Computer hard disk drive history

1950:
Before using disks, storage units used magnetic drums referred to as drum machines or drum-memory computers. The first commercial drum machine was developed by the Engineering Research Associates of Minneapolis and used by the U.S. Navy ERA 110. Drum machines were used throughout the early '50s.

1956:
On September 13, 1956 the IBM 305 RAMAC is the first computer to be shipped with a hard disk drive that contained 50 24-inch platters and was capable of storing 5 million characters and weighed a ton.

1959:
Chucking Grinder Co. begins working on disk drives.

1961:
Chucking Grinder Co. moves to Walled Lake Michigan and becomes Bryant Computer Products, a subsidiary of Ex-Cello Corp.

1961:
IBM introduces the IBM 1301 disk storage unit June 2, 1961, capable of storing 28 million characters

1962:
On October 11, 1962 IBM introduced the IBM 1311 disk storage drive, which stored

1973:
IBM ships the 3340 Winchester hard disk drive with two spindles and a capacity of 30MB. This drive was the first drive to utilize the Winchester technology.

1980:
Seagate introduces the ST506 hard disk drive, the first hard disk drive developed for microcomputers

1980:
The first Gigabyte hard disk drive is introduced by IBM and weighed 550lbs with a price of $44,000.

1986:
The original SCSI, SCSI-1 is developed.

1990:
SCSI-2 is approved.

1996:
SCSI-3 is approved.

2002:
Hitachi closes deal to purchase IBM's hard disk drive operation for $2.05 billion on December 31, 2002.