this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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Computer drive sizes over the years (lemmy.zip)
submitted 5 hours ago by ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
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I just got a new laptop today and when I saw the ssd it blew my mind. Most of my old drives are like the second from left and it's what I think of as a normal drive, buying a standard ssd still feels small to me. But look at that tiny thing to the right! It's the size of a postage stamp!

Assuming I managed to find the right specs (it is a Microscience hh-1050): The monster on the far left is from 1990, holds 40mb, read/write of 0.625mb/s, and weighs almost exactly 2kg. The baby on the far right I got in the mail today, holds 1tb, read/write of 5150mb/s, and weighs about 2.85 grams.

So we're looking at 25,000 times more storage, 8,240 times faster, and 1/700th the weight! And the one on the right is just 1tb, they make one that same model but 2tb. I can barely believe it exists even though I'm literally holding it in my hands.

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[–] stinky@redlemmy.com 2 points 59 minutes ago (1 children)

what's the one on the right?

[–] tgxn@lemmy.tgxn.net 1 points 11 minutes ago

It's an M.2 NVMe or sata drive.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

I remember all the formats shown.

My first machine was an AST Research 286 16Mhz (in "turbo" mode) with two 5-1/4" floppy drives, and a 40 MB 5-1/4" hard drive. I paid ~$2000 for it in the late 80s. That was a good move, I knew more about computers than most people applying for jobs at the time, and that allowed me to make a decent living without a college degree.

[–] nonentity@sh.itjust.works 29 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

5MB of storage in 1956.

5MB storage in 1956

[–] Sabin10@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

That would hold 1.66 copies of war and peace.

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 1 points 34 minutes ago

Once you have one copy on there it would be awfully wasteful to fill the rest up with a 0.66 copy though.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 4 points 1 hour ago

ASCII wasn't around then, so it would perhaps be stored in 5-bit ITA2, or 6/7-bit FIELDATA. So likely a 5/8 to 7/8 space savings (unless the numbers are for compressed War and Peace).

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago

Oldest hard drives I've dealt with were 4RU. Those systems also had me attaching reels of tape with write enable rings.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago

I remember being astounded by the 8GB backup tapes that fit in my shirt pocket.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

Is that NVME only half length still with a full TB? It almost looks to be the same size as an M.2 wifi adapter. Crazy that they're getting this small.

I recently bought two cheaper 1TB NVME and have some premium ones from several years ago but they're all the full 80mm length. I have yet to come across ones this small personally.

[–] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

2280 seems to be the most common DIY size, 2230 is common for business machines, sometimes in an adapter to fit a normal 2.5" HDD bay or a slot large enough for 2280. I just removed one from the 2280 adapter last week to get data off after the storm came through the east coast.

[–] recked_wralph@lemmy.world 10 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

The fact that those measurements are in inches when “2280” means 22mm x 80mm agitates me.

[–] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 2 points 17 minutes ago

Welcome to merica!

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

There's terabyte SD cards now, that are almost that fast.

[–] SolidShake@lemmy.world 45 points 5 hours ago (3 children)

And Apple be like. 128gb HDD or upgrade to a 512gb SSD for $600 extra or a 1tb nvme for $1000 extra

[–] warm@kbin.earth 34 points 4 hours ago (3 children)

Their customers buy it, so they arent changing that

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[–] nullPointer@programming.dev 11 points 4 hours ago

lack of education is Apple's bread and butter.

[–] Decq@lemmy.world 7 points 4 hours ago

Apple livea on the notion of 'a fool and his money are soon parted' and can you blame them? They are one of, if not the, most profitable companies around. If it works why change it.

[–] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

I started on 3.5" HDDs in the 90s. I am running 3.5" HDDs today. They are still the most cost efficient.

[–] Bebopalouie@lemmy.ca 10 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Ahh yes, I remember my first Seagate ST225. A whopping 20 MB of storage for the low low price of 800 bucks.

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 29 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Wait, 1tb?

You're leaving impact on the table, I have plenty of 1tb micro SD cards.

[–] fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Those drives typically have some pretty dreadful read/write speeds (for a computer). Maybe once SD Express is figured out we'll get fast and good Micro SD cards at a high capacity.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

And they crap out so quickly. I can't even count the number of SD cards I've had to throw in the trash. I don't think I've ever had a 2.5" or 3.5" drive completely crap out on me (though I have had bad SMART data indicative of a dying drive) and I have been running a media server with dozens of TBs for over a decade now.

