Playing with huge old ST41600N server hard drive
Channel: Dale Mahalko
Date: 20/11/2011

Here we have a huge full-height 1.4 gigabyte 5.25" SCSI hard drive I am discarding. Physically big but extremely low capacity by modern standards.

Has some huge super powerful neodymium magnets from the head movement assembly, and the casing is odd on this one, with a perfectly circular cover ring around the platters.

It just so happens the hub end-cap rides around the gap between the hub motor and that outer ring like a track. Hmm, how fast can I get the hub ring going around that track, using the platter drive motor to spin it? I made a little corral around the top to keep the hub ring from flying off at high speed during this fooling around.. 

I took the server to Best Buy for disposal last week. Bit hard to find a purpose for a 75+ lb Unisys UN6065 Unix SVR4 server with 64 meg RAM (16 4-meg memory SIMMs) and dual 486-50 processors. Woo. Virtually any unix task it could do, can be done 100 times faster with a $50 used PC running Ubuntu.

The server was about the size of a two-drawer file cabinet. It was my bedstand the last 5 years or so, but I need room now.

You know you're dealing with a serious business computer when its case includes built-in casters,.. and you can roll it in to Best Buy for disposal without a cart.