A Hard Drive Decked Out Like a Compact Flash

Seagate ST1 5GB Drive BG Micro

When Seagate originally developed the ST1 hard drive family of devices in 2004, they were remarkable little critters. Measuring just a bit larger than a conventional Compact Flash media card, the ST1 was a full-fledged 3600 rpm platter spinnin’ hard drive. Armed with a large 2MB cache buffer and an average seek time of 16 ms, the ST1 was stoked with Seagate’s RunOn (the heads are forced to stay on track) and G-Force Protection (the heads are removed from the platter during power down) technologies. Yet, the ST1 sported a Type II Compact Flash interface.

All of these fancy features came at a price, though, to the tune of around $300 each.

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DIY, bg micro, Compact Flash, dave prochnow, hard drive, hardware, Seagate, ST1

Now, hold on to your hat, because you can still find the ST1, but at an alarming price reduction of $280. Yes, our good friends at BG Micro are selling the Seagate 5GB ST1 drive (Model ST650211CF) for $13.50. While that’s a pretty good price for a 5GB Compact Flash card, think of all the extra benefits that you get with a vintage ST1 versus a typical CF card: you could take it apart and expose the real platters and heads or replace a 2.5-inch hard drive with this one-inch hard drive (you’ll also need an SATA-to-CF interface). Who knows, you might find yourself pining for the halcyon days of 2004.