The oldest working drive(s) you have?

[BFG10K]

I thought it'd be interesting to discuss our oldest working drives. I'll start.


20 years (flash):

USB 1.x flash drive using FAT16 plugged into USB 3.0 running Win10-64 1909. In use since 2000.

Spoiler

8 years (HDD):

1TB Velociraptor 10K RPM. In use since 2012.

This is pretty good file copy performance for an 8 year old HDD:

Spoiler

I still use it for cold storage offsite backup, and it's absolutely reliable.

 

[Hans Gruber]

Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB (2008) 2x on different machines
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB (2009-2010) 2x on different machines

The Samsung F3 had two 500GB platters. Most hard drives had 3 or 4 platters. It still has Read write speeds up to 160MB.

 

[Soulkeeper]

"working" i've got an old one from the 1980's sitting in a pile.

 

[Charlie98]

I still have one of my original Hitachi 500GB HDD's, it's only about 9 years old, so it's nothing super-duper. I just pulled it at Christmas and replaced it with a Seagate 1TB drive of almost the same vintage, but with less hours.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

My 200MB WD Caviar 1210 still worked the last time I checked. Manufactured in 1993.

I think I have another couple of mid '90s drives somewhere, but I not sure of those.

 

[Mantrid-Drone]

I have 3.5" 10GB IDE HDDs from original Xboxes which still work perfectly with manufacturing dates in 2000.

But my oldest PC HDD is a 40GB 2.5" IDE one that came with Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop bought in 2003. When the laptop died I took it out and it is still used regularly in an external housing to backup important flash drive content.

 

[Hans Gruber]

Did the OP mean drives that are still in service or drives that are still working in storage. I have a couple of WD Caviar black 120GB drives that still work in storage.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I have a 52 MB Quantum SCSI drive from the early 90s which still works. If you’re not limiting the question to hard drives, I have floppy drives from the early 80s (a Commodore 1541) which still works.

 

[nOOky]

I have a 4.3 gig IBM drive still working (at least it did when I unhooked the PC) in an old Quantex desktop in my basement. I have a couple 74 gig Raptors laying around that work fine, not sure how old they are.

 

[killster1]

sounds like it should be IN USE drives. 1tb raptor actually sounds like could be of use but a 16mb flash drive seems silly but what everkeep using it till it dies. I have some f1 samsung's around i guess but most of the time drives get upgraded and placed in the safe as triple redundant backup instead of using till it dies.

 

[Paperlantern]

Pretty sure the IDE Drive in my PS2 is a 200GB WD from early 2000's, maybe 2002, so it's about 18 years old and still going. That is probably the oldest one I have that is still in use. I'm sure I have some older, smaller ones somewhere, but they are questionable if they work, and they are not in use, so, I wont even bother looking for them just for this thread, lol.

 

[sandorski]

I have a 4.3 gig IBM drive still working (at least it did when I unhooked the PC) in an old Quantex desktop in my basement. I have a couple 74 gig Raptors laying around that work fine, not sure how old they are.

A working Deathstar?

 

[Iron Woode]

I still have a functional 2GB HDD that was in my old linux firewall PC. I think it is a WD but I am not sure.

 

[BFG10K]

Did the OP mean drives that are still in service or drives that are still working in storage. I have a couple of WD Caviar black 120GB drives that still work in storage.

Both, either, whichever you like. The only cretieria is that the drive works fine right now.

 

[EXCellR8]

The 160GB PATA drive that came in my eMachines desktop from 2004 still works... not actively used, though.

Might actually still have data on it.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Still currently using a 10 year old WD Blue 7200rpm drive.
Still also have a working 10 year old OCZ Vertex 64gb SSD in my Lenovo laptop.

 

[JWade]

i have a 128mb compact flash drive that is still used for a digital picture frame