Jet Engine in Retro Computer. Old MFM Hard Disk Spin Up Compilation & Benchmark Results

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Published 2020-02-09

8 old MFM Hard Disk Drives are here presented to listen nicely to the nice retro sound of spinning up and the moving heads during benchmark. These beasts sounds like jet engines and this was the sound we were used to in old computers. A must for a retrolover today too.

Following MFM Hard Disk are shown in this video:
Quantum Q540
Miniscribe 3425
NEC D5126
Fujitsu M2243AS2
Magnetic Pheripherals 94205-053
Seagate ST-251 MLC1
NED D5146H
IBM Type 2

Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed the sound too like I do ;-)
Contact me for anything you want to tell me.

All Comments (21)

@ZachAttackIsBack 3 years ago

Now I know where hollywood gets all its "futuristic" background noises.
@oreste6076 4 years ago

Imagine you iPhone making such a Noise AND moving along the Table on Boot
@tehhamstah 3 years ago

I don't understand the internet's fascination with ASMR - but THIS is just fantastic to my ears!
@bubblehead78 3 years ago

I can't believe I actually sat through 6:08 minutes of hard drive sounds... on Christmas Eve! lol.
@kazuki278 3 years ago

My friends: what r u listening to? Me: Its complicated
@kg_canuck 3 years ago

I have to switch scales in my head when looking at old computer hardware 2020: "705kb/s, pathetic" 1986: 700,000 bytes a second! Incredible!
@Mr-Electronist 3 years ago

Some of the hard drives sound like a World War II air raid siren.
@casperknudsen7086 3 years ago

Imagine 1000 of these in a server center.. God what a noise xD
@xendraven 3 years ago

2:19 VTEC kicked in yo!
@abooogeek 4 years ago

The IBM scared the hell out of me, thought the heads were crashing on the plates!
@petervandoren8245 3 years ago

Back in the late 90's I had a work computer with an extremely loud hard drive. I thought it sounded like a loud dishwasher. When we were working all night on a project and I was running long simulations, I would set my cot up in my office and go to sleep. I would automatically wake up when,the simulation completed 1 to 2 hours later because it suddenly got quite. So I would check my results , start the next SIM and go back to sleep.. Worked great and I, could at at least function the next day..
@Sarahxxx666 3 years ago

The cure for anyone whining about coil whine: put one of these inside your PC and there you go ... No more audible coil whine !
@aaronsilvestri3181 4 years ago

Could listen to this all day. So many of these brought back memories!
@andrewdonatelli6953 3 years ago

I worked as a computer technician in the late 80s, through the mid 90s. These sounds really bring back memories. I could recognize that ST251 sound anywhere.
@soniclab-cnc 3 years ago

So cool with the stepper just sitting on the side with an optical encoder for position. "do not rotate" lol! super nostalgic. Thank you.
@jakewarner1993 3 years ago

That metallic plink sound from the IBM one after initialization was just pure gold
@TamamoF0X 3 years ago

Being only 17, I never really had a chance to experience these retro HDD's but damn, the spin ups are certainly distracting
@angieandretti 3 years ago

I'd have to give it to the Miniscribe drive, especially the way it sounds during the benchmark. God I love that sound!! I once owned a very tall IBM PS/2 tower, model 80 IIRC, and it had TWO massive 40MB MFM HDD's. That machine's startup sound was just awesome!!
@unlined_sardine7426 3 years ago

1:27 sounds like a car revving up 😂
@rubiconnn 4 years ago

5:15 it sounds like it could be recorded at the Isle of Man TT