CNet's posted a ten-part pictorial series on the history of the hard drive, starting with IBM's 1956 5MB System 305 drive all the way up to Hitachi's 2003 femtoscale read-heads.
Although some say Apple Computer defines high-tech style for the current age, IBM was the undisputed leader in the 1970s. It put color panels on mainframes as well as on this device, the IBM 3340 storage system in crockpot red. The platters, back in 1973, held 1.7MB per square inch, a record at the time. Companies shared these systems, leasing time and space when required. The going rate was $7.81 a megabyte, 38 percent more than the price of oil at the time.
(via Make Blog)
