IBM Travelstar 25GS DARA-225000 25.38GB (2000)

In late-1999, IBM released what can only be considered to be one of the most ridiculous 2.5″ hard drives in the world: the DARA-225000. These were IBM’s flagship 2.5″ drive model, coming in at 17mm with a whopping 5 platters and 10 heads. Due to their thickness at a time where 12mm and 9.5mm drives were much more common-place, these were only suitable for few specific high-end laptop models.

Due to their rather bizarre market segment placement, these models would only remain in production for a little over 6 months, halting production by the second quarter of 2000.

  Drive Attributes
  -------------------------------------
  IBM Travelstar 25GS DARA-225000
  -------------------------------------
  Capacity      25.38GB
  Mfc Date      2000-02
  Format        2.5"
  Height        17mm
  Interface     PATA
  Platters      5
  Heads         10
  Cache         418KB
  RPM           5411
  Origin        Thailand (IBM-SP)
  -------------------------------------

If a height of 17mm in late-1999 wasn’t enough to convince you IBM had lost their marbles, stuffing 5 platters into the same space was quite the incredible feat. A total capacity of 25.38GB makes this model quite the alluring drive for any high end enthusiast, of course carrying along a high price tag to boot.

These have an approximate per-surface density of 2.538GB, equating to 5.076GB per-platter.

This drive was made in Thailand, which was seemingly the sole producer of these. IBM’s factory in Hungary was becoming quite a financial burden, which is likely why these drives were never produced over there. Seeing jumper options on a 2.5″ drive isn’t always a guarantee, but this one features them nonetheless.

A picture like the one above was the first time I saw one of these, which is how I ended up purchasing this one. I hadn’t done my research and thought it was a simple 12mm drive which I could use in my ThinkPad T43, but once it arrived it shot that idea down instantly.

Here’s the standard IDE connector you’d find on a drive like this at the time, featuring a slightly raised metal housing surrounding the connector. It’s a nice touch.

The backside of these is nothing inspiring, it’s not very interesting to say the very least.

As is usual with IBM drives, underneath the PCB there’s also nothing particularly special. There’s a nice cushion of insulating material (with some foam).

IBM continued to use Mitsubishi as a main controller IC vendor, being something Hitachi didn’t continue the tradition of. Sanyo is the vendor for the buffer RAM (a very strange 418KB), alongside a couple of custom-IBM IC’s for motor control and other miscellaneous tasks.

The PCB silkscreen contains “IBM CORP – ANIHATA 7.2, 1999”, which may suggest an architecture name, but that remains unverified for now.

For the PCB fans out there, I made a scan of the backside of the board. Interestingly, the PCB was made in the Philippines!

This drive was new when I ended up with it, which was a fairly surprising result (seeing as I acquired it less than a year ago). Nonetheless, it has 3 reallocation events registered, but fortunately has no reallocated sectors. It’s in perfect shape, but it’s certainly worth checking the surface of these, being from an era where IBM were certainly struggling with surface quality to say the very least.

A surprisingly strange 2.5″ drive all in all, but one which deserves some respect due to its quite ridiculous feat.