A Brief History of Data Storage

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/computer_data_storage_through_ages?page=0,0&EMC-R3A917316679=' target='_blank'>http://www.maximumpc.com/article/ne...C-R3A917316679=</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Your next build may very well come configured with dual-SSD drives in a RAID 0 array for the OS, a gluttonous 2TB SATA HDD for storage duties, and a Blu-ray optical drive for movie watching and HD backups. And for quick transfers from one rig to another, does it get any sweeter than a 64GB USB thumb drive loaded with all of your favorite apps? Such a storage scheme is certainly worthy of dream machine status, but our storage options weren't always as fanciful, fast, and fat as they are today. Some of you may remember toting a 3.5-inch floppy to and from school, while others hearken all the way back to cassette tapes. And if you've lived long enough to remember the IBM Punch Card first hand, just ask and we'll SPEAK LOUDER."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//dht/auto/1236294803.usr10.png" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p><em>Image Credit:&nbsp; IBM</em></p><p>You youngsters probably had optical storage on your first computers.&nbsp; Sadly I've actually handled most of these data formats (except the paper tape).&nbsp; Funny story, when I started my current job, the garland and topper on the office Christmas tree were made of old punch cards and many of the ornaments were made from the internal rings on magnetic tapes.&nbsp; Hey at least they were recycling.</p>

[bcre8v2]

Punch cards! magnetic tapes! Comptran-10!
Even the picture is in Black-and-White.....
How Visual!
{sniff}
Those were the 40-hour work weeks... {sigh}....

Thanks for the memories and here's to the future of storage
Cheers!

[Sven Johannsen]

Paper tape, folks. Started with a teletype terminal and paper tape, connected to a time share system via an acoustic coupled modem. (that's where you dialed the phone, with a dial, not buttons, listened for the tones and placed the handset on the cups in the modem box). The 'screen' was typed on a roll of yellow paper.

[Rob Alexander]

I started with the punch cards in the front page photo in college, but we were near the end of that era. While there, we moved on to paper terminals with storage on the mainframe, then video terminals.

Of the things they talk about, I've used:
Punch Cards
Magnetic Tape
8-in floppies
5 1/4" floppies
3 1/2" floppies
CD
Colorado Backup
CF
Zip
Jaz
DVD
2.5" portable HD
SD
USB Flash

Man, the thing about an article like that is it really reminds you of just how good we have it now next to the old days. Even as recently as the Jaz days, things felt really constrained and the lack of a standard greater than floppy size meant you had to buy Jaz drives for each computer. Compared to the very tiny 16GB flash drive hanging on my keyring now, I'm just amazed that we managed to get anything done at all.

[randalllewis]

I was a freshman in college in 1972 and my roommate was a junior computer sciences major. I remember him disappearing in the middle of the night for his chance on the mainframe armed with a large box of IBM punchcards all arranged just so. Two favorite memories: the time he was heading out the door of our room with his box and was run into by one of our neighbors running down the hall. The box, which was a about 18 by 24 inches in size with short sides that covered just about half the height of the IBM cards, started to tip after the collision, rocking back and forth in his hands as he tried to retain both his own balance and the box. I was several yards away and could not have reached him in time and the hit and run neighbor kept going down the hall and out the exit door. It seemed to take forever, but after several moments when it looked like the cards were going to scatter everywhere, he managed to steady the box as he finally lost his own balance and splatted hard on his butt.

The next morning, I got to see the results produced by those cards: a drawing of a naked women printed on that green and white stripped perforated paper! No wonder he fought so hard to keep those cards from spilling.

[tregnier]

My first management job was as a computer room supervisor in 1971. I was responsible production using two Honeywell computers, an H-1200 and H-2200. I think my current watch has more computing power. They occupied a big room with a suspended floor, separate environment, etc. The tape drives were bigger than refrigerators. The printers were impact line printers. The card readers were the primary input devices. We used gang punches, collators, decollators, and other card devices to make changes. Data sorts using the huge disk packs took hours sometimes. Were they the "good old days". No! If I had my MSI Wind back then, I could have brought that whole company to its knees! LOL!

The best thing I got out of that job?? My wife....she was an IBM 029 keypunch operator!

[Sven Johannsen]

The next morning, I got to see the results produced by those cards: a drawing of a naked women printed on that green and white stripped perforated paper! No wonder he fought so hard to keep those cards from spilling.
Ahhh, ASCII art, a forgotten art form.