I always wanted to see how those old-school hard drives worked.
In research, I found an interesting video from a data recovery company who worked to get the data off of a broke one. Looks like they did a fine job at extracting it...

An interesting device for sure, before the advent of stacked platters.
I am amazed at how frantically they look for the boot sector - kinda like me looking through stacks of papers on a Monday morning before coffee...
I bet some of my old drives are built this way, as they are as slow as molasses in a Swedish winter and they make the same noises.
They sure make our 8-track tapes look pretty high tech...

Enjoy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAUKPq5QjL0

 

Hey Rob,
Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth I used to buy/sell computer systems.
The hot disk drive then was the size of a washing machine weighed 300lbs and had a 5mb (!) capacity. We sent most of them to the scrapyard. One day I took one apart for fun; the 30 pound voice coil that drove the heads lives under the vise in my garage to this day as it will suck up any ferrous material that drops while cutting.
I often tell friends "We live in the future!"

David

 

I've still got a Shugart 5mb, single side in my attic