Pick up a Quantum Bigfoot drive. I have a pair of 6gb models, one CY and one TX variant. They make pleasant thinking ticks and have a lovely hum from the massive platter spinning 😀 had a 12gb but it finally died.

Or go SCSI

Or just test a couple of your old drives if you have any available and use one with somewhat bad bearings.

Just don't get a Quantum fireball 6.4GB (if any of those still functions) because you'll get noise, but not the one you're after 😀

I've got a Quantum Fireball CR 6.4GB that still works perfectly and makes the most *lovely* sounds. 🤣. It's the loudest hdd I have, even louder than my 1GB Seagate Medalist.

clueless1 wrote:

I've got a Quantum Fireball CR 6.4GB that still works perfectly and makes the most *lovely* sounds. 🤣. It's the loudest hdd I have, even louder than my 1GB Seagate Medalist.

You're lucky! Those were the main reason Quantum is no more.

In the words of Drauga1

IT'S A QUANTUM BIGFOOT!

A big foot would be bigger then my entire 9x box. Needs to be pata/ide and 3.5"
I should have said that to begin with.

I have a Quantum Fireball 5 GB that's been chugging along just fine for eighteen years.

It makes a lot of noise, and sometimes I worry about it, but it just refuses to die. I only use it for DOS stuff since that's relatively low usage.

I had a worked with quite a few system with fireballs over the years. They tend to be hit or miss. Some last forever other dieded fast. Anyone have any tips on fireballs?

Perhaps try a Fireball Plus? They are early 7200 RPM and based on Quantum's own SCSI drives (read: noisy and fast). The ~10GB ones shouldn't be hard to find.

Jade Falcon wrote:

I want to upgrade the Hdd in my dos/9x box. […]
Show full quote

I want to upgrade the Hdd in my dos/9x box.

Something around 5-10gb.
Anyone have and advice? I really want a older more noisy hdd. I was thinking of something like a older maxtor or fireball.

But I don't know a lot about hdds from this time frame.

Thanks.

Lol those Quantum Fireball. You neighbors knew when you were using your PC.

This is a great site, with lots of neat historical insight on older hard drives. There are dedicated pages to many early Quantum drives. You probably want to focus on the years 1998-2000 for the scoop on 5-10GB drives you're looking for.
http://redhill.net.au/d/i.php

konc wrote:

clueless1 wrote:

I've got a Quantum Fireball CR 6.4GB that still works perfectly and makes the most *lovely* sounds. 🤣. It's the loudest hdd I have, even louder than my 1GB Seagate Medalist.

You're lucky! Those were the main reason Quantum is no more.

They are?

Then I must've been lucky my Quantum Fireball 6.4GB EX (at least I think it was an EX?) or so never died on me when I used it 😁

And those Fireballs always tended to be noisy I think? Drives started to get a lot more quiet at around 20GB or so, but results for 20GB drives can still vary a lot.

Jade Falcon wrote:

Anyone have any tips on fireballs?

Fireballs are more than fine, or at least similar to other drives. Only the 6.4GB IDE model is problematic

kikenovic wrote:

Jade Falcon wrote:

Lol those Quantum Fireball. You neighbors knew when you were using your PC.

From the user swearing about lost data or the high pitched sound from the drives spinning?

If you like noisy hard drives, you should get a 2 GB SCSI seagate barracuda, those things sound like angle grinders... not kidding.

konc wrote:

Only the 6.4GB IDE model is problematic

Given that the Fireball ST, SE, EX, CR, CX, and Plus KA families all had a 6.4GB version, it would be good to know which one it is that had problems.

FWIW, I have a EX 6.4 that still works fine (no bad sectors). The spindle noise is just annoying.

SW-SSG wrote:

konc wrote:

Only the 6.4GB IDE model is problematic

Given that the Fireball ST, SE, EX, CR, CX, and Plus KA families all had a 6.4GB version, it would be good to know which one it is that had problems.

You’re right, let me say a bit more about what I thought was old news by now.

Quantum was using some Philips chip on their boards, which was recalled and replaced by a new version. At that time Quantum took a decision which defined its future: they did sell the already manufactured HDDs knowing that they had the problematic chip and only used the new one for new disks.

Models affected the most where the 6.4GB ST and EX, because those where the HDDs with that chip sold in larger quantities. All of those drives are guaranteed to fail (some of them spectacularly with the chip kind of exploding/melting -hence the "fireball" jokes, or less with the drive just refusing to spin up).

The thing is that you cannot strictly limit it to the aforementioned models. For example there were for sure some 3.2GB drives with that chip (who knows, maybe others as well?) and at the same time new 6.4GB EXs and STs were manufactured with the revised chip (no problems, that's probably why some drives still work).

This is what made people hesitant to put their trust on Quantum anymore. During the peak of the Quantum drives failing we didn’t know exactly the cause and the affected models. Even later we couldn’t even tell if a drive has the problematic or the revised chip. The truth is that the problem was isolated and not some serious mechanical/design flaw. Of course revised and later models were good, but Quantum’s approach being so secretive and denying turned out suicidal.

Heck, I was working for a PC OEM back then and I remember a specific period literally 9 out of 10 of a 6.4GB drives batch failing within a couple of months. Without knowing anything more at that time, we just stopped putting Quantum drives in our PCs, Quantum’s denial to give us an official excuse ended up damaging our brand/status. In fact we never sold another Quantum drive again, a bit later Maxtor bought it. I’m sure others acted in a similar way, signing Quantum’s gravestone.

Thanks for the background information! 😀

It's funny though, that we all collectively thought about hard disk drives from Quantum.

- When I read the title, my first thought was: "Quantum Bigfoot." 😁