huge hard drive, not capacity

[lumis]

a friend recently gave me an old fried computer, i figured i could salvage some stuff off it, at worst some screws, jumpers, etc..

when i cracked open the case i was astounded to see what i thought was a hard drive.. and it was.. a huge hard drive.

i've been messing with computers for about 12 years now and have never seen a 5-1/4 sized hard drive..

its a 20GB quantum Bigfoot TS hard drive, model # 320880-001.

below is a picture of a drive next to a dvd-rom drive, its at a bit of an angle, but you can tell its the same size.

has anyone else every seen a gigantic hard drive like this?

[Ripper2860]

Yeah those Bigfoot drives were ummm pretty big. Large single platter 5-1.4" mofo's. Slow and not the most reliable drive Quantum ever made. I think they just had some really old 5-1/4" platters they needed to get rid of so they built a product around it.

I always get a chuckle whenever I run across one. Just looks so strange by today's standards.

[ViRaL1]

I used to have a bigfoot. 4.3GB. Might be worth something someday. :P They never had a good rep.

I don't think anyone other than Quantum made them. Their HDD division is now defunct, I think Maxtor bought it.

[JohnnyCNote]

It's probably a Quantum Bigfoot. They used to be common about 5 or so years ago.

Bigfoot ATA Hard Drives

This ATA Hard Drive was manufactured and released by Quantum® and is now supported by Maxtor. Quantum Bigfoot 5.25-inch hard disk drives, designed for value-oriented personal computer systems, combine very high capacity with excellent cost-per-megabyte economics. Offered in formatted capacities of 1,286, 2,110, and 2,577 megabytes (MB) of storage, these products are particularly well-suited to multimedia systems and applications that require large storage capacities. The Quantum Bigfoot drive's ultra slim-line design, which measures 8 by 5.75 by 0.75 inches, fits into any available 5.25-inch bay in most modular PCs without any customization to system enclosures. Since Quantum Bigfoot drives mount exactly like a CD-ROM unit, installation is actually easier than a traditional 3.5-inch drive, since no brackets or mounting rails are required.

[Faustus]

Yup thats a bigfoot alright. Some Compaqs came with them. They have a bad name because well 1) they were not that good and 2) there was this one run so bad that they expected a 100% failure rate after the problem was discovered.

Strange part is I eventually chunked mine and IIRC it fell into the problem serial range. At the end I was playing with it. So much metal at the top that you could put slight finger pressure on the top and hear the head go *CHUNK* and stop. I was daring it to die. AND IT WOULDN'T!

[lumis]

yep, this puppy came from a compaq. i'm not going to use it (just bought a new 200gb hdd today).. i'll probably put it away and maybe some day someone will need a hdd and i'll slap this humongous thing in there.

did quantum actually ever sell these drives retail? or were they just put inside computers because they knew no one would actually ever want to buy one?

[Faustus]

I think they were sold retail but I'm not gonna swear to that.

[ViRaL1]

Yes, I bought mine retail.

[ViRaL1]

yep, this puppy came from a compaq. i'm not going to use it (just bought a new 200gb hdd today).. i'll probably put it away and maybe some day someone will need a hdd and i'll slap this humongous thing in there.

did quantum actually ever sell these drives retail? or were they just put inside computers because they knew no one would actually ever want to buy one?

Yes, I bought mine retail. Although you may wonder why anyone would, they were cheaper than comparable 3.5" drives at the same capacity because the platters weren't as dense as the 3.5" drives. At the time they were out we were talking maybe $50 difference between the bigfoot and the same size 3.5" drive. If you think those are behemoths, check out some of the 3.5" FULL HEIGHT Seagates people are still passing around on the internet.

[Faustus]

yep, this puppy came from a compaq. i'm not going to use it (just bought a new 200gb hdd today).. i'll probably put it away and maybe some day someone will need a hdd and i'll slap this humongous thing in there.

did quantum actually ever sell these drives retail? or were they just put inside computers because they knew no one would actually ever want to buy one?

Yes, I bought mine retail. Although you may wonder why anyone would, they were cheaper than comparable 3.5" drives at the same capacity because the platters weren't as dense as the 3.5" drives. At the time they were out we were talking maybe $50 difference between the bigfoot and the same size 3.5" drive. If you think those are behemoths, check out some of the 3.5" FULL HEIGHT Seagates people are still passing around on the internet.

Yeah full height RLL hard drive were like huge and heavy lunchboxes.

[ViRaL1]

The ones I was thinking of are SCSI.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11160&item=5163684070&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

[vitualis]

Scary to think within the year, we will probably have CF memory cards of this capacity.

Regards.

[rallynavvie]

Was it the Fireball hard drives that were the 5.25" drives that you could almost use as a gyro? I think it was a combination of rotational mass and speed (=rotational momentum?) that did it.

[Capmaster]

Was it the Fireball hard drives that were the 5.25" drives that you could almost use as a gyro? I think it was a combination of rotational mass and speed (=rotational momentum?) that did it.

Ahhh yes. The Quantum Bigfoot drive. I owned a few of those

[ViRaL1]

Was it the Fireball hard drives that were the 5.25" drives that you could almost use as a gyro? I think it was a combination of rotational mass and speed (=rotational momentum?) that did it.

I had an old Barracuda (3.5" HH) that felt like that.