I'm pretty sure my 20GB Western Digital was the first 7200rpm drive for that company.

RogueTrip2012 wrote:

I'm pretty sure my 20GB Western Digital was the first 7200rpm drive for that company.

Not quite, my WD Expert, Model AC29100 is a 9.1GB, 7200RPM, EIDE HDD 😉

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/legacy/Legacy.asp?r=2

DOM = 17, Mar, 1999

There are also some smaller ones, but the first I see on WD's Legacy Site is the WD68BA, 6.8GB, 7200RPM, EIDE, HDD.

Thanks for the info, I'll add to the searching! Fewer RPM's an a drive w/ lower density probably doesn't matter too much, but since I need a new HDD I figured I'd go for a power-up.

Quantum Fireball Plus KA in '99. That was their first AFAIK. These are loud drives though, with Raptor-like seek noise and ball bearings that get whiny.

I had a quantum fireball SE as my first 7200 rpm drive. Still works although it had to be sent for a replacement since I didn't have a harddisk cooler and the thing got silly hot and died because of that. Evil things those first 7200's 😀

Well, I bought my current PC in late November 1998, and the IBM 9,1gb hdd 7200 rpm still works(obviously, or else I wouldn't be writing this, heh) after daily (ab)use since then.

I'm not going to dismantle it to check the production date, but it surely must be somewhat earlier than November. Seems like they started making this speed already in 1997, judging by this article (page 3 bottom):
http://ftp.serdica.org/public/drivers/HDD/IBM/7200value-pdf/

I suspect there should be smaller models than mine, but unable to locate any info.

But here are some other interesting(well, for this topic at least?) articles I stumbled over:
http://www.storagereview.com/articles/9806/98 … del=DTTA-371440

Mentions other companies and their models:
"Medalist Pro 7200 and DiamondMax 2880".

And looks like Seagate actually came out first:
http://www.redhill.net.au/d/80.php

http://www.storagereview.com/articles/9808/98 … ataroundup.html

I just scored a Seagate Medalist Pro 4.5GB 7200-rpm drive. Should be a nice addition to my 1997-ish Socket7 PC. Windows95 OSR2.5 here I come!