Old old moany groany hard drives

An old video I recorded back in early 2008 using my Compaq laptop and a cheap webcam, but never uploaded until now. I demonstrate the spin-up and spin-down of four old 20-megabyte MFM hard drives, two 5¼" half-height and two 3½" half-height, respectively: MiniScribe 3425, Seagate ST-225, MiniScribe 8425, and finally the MiniScribe 8425F (a slightly "F"aster version of the 8425).

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• old
• classic
• vintage
• pc
• seagate
• st225
• st-225
• miniscribe
• mini
• scribe
• 3425
• 8425
• 8425f
• mfm
• rll
• hard
• disk
• drive
• drives
• startup
• shutdown
• spin-up
• spin-down
• motor
• sound
• sounds
• noise
• 5.25
• inch
• 3.5
• half
• height
• 20mb
• 20
• mb
• meg
• megs
• megabyte
• megabytes

[Lachlant1984]

I should know this, but what does MFM stand for? Those hard disks certainly make a lot of noise, the last 2 are rather quick at spinning up and slowing down.

[vwestlife]

MFM stands for Modified Frequency Modulation. It's the method by which the data is written as magnetic fields to the hard drive platters.

[retrochad]

I can remember the first time I saw a hard drive in a computer...we had an original Compaq portable which originally had 2 floppy drives but then my dad had a 10MB full-height hard drive installed in it. It sounded sort of like the first one you showed but maybe a little louder. This was probably about 1987 or 1988.

[vwestlife]

I used a full-height 5¼" hard drive in the late '90s and early 2000s, except it was a 1.2 gigabyte SCSI drive! I also have a 12-gigabyte 5¼" Quantum Bigfoot EIDE hard drive, although it is only 1-inch height (less than half height).

[Jivemaster2005]

imho this high noise ruined the gaming experience on older pc's...plus the loud PSU fan

The game sfx and music got drowned in all the noice from the PC.

[vwestlife]

The Seagate is actually very quiet for its age. It just makes a low rumble, and vibrates the whole table the PC is on! It was the older 3½" drives that were the most annoying to me, as they gave off a shrieking whine.

[HemaZev]

Ok so the Miniscribe 3425 and 8425 sound like they have the exact same startup test, only the 8425's is faster bcuz of a smaller platter. Listen closely. They both have the heads sweeping slowly across the drive then quickly back.

[Tiscando]

Sounds like the first and second one has the same sounding ball bearing as the one on my VCR multi-part video head. This bearing has a distinctive major-6th mid-tone grumble (relative to the spin vibration) at speed, which I can hear just a little bit on the first one, but it is what makes half of the quiet grumbly noise made by the second one. Interesting-sounding vintage hard drives here, well done!

[Fastopen]

I love those old steppers spining up, frequently stepper motors of 400 step degree resolution and as far as i can remember using half step controlling..

[captain150]

@Lachlant1984

The last two drives are 3.5 inches wide, as opposed to the first 2 which are 5.25 inches wide. The narrower drives have smaller platters, which can spin up faster.

[GimmeSomeRockNRoll]

The 2 3.5" ones, in SCSI form, are the hard drives that are used in the Macintosh SE. I can tell by the sound they make. I never knew that you could see the bottom edge of the actuator arm in action! SWEET!

[captain150]

Another reason is due to new bearings. New drives use fluid dynamic bearings, which are far quieter than ball bearings which these drives used. Even 7200rpm drives up to 2002 or so were quite loud.

[bensonak47]

those harddrives are so loud because they spend at a lower rpm therefore more vibrations escape, higher rpm's will spin fast enough that vibrations are mininal and it's also designed better