It looks and acts like a Compact Flash, but it's a hard drive

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.

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.

Want to read more articles like this, plus tips and tricks, home hacks, DIY projects, and more? Subscribe to Popular Science today, for less than $1 per issue!

0 Comments

Popular Tags

Regular Features


138 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.

Innovation Challenges



Popular Science+ For iPad

Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page



Download Our App

Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing



Follow Us On Twitter

Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed


February 2012: The Future of Fun

Science is reinventing play, from extreme sports to gamification to ridiculous roller coasters to the playgrounds of tomorrow, and this issue is chock full of fun. Also, on a less fun note: Did global warming destroy my hometown?


circ-top-header.gif
circ-cover.gif
bmxmag-ps