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[Poll]How old is your oldest "RUNNING" hard drive?

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dont know the exact model/year but i have an old nec laptop (386 10inch screen), with a 200meg drive, last i checked it would still boot, though the battery is long dead.
 
Western Digital 10GB, just stopped using it.
Have a 6.4 and 8.4 around, too, but no real uses for them.
 
I don't actively use it, but I do have a working JTS/Conner 2.5GB drive.
As for active use in any of my PC's, the oldest is probably 3 years old - an IBM 120GXP.
 
The oldest running hard drive i have is a 420MB that came with a Compaq back in '93, was a DX4-100, served us well for a long while, and still does ( kinda ) The oldest drive i had was in my old 386 though, really cant remember the capacity as i never really used it. Other than that, the oldest most used drive is my 10GB @ 6 years old from my P3-700 Gateway PC.
 
I am running my old Maxtor 20GB 2MBcache, one of the first 7200pms out. It's never even had a bad sector yet. It is starting to show it's age, and one of these days I will have to replace it for a faster bigger one, that is a bit quieter.

Even though it's not used much, I still have an old PC with a 6.4GB Quantum "Bigfoot" These drives are known for their crappiness, but it's still running since 1997. That thing is the loudest hardrive I have ever heard as far as accessing info.
 
I`ve a very old IBM 18GB 7200rpm ATA-66 HD still going strong,must be about 6-7 years old now.
 
i have a 3yo maxtor and seagate that are fine, the one in my server coudl be older, one in the comp downstairs is at least 5

we also have a mac that is running OS 8.x and has a HD from about 98 in it
 
Maxtor 13.6 Gig.
Created quite a stir on ATOT when it went on sale at Office Depot for $100 after rebate.
I've forgotten when I got it, '98 or '99.
It's in use every day.
 
If you can call it running, boot it up and use once in a great while.

A 630meg Segate and a 3.2 WD. Maybe 94 & 96?? or there abouts
 
Hey, I just uncovered a 10meg Conner harddrive hiding in one of my old boxes. I remembered pulling this from an old Epson PC (yes, Epson used to make computers too). Hooked it up, booted and my system recognized it🙂 I also ran a scan and no bad sectors, nothing. Age? I have no idea.....
 
I have a 80 MB Maxtor that still works from a circa 1991 BSR 386 SX 16 MHz. Back when I bought that one, 80 MB was the "big" drive (the standard one was 40, LOL!).
 
I have a 80 MB Maxtor that still works from a circa 1991 BSR 386 SX 16 MHz. Back when I bought that one, 80 MB was the "big" drive (the standard one was 40, LOL!).
 
Oldest drive I still regularly use is a 13.6GB Quantum KA Plus from 1999. My first, and Quantum's 1st 7200 RPM ATA drive. Interestingly enough, it has a faster access time than every non-Quantum PATA drive past or present.
 
Originally posted by: AWhackWhiteBoy
sorry,misread hard drive for hardware 🙂

i had a working 40meg Seagate from the very early 90's but i couldn't help myself so i took it apart. i'm looking at a 200meg WD from 93 though.
Click to expand...

I have a 20MB Seagate ST225 full-height MFM drive, ST-506 interface, and a 240MB WD IDE drive, both still work. Had some working 1GB WDAC31000 HDs too, cost me $300 each, gave them away with some systems a while ago. Amazingly, those things outlasted some of my more recent HD purchases, but it makes some sense, they cost more originally too.

Hey, I have another idea, if anyone is actually *using* their under-1GB HDs for something useful, please post that info too. I'd love to get some ideas.
 
A couple of good uses for old 'Under 1GB Hdd's'

1) Use as a slave for virtual memory only.
2) Use in a caddy with 2 or more PC's to transfer MP3's or other data between them.
3) Use as a backup disk for more delicate files that you might not need to update so much, could be kept in a safe or something.
 
the oldest hard drive thats currently running and in use is the IBM dcaa 34330 4.3GB from 1997 that I use for my linux lan dedicated BF1942 server (the CPU is an XP1800 and it has 256MB of ram, just the hard drive and vid card are crap, though it does what i want it to do just fine, and I even have over 1GB of free space on it.)

I have a few 1.2 and 2 GB SCSI drives somewhere, they work just fine and are close to 10 if not more than 10 years old, but they aren't running at this very momment in time.
 
My firewall is currently running with a 6 or more year old Seagate 2gb hard drive. 🙂 I would have prefered to use a quieter drive, like a Barracuda IV, but the size would have been overkill. Instead I used this drive since it was free. 🙂
 
2GB Quantum Fireball drive got it in 94 I think?
Also a 8GB Seagate from 5-6 years ago.

In my own System I have a 40GB Maxtor from 3 years ago and 3 month old 74 GB Raptor.
 
Originally posted by: XplosiV
A couple of good uses for old 'Under 1GB Hdd's'

1) Use as a slave for virtual memory only.
2) Use in a caddy with 2 or more PC's to transfer MP3's or other data between them.
3) Use as a backup disk for more delicate files that you might not need to update so much, could be kept in a safe or something.
Click to expand...




Are you kidding ???
These are the WORST possible drives for virtual memory. "under 1gb Hdds" are generally PIO modo 1 or 2 drives, they are very very very very very very very very very very very very slow (like between 1MB and 3MB per second). Using them for virtual memmory is a VERY bad idea, they will lag the CPU. Also, these olde drives have extremely high CPU utilization (i believe its because they do not have direct memmory access.)

This is a combination of using lead life jackets aboard boats and paddling a canoe with a fork and putting the door to the refrigerator on the bottom so you have to suspend it from the ceiling and everything falls out when you open it!




Also, for scenario 2, why not just use a cdrw??? Burning a cd at 16x or more will be faster then an ancient hard drive and it will be a lot smaller, lighter, and more durable to carry around. (sure cdrs are fragile ... but they don't die if you shake them a little bit. Also, buying a cady is more expensive than 100 cheap cd-rs, so unless you already own the cady, it would probably not be worth payng for one.


3. OK ... this scenario has some merit, however, I don't know how much I would trust a 10+ year old hard drive with important data. Using the mindset of "it hasn't failed yet, why would it any time soon" isn't really smart when it comes to anything important. I tend to think "MTBF for these things is like 5 or so years, this drive is well overdue ... I had better be carefull with it" . I would suggest to use tape and back important data up at least once per week, or just burn it to cds/dvds, and be sure to make at least 2 copies of anything REALLY important.





IMO the best use for really small hard drives would be to throw several of them in a box, and run a server. 2 or 3 500MB drives is plenty for a slack install (heck, 1 x 500 is enough for a slack install).

You can build a pretty badass firewall/NAT box, mail server, print server, dns server, ircd server, shell server, usefull network utility box (for things like nmap & sniffers) and/or an IRC box (Bitchx and Eggdrop) and still have room to spare.

(Disclaimer so that the BSD people (ok .. maybe just n0cmonkey) do not behead me: You could of course use a variant of BSD as well and get great results, however I personally favor linux, so that is why I recommended slackware.)
 
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