Random Parts...and something odd.

[benjgvps]

I went to the Value Village today and got some normal conquests (USB card with two ports , Ethernet card, Yellow cat5 cable and a power cord for standard PSUs), but something grabbed my eye, a HUGE quantum 5.25" hard drive. The bigfoot TX. I'm going to get some pictures in a minute.

 

[tomlee59]

The Bigfoots always made me laugh. I have a friend who used to work at Quantum, and he has stories about how that project came about (short version: Many spare parts gathering dust in the warehouse. What to do?)

 

[quinterro]

I remember those too - I know where a couple of 2.1 and 3.2 models are. The biggest one I remember actually seeing was a 12GB model.

 

[JRL]

My HP Pavillion 6330 uses 5.25 hard drives exclusively... It's still a really nice PC though.

 

[Unknown_K]

Those 5.25" drives were very slow (4200 RPM?) and probably not that reliable.

I have some 9GB AVID drives in external cases that are the old Seagate 5.25" FH 50 pin SCSI variety and boy are they heavy.

 

[Dennis Nedry]

I have a Seagate Elite 9, 9GB, double-height 5.25" 50-pin SCSI HD and it's proven to be very reliable. It's a GIANT. I bought it years ago thinking it would fit in my 6100/60. Probably NOT. It took me a while to find an external SCSI case that would take it; I had a few but they were all too small, and only my Mac HD 20SC could give out enough juice to spin it up to full speed. So I had the drive sitting in the HD 20SC case with no cover on it. I overheated the power supply almost right away, which caused it to have some sort of fault protection kick in, so I took the metal lid off, covered it with nylon screen, and put a 12V DC fan on it. It sure looked cool but I bet I wasn't meeting specification in a few areas... That drive was LOUD when it was out in the open like that.

I went through 3 hard drives on that 6100 and finally I got the Elite 9 and it still works to this day. I also had a Sonnet Crescendo 240MHz G3 card burn up in that thing, within 90 days of purchase. I was still able to exchange for a new one, which that still works too.

I also had a Bigfoot drive (1/2 height 5.25") and it didn't last long, so I can second that they're not too reliable.

 

[Quadraman]

I have a pair of Corvus drives here that use 5.25" and 8" drive mechs. This was back when they were still called Winchester drives. It's funny because as huge as they are, the older 8" is only 5 megs and the 5.25" is 10 megs. That's MEGS not GIGS.

 

[benjgvps]

I just plugged it into my PC this morning... Used from 1996 to 2002... Quite a few porn related things: Adult Tetris and the "Adult" Folder in "Pics" was 186 MB, in 1999. There was also a few good programs such as Photoshop 5, Partition magic, a few cracked programs... Most of the stuff is spread over a few partitions. It is an 8 GB drive, time to add it to my collection of 8 GB drives! When will I ever find a 20 GB drive..

 

[coius]

I pulled apart a machine that had a 8.4GB one in it. It's almost bigger than a CD-ROM drive. The thing is also about the width of the case!!!

 

[iMac600]

Good ol' Bigfoot drives. I have two of the things, a 1GB and a 4GB. The 1GB has some surface damage but the 4GB still works.

 

[Dan 7.1]

i've got an Aptiva with an 8GB one. it does seem extremely slow, but it is very spiffy.

 

[skeletor]

i've got an Aptiva with an 8GB one. it does seem extremely slow, but it is very spiffy.

oh man, I remember those Aptivas, with OS2 warp..especially the first gen models....Almost bought one...ended up buying a Quadra..

remember the snappy aptiva ads and commercials..so outta character for those stuffed shirts at IBM....

you hardly ever see 'em at thrift stores, at least down here..

 

[Torbar]

I have a 12 gig one, and maybe another one from a AMD k6-2 Compaq I have.

 

[Charlieman]

I have a pair of Corvus drives here that use 5.25" and 8" drive mechs.

What are you using those with? My first experience of a hard disk with a microcomputer was a multiplexed Corvus with Apple IIs (probably Europluses) in 1981. By the late 1980s, those disks were very temperamental, and were thus run 24/7. But they were still running in 1993 (after 12 years of heavy use), with the help of two smart fixers.