173mb hard drive...worth saving?

[MichaelD]

A coworker gave me an old 486SX that appears to have a torqued mobo. Assuming I can't get it to run and I'm cannibalizing the thing, is it worth it to salvage it's 173mg HD? It's made by "Conner" who later got bought out by WD who later got bought out by Maxtor.

AFA I know, it works...it whirs and clicks away on power-up.

 

Maxtor bought out Western Digital ?


When ?

I'd save it just for testing purposes.

 

[XBoxLPU]

Pair it with a fast PC, and install Linux on the HD. And run Seti

 

[techfuzz]

I turned my old HD's that were useless into works of art. I took off the top casing and put them on my window sill behind my desk. I have people walk by and look at them every day. They are always so intrigued. Of course I still get asked, do those still work?

techfuzz

 

[zephyrprime]

Not worth it. Conner was bought by Seagate, not Maxtor or WD.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
Not worth it. Conner was bought by Seagate, not Maxtor or WD.

Yeah, I knew that...dunno why I typed the above...my bad. Anyways thanks guys.

 

[Sunner]

You could put it in some computer and install OpenBSD on it, making for a nice firewall/router box.

 

[LarryJoe]

Find an identical 173mb drive and put it in a RAID 0 array j/k

I would trash it, I don't see the use when 5GB and 10GB drives are pretty much salvage in peoples closets.

 

I don't see the use when 5GB and 10GB drives are pretty much salvage in peoples closets

Speak for yourself, I have 10 and 12 gig WD's in all my machines.
I have no use for anything bigger.

 

[Wolfsraider]

i like my lil ole 18 gig hdd just fine thank you

i third the linux route. its always neat to use something that can provide a benifit rather than throwing it out,you know like recycling only better cause it's the cutting edge of years gone by...

 

[OulOat]

And that can store how many mp3s?

 

[MichaelD]

I see the logic on both sides of the arguement. On one hand, I am King Packrat; I throw nothing away.....which is why on the other hand, I have boxes upon boxes full of STUFFFFFFFFF and sh11111111t that I should've thrown away. I'll guess I'll save the stupid thing...maybe I can EBay it for like a gazillion dollars someday.

 

[jeffrey]

I'd chuck it, but if you know someone who might actually need some more space give it to them no charge.

 

[Wolfsraider]

michaeld lol i was just kidding i put a bunch of my old gear together and ended up with 10 odd computers and i do mean odd lol

i gave them away as internet machines to get my clutter issue resolved

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'd offer it for shipping to someone restoring an old 286 / 386 / 486, many of them can't handle HDs larger than 420 (? something like that, in the FAQs).

Back in '88 it would have been a nice upgrade to the 65 MB RLL drive in my 286

 

[Lorne]

Hey maybe you can pair it up with the 50meg 5.25 HH SCSI-1 drive I have, This is the loudest Fing drive Ive have ever heard, It drowns out those high speed fans easly and peaple outside wonder how you got the jet into your house, But it works.

Somewhere around here I have a 10meg 3.5 HH but its not as impressive to those not remembering the days when that was a huge drive.

 

[HappyPuppy]

I'm surprised that a Conner HDD is still alive. They were always known as death drives.

 

[Ben50]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
I'd offer it for shipping to someone restoring an old 286 / 386 / 486, many of them can't handle HDs larger than 420 (? something like that, in the FAQs).

Back in '88 it would have been a nice upgrade to the 65 MB RLL drive in my 286

Hmm...420. I think you are thinking of something else.

 

[brinstar117]

Haha! I have one of those drives that I got out of an old discarded computer that was donated to my school and rejected by the school (the donor lied on the paperwork and said it was Pentium, but it was just an old 486 40MHz DX)

I salvaged the drive and took it home. I tried installed Starcraft on it, and it caused lag on my internet games since it was soooo slow

mine's a 173mb and made by conner as well, I wonder if I run it in RAID 0 as someone has suggested... would it be fast enough to stop the lag? (heh, I seriously doubt it, raid would just make the access times even slower)

 

[sharkeeper]

Take the cover off and fire it up so you can see the platters spinning...

Now go find a few wooly caterpillars and drop them on the spinning platters so they are accelerated tangentially. Do this in a window so people can observe.

Just whatever you do, don't be late for dinner!

Cheers!

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
I'm surprised that a Conner HDD is still alive. They were always known as death drives.

My sister's PC had a Conner drive up until a few months ago; that thing was at least 6 years old and still going strong. She just needed more space.

As for the 173MB drive, if you want to space, or a "testbed" system, keep it. Otherwise, take it apart and keep the magnets inside; those things are very strong. Or, take Sharkeeper's idea a step further - open it, but stick a clear top on it and watch it go, without contaminating it too badly with dust.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: Ben50

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
I'd offer it for shipping to someone restoring an old 286 / 386 / 486, many of them can't handle HDs larger than 420 (? something like that, in the FAQs).

Back in '88 it would have been a nice upgrade to the 65 MB RLL drive in my 286

Hmm...420. I think you are thinking of something else.

Why do I have an immense sense of HardForum deja vu??