Pre SD card
- Thread starter Martinr36
- Start date
TonyCarter
VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Don't recognise it. Is that a fold-out USB connection on top?
Can't be that old if it's got USB, probably no older than the original CompactFlash cards?
I remember PCMIA cards, MicroDrives and Sony Memory Sticks too...but most of my (very poor) photography was done on film and converted to Photo-CD format for archiving.
Can't be that old if it's got USB, probably no older than the original CompactFlash cards?
I remember PCMIA cards, MicroDrives and Sony Memory Sticks too...but most of my (very poor) photography was done on film and converted to Photo-CD format for archiving.
Martinr36
MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
yeah that's a fold out USB, and looking on the back of it, it has the huge capacity of....................................128MB
TonyCarter
VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
My last piece of catalogue work (in 2010) ended up being over 100GB, so I think I'll stick to a portable SSD.
Martinr36
MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Yeah I've got a caddy in my laptop bag that's got a 1TB M.2 in it that just plugs into USB C port, Its got WebODM on it
HomerJ
Author Level
Martinr36
MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
What size are we talking 5 1/4 or 3 1/2i showed someone what a floppy disk is, their exact words were "how can you save stuff on a coaster?"
HomerJ
Author Level
TonyCarter
VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
We used to use 8” floppy disks with our IBM System 36 machines. It was 50/50 on whether you’d bend it trying to get it into the drive 
Martinr36
MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
I'm saying nothing...🤭We used to use 8” floppy disks with our IBM System 36 machines. It was 50/50 on whether you’d bend it trying to get it into the drive
Punched paper tape was even slower.
TonyCarter
VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
The company I was at switched from punch-cards to disks about 6 months before I joined. Otherwise it was a 2-day turnaround to see if your code ran without errors.
Martinr36
MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
When I did CSE computer studies at school in the mid 70's we used to code cards in basic, using a "B"grade pencil
SimonPeters116
Well-known member
I was in the Royal Corps of Signals, from '79 - '91, as a Combat Driver/Storeman. In the field I drove an ESV, a 4x4 Bedford truck with a big generator mounted on the front half of it's flatbed, and a 10' box mounted behind that. Inside the box was my office space and £1.5 million of solid state circuit boards, several hundred of them, all different. I worked in conjunction with an Electronic Repair Vehicle, driven by a technician. An ERV had a 20' box with a big computer in it and cables to plug any equipment into the computer for testing. The computer was run by 2 x 8" floppy drives. (Ours looked like big 5 1/4 inch discs, in the same type of waxed brown card. I'm guessing they were 8", I thought they were 12", but it was a long time agoWe used to use 8” floppy disks with our IBM System 36 machines. It was 50/50 on whether you’d bend it trying to get it into the drive
)On one field exercise we all parked up in the trees around the outside of a sports field, in a German Barracks, but still all camoflaged up. On self testing the computer, it failed at about 80% of the way through. Tried it again, it failed a bit earlier. Tried it again with a fresh (illegal) copies of the floopys, it failed a bit earlier still. So we contacted Plessey, who told us to swap the drives over. After much cursing, because it wasn't easy to dismount and then remount the drives, just swapping cables over wasn't possible. This was army, EMP proofed, squaddy proof equipment. Ran another self test, it failed even earlier. Even though we couldn't do what we were there for, we stayed out in the field. Plessey came out to us to see this failed equipment, expecting it to be a ham fisted squaddy having made an arse of the job. His face when he saw we were parked off tarmac was a picture. "Look where you've just driven, what do you expect?" he said. We're looking at a billiard table smooth sports field, wondering WTF he's on about, because we usually parked up among trees off a forest track.
Anyway, the problem turned out to be, one of the read/write heads hadn't parked itself properly, had bounced against something during a move and damaged itself. When it was reading the floppy, the damaged head was ripping off bits of magnetic surface from the disc. We damaged all the test discs, then swapped the drives over. The now damaged discs were in their turn, damaging the good drive.
That took a LOT of sorting out. We were in the field for 2 full weeks, and didn't fix a single broken piece of equipment 😂
Last edited: