photo I just took of the rest of the drives, which span from 1979 to 2004, and by technicality to present day.
In order of age (and by proxy, size), the drives shown are as follows:
IBM 62PC "Piccolo," the first hard drive to use 8" media, introduced in 1979, a 65MB rotary voice coil unit with a dedicated servo surface. It was shipped as the mechanical component of the IBM 3310 DASD (Direct Access Storage Device).
Shugart Associates SA-1004, the first hard drive to fit the 8" floppy drive form factor, also introduced in 1979, an 8MB linear rotary band stepper drive with no feedback. It introduced the SA-1000 interface and is largely credited with bringing low cost hard drives to the forefront. It shares it's power supply with those large floppy drives, as well as it's physical mounting bracket.
Seagate Technology ST-506, the first 5.25" microwinchester disk drive, introduced in 1980, is a 5MB linear rotary band stepper drive, also with no feedback. It shares it's form factor with then-popular minifloppy diskette drives, including mounting hardware and power supply connector. It's interface is derived from the Shugart SA-1000 series, from which it is loosely descendant from.
Microscience International HH-612, the first half height 5.25" hard disk drive, introduced in 1981 (or 1982? Sources are a bit shaky), is a 10MB linear rotary band stepper drive, with basic wedge servo and embedded track zero feedback. It's claim to fame and indeed it's name are derived from being half the height of then-standard minifloppy drives and microwinchester hard disks. Because it's size was so uncommon during the time of it's introduction, it was offered with full height mounting hardware and faceplate as an option.
Rodime RO352, the first 3.5" hard disk drive, introduced in 1983, is a 10MB rotary band swingarm stepper drive, with embedded track zero feedback. It's design didn't take the world by storm overnight, but it's incredibly small size and low noise levels got Apple on board. Rodime produced disk drive mechanisms for the HD20, many early HD20SCs, and even some early Macintosh SE models with a 10MB disk drive. These were some of the first fully integrated intelligent drives of their size, the Rodime RO652. Because the 3.5" form factor was so new, Rodime also shipped models with factory fitted 5.25" brackets, of model RO252 and RO552. The green foam package in the top right of the photo is an accidental cameo of a new old stock RO252 I happen to own.
PrairieTek Prairie 120, the first 2.5" hard disk drive, introduced in 1988, is a 20MB rotary voice soil drive with embedded servo feedback. It's design is incredibly modern compared to the other drives preceding it in this list. The small form factor, low power consumption, and reliable voice coil actuator drove this drive to success in the portable market, but not before it was overtaken in sales by more popular manufacturers. It's legacy is often forgotten.
Integral Viper 8170E, the first 1.8" hard disk drive, introduced in 1991. Integral shipped these drives in various configurations, and licensed their design to many other manufacturers for production. Mine is a 170MB unit with a later "enhanced" controller, but is an identical mechanism inside. Most of the early PCMCIA hard disk drives, especially those under 1GB, are Integral Vipers in disguise. You can always spot them in a crowd with the interesting bowtie shaped label - A characteristic that comes from the height of the spindle hub inside. You may have owned one without ever knowing it. While Integral may no longer be with us, their design was incredibly successful and made it's way into many types of consumer electronics, including early digital camcorders, digital cameras, MP3 players, and other devices.
IBM microdrive 340, the first 1" hard disk drive, introduced in 1998. The microdrive is a rotary voice coil drive with embedded servo data, and was sold as 170MB or 340MB (single disk with one or two heads). IBM once again made their own market for small drives, just as they had done 20 years earlier with this unit. These directly competed with early compact flash cards and often outpaced them in speed and certainly storage density, even at the high cost. The common form factor, low cost, and low power made these a huge hit for many consumer electronics as well. When IBM sold their disk drive division to Hitachi in 2003, the microdrive carried on as well, and made it's way into devices like the Apple iPod Mini, along with hundreds of digital cameras.
Toshiba MK4001MTD, the first 0.85" hard disk drive, introduced in 2004. The MK4001MTD is a rotary voice coil drive with embedded servo data, and was sold in 4GB and 8GB (MK8003MTD) variants. These drives were not commercially successful, and only saw use in the Nokia N91 feature phone, as far as I'm aware. They use a modified MMC interface, though I'm not aware of what the modifications are in order to test mine. The extremely low weight of this drive means that it is relatively shock resistant, which was certainly a positive for mobile devices. Sadly, as this drive was reaching the market, the cost of flash memory started to plummet in a big way, making Toshiba's world record holding drives uneconomical and obsolete soon after their introduction.
To date (January of 2024), no other manufacturer has stepped up to dethrone Toshiba, and with the decline of hard disk sales in lieu of solid state storage, we may never see mass production of another small hard disk like this ever again. It is unlikely that we will see a drive smaller than the Toshiba, either.
I hope this was an interesting and informative post, and that it was worth the read. Maybe you learned something, maybe you just enjoy gawking at vintage electronics. This is just a small piece of my collection, and if you'd like to see more, here are my CMI drives, here is my Kalok Octagon collection, and here is the Kalok Cartridge System. Additionally, I have made it a goal to one day document every single drive in my collection on video, and you can see those videos on my YouTube channel, @TheDiskMaster.
The missing drive is the HP Kittyhawk, a 1.3" mobile IDE drive introduced in 1992, which was a major commercial failure, and is widely credited for dismantling HP's disk division.