[–] Knuschberkeks@leminal.space 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Invest in Samsung Pro Endurane SD cards, they last a lot longer. I believe Sandisk has a similar product but I have never used it.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 hours ago

There are way too many counterfeit cards mixed in with the legitimate stock out there for me to bother spending too much on any single card. I typically go for the midrange offerings and roll the dice.

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 7 points 5 hours ago

I mean, those work fine and are fast. You mean we'll get those for cheap.

In any case, the image is about physical dimensions, and SD cards are tiny! Considering we're comparing to a 40 MB mechanical drive, I'm gonna say the comparison is valid and they aren't even near the bottom of the specs table.

Of course people like it when ALL the specs get better in these things, but that's because people like simple things more than true things.

[–] Vinny_93@lemmy.world 16 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Apples and oranges, though. The left two are hard drives, the right two are solid state drives (ie flash memory). They kind of serve the same purpose, but there is quite a big step in between 2 and 3. 2.5" HDDs also exist, though. Then again, so do 1TB MicroSD cards. And 2280 M.2 SSDs. But also huge tapes that are still in use for backup purposes.

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 8 points 4 hours ago

There were even smaller hard drives. The iPod used a 1.8in drive.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

I think I have two I could put on the left side. A "full-height" 5.25 inch drive with 5 megabytes and a DEC removable disk platter assembly, somewhere over a foot in diameter and 8 to 10 inches high. I don't remember how much capacity that had. It was for a RP04 or RP06 drive.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 4 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (5 children)

It'd be gnar if the smallest one was also a magnetic platter hard drive.

The smallest old style hard drive I can think of is the iPod. But now I want to know if any magnetic platter drives got smaller than that... 🤔

Afaik, it's all been solid state after that. Even newer iPods.

[–] Mnem667@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)
[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

It's so tiny! 😍

Omg it was made in 1998?! :O

[–] Mnem667@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

Pulled from my Life drive :)

And further into the article: "Toshiba decided to skip the 1" form factor, and in March 2004 announced a 0.85" drive that shipped in September of the same year.[38] "

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 1 points 32 minutes ago

Oh wow. I didn't even know that was a platter drive! I'm kinda glad I kept that thing.

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

gnar

You made me think of GWAR

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 points 1 hour ago

Gwar is pretty gnar.

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[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

It really is amazing, and just popping an m.2 into a motherboard directly is just so... easy. And I think Gen5s are what, 2.5x faster than what you're showing here?

[–] MDCCCLV@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

The screw situation is finicky. It's a weird mix between you're supposed to have screws from your case/motherboard or sometimes the drive comes with one. But if you move stuff and drop the tiny tiny screw it's a hassle. Every motherboard should just have the little tab you just turn to keep it in place.

Plus the newer gen fast drives get hot so they need a heatsink. The fastest maybe need heatsink plus airflow. So then you need an extra fan if you don't have enough airflow which is easy because it's flush against the motherboard and sometimes blocked by the GPU.

[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Full agree on the screw situation, although my most recent mobi addressed that with a sort of... turnable plastic lock thing? And a built in heatsink and "shield" for the gen 5 and 4 ports, so I haven't had any issues with heat. I get the sense we'll have a better standard as time goes in though, Gen5 is really really new.

But even the gen 3s are lovely. Maybe I just hate SATA cables, haha.

[–] absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

In the compsci building at uni, there is a museum of sorts in the hall to the labs. At the beginning of the storage section, there is a 20Mb storage device. It is the size of a washing machine, I have no idea how much it weighs, but it has to be in the 100's of kg range.

Sitting on top are much more modern devices, 5.25"/3.5"/2.5" drives; I haven't been back for a decade to know if they kept going as tech improved.

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

"Sitting on top" is a brilliant way to display that.

[–] absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 3 points 2 hours ago

Very effective.

The RAM section with the hand woven memory modules is so awesome. 1kb of RAM; tiny iron rings with fine copper wires threaded through them.

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 2 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Do manufacturers use the extra space for larger batteries, or just to make the product smaller overall?

[–] MDCCCLV@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 hours ago

This is for desktop PC. But the correct answer is overall smaller because if you only had spinny drives a lot of small devices wouldn't be possible.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

And it will continue...

Soon we'll have 100TB "drives" the size of a thumb nail for 50€.

We'll all (we geeks anyways) walk around with the Wikipedia, all Star Trek movies and so on in our pocket :-)

[–] ramenshaman@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

The 1TB and up microSD cards blow my mind.

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