Visualized: IBM's 1956 HDD packs 5MB of storage, requires forklift for installation

Check out IBM's 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) hard disk and those gripes about dragging around that USB thumb drive soon evaporate. This 1956 HDD was composed of 50 24-inch discs, stacked together and taking up 16 sq ft of real estate. The once-cutting-edge monstrosity was capable of commanding an annual fee of $35,000 and stored up to 5MB of data. Sure, by modern standards it's a pretty modest capacity, but the RAMAC still weighed in at just shy of a ton. Our technological forefathers could have done with that exoskeleton prototype.

Visualized: IBM's 1956 HDD packs 5MB of storage, requires forklift for installation originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 10:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.