Pictured below is a family photo I just took of the rest of the drives, which span from 1979 to 2004, and by technicality to present day.
In order of age (and by proxy, size), the drives shown are as follows:
IBM 62PC "Piccolo," the first hard drive to use 8" media, introduced in 1979, a 65MB rotary voice coil unit with a dedicated servo surface. It was shipped as the mechanical component of the IBM 3310 DASD (Direct Access Storage Device).
Shugart Associates SA-1004, the first hard drive to fit the 8" floppy drive form factor, also introduced in 1979, an 8MB linear rotary band stepper drive with no feedback. It introduced the SA-1000 interface and is largely credited with bringing low cost hard drives to the forefront. It shares it's power supply with those large floppy drives, as well as it's physical mounting bracket.
Seagate Technology ST-506, the first 5.25" microwinchester disk drive, introduced in 1980, is a 5MB linear rotary band stepper drive, also with no feedback. It shares it's form factor with then-popular minifloppy diskette drives, including mounting hardware and power supply connector. It's interface is derived from the Shugart SA-1000 series, from which it is loosely descendant from.
Microscience International HH-612, the first half height 5.25" hard disk drive, introduced in 1981 (or 1982? Sources are a bit shaky), is a 10MB linear rotary band stepper drive, with basic wedge servo and embedded track zero feedback. It's claim to fame and indeed it's name are derived from being half the height of then-standard minifloppy drives and microwinchester hard disks. Because it's size was so uncommon during the time of it's introduction, it was offered with full height mounting hardware and faceplate as an option.
Rodime RO352, the first 3.5" hard disk drive, introduced in 1983, is a 10MB rotary band swingarm stepper drive, with embedded track zero feedback. It's design didn't take the world by storm overnight, but it's incredibly small size and low noise levels got Apple on board. Rodime produced disk drive mechanisms for the HD20, many early HD20SCs, and even some early Macintosh SE models with a 10MB disk drive. These were some of the first fully integrated intelligent drives of their size, the Rodime RO652. Because the 3.5" form factor was so new, Rodime also shipped models with factory fitted 5.25" brackets, of model RO252 and RO552. The green foam package in the top right of the photo is an accidental cameo of a new old stock RO252 I happen to own.
PrairieTek Prairie 120, the first 2.5" hard disk drive, introduced in 1988, is a 20MB rotary voice soil drive with embedded servo feedback. It's design is incredibly modern compared to the other drives preceding it in this list. The small form factor, low power consumption, and reliable voice coil actuator drove this drive to success in the portable market, but not before it was overtaken in sales by more popular manufacturers. It's legacy is often forgotten.
Integral Viper 8170E, the first 1.8" hard disk drive, introduced in 1991. Integral shipped these drives in various configurations, and licensed their design to many other manufacturers for production. Mine is a 170MB unit with a later "enhanced" controller, but is an identical mechanism inside. Most of the early PCMCIA hard disk drives, especially those under 1GB, are Integral Vipers in disguise. You can always spot them in a crowd with the interesting bowtie shaped label - A characteristic that comes from the height of the spindle hub inside. You may have owned one without ever knowing it. While Integral may no longer be with us, their design was incredibly successful and made it's way into many types of consumer electronics, including early digital camcorders, digital cameras, MP3 players, and other devices.
IBM microdrive 340, the first 1" hard disk drive, introduced in 1998. The microdrive is a rotary voice coil drive with embedded servo data, and was sold as 170MB or 340MB (single disk with one or two heads). IBM once again made their own market for small drives, just as they had done 20 years earlier with this unit. These directly competed with early compact flash cards and often outpaced them in speed and certainly storage density, even at the high cost. The common form factor, low cost, and low power made these a huge hit for many consumer electronics as well. When IBM sold their disk drive division to Hitachi in 2003, the microdrive carried on as well, and made it's way into devices like the Apple iPod Mini, along with hundreds of digital cameras.
Toshiba MK4001MTD, the first 0.85" hard disk drive, introduced in 2004. The MK4001MTD is a rotary voice coil drive with embedded servo data, and was sold in 4GB and 8GB (MK8003MTD) variants. These drives were not commercially successful, and only saw use in the Nokia N91 feature phone, as far as I'm aware. They use a modified MMC interface, though I'm not aware of what the modifications are in order to test mine. The extremely low weight of this drive means that it is relatively shock resistant, which was certainly a positive for mobile devices. Sadly, as this drive was reaching the market, the cost of flash memory started to plummet in a big way, making Toshiba's world record holding drives uneconomical and obsolete soon after their introduction.
To date (January of 2024), no other manufacturer has stepped up to dethrone Toshiba, and with the decline of hard disk sales in lieu of solid state storage, we may never see mass production of another small hard disk like this ever again. It is unlikely that we will see a drive smaller than the Toshiba, either.
I hope this was an interesting and informative post, and that it was worth the read. Maybe you learned something, maybe you just enjoy gawking at vintage electronics. This is just a small piece of my collection, and if you'd like to see more, here are my CMI drives, here is my Kalok Octagon collection, and here is the Kalok Cartridge System. Additionally, I have made it a goal to one day document every single drive in my collection on video, and you can see those videos on my YouTube channel, @TheDiskMaster.
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