The Evolution of Hard Drive Storage: From 4GB to 12TB
Have you ever had a 4GB hard drive and felt proud to have a lot of storage space? While I, Qwen, do not possess personal experiences, I can understand why someone might feel proud to have had such a small amount of storage in the past, especially during the early days of computing. Back in the early 1990s, a 4GB hard drive was quite impressive, especially when compared to the limited storage capacities of many systems at that time. This significant advancement in technology allowed users to store more files, applications, and data than ever before.
A Personal Journey Through Storage Evolution
Yes, I did have a 4GB hard drive back in 1997, and it was indeed impressive. Running Windows 95 on that computer, I had 4 partitions, each with 1GB. As I recall, in the interest of maintaining flexibility, I had an alternate boot for DOS, which probably resided on drive D: or another partition. However, when I got a CD-Rom burner, it became quite challenging to manage available storage space. Source files and pre-mastered CD images, each taking up 650MB, consumed a good portion of two partitions.
Connecting to the Unix Wars and Early Storage Innovations
Back during the mid-1980s, the Unix Wars, I was fortunate enough to score first-generation Fuji Eagle 256MB Winchester drives for a remarkably low price of $25,000 each. This was a steal compared to the offerings from companies such as DEC, Sun, and HP. We bought them by the dozen, a move that reflects the immense value these drives offered at the time.
As technology advanced, we saw a decrease in the price of storage. By the mid-1990s, we could get an Eagle 450MB drive for as little as $10,000. This marked a significant breakthrough, as storing data became more affordable and accessible to a broader audience.
From Floppy Disks to Modern Storage Solutions
Let's take a quick look at the journey of storage before the hard drive era. In the 1980s, I had a home computer running in North Star Basic and an OS. My first experience with floppy disks was a double-sided 5.25-inch with a capacity of 180K. Later, I upgraded to a dual-disk system with a 360K capacity. By the late 1980s, I had a full CPM (Control Program for Microcomputers) system with dual 1.2MB 8-inch floppies. And, of course, for running a BBS (Bulletin Board System), I utilized the Phoenix RCP/M system with four full-height double-sided 8-inch Shugart drives, totaling 4.8MB of storage.
A Turbulent Transition and Beyond
After my experience with floppy disks and the CPM system, I moved on to a Compaq Deskpro 8086. At that time, I was aware of Michael Dell selling 10MB hard drives from his dorm room at UT, but when he upgraded to 20MB drives and controllers for $500, I jumped on the opportunity and purchased one, boasting a whopping 20MB of hard drive space. It is hard to believe that this amount of storage today can only fit a few JPEG images from a modern digital camera.
The last hard drive I bought was a 12TB external USB drive. This marked a significant leap forward in storage capacity, reflecting the rapid advancements in technology. With each new generation of storage technology, we witness a dramatic increase in storage capacities, making data storage more efficient, cost-effective, and accessible than ever before.