{"id":2911,"date":"2023-06-05T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T10:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bananahdd.nl\/?p=2911"},"modified":"2023-06-05T17:48:01","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T15:48:01","slug":"hitachi-dk212a-81-810mb-1995","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bananahdd.nl\/index.php\/2023\/06\/05\/hitachi-dk212a-81-810mb-1995\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitachi DK212A-81 810MB (1995)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hitachi DK212A-81 is 19mm height, 2.5″ hard disk drive, released in Q1 1995. Hitachi continued their emphasis on portable computing storage, where they were major producers of both mobile & enterprise hard drive models. The DK212A-81 is another such example of their prowess, however it isn’t all surprising that almost 30 years later that some may fall.<\/p>\n

Looking within is always fun, which can be done on this rather upset example.<\/p>\n

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19mm, Hitachi.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
  Drive Attributes<\/strong><\/em>\r\n  -------------------------------------\r\n  Hitachi DK212A-81\r\n  -------------------------------------\r\n  Capacity      810MB\r\n  Mfc Date      1995-04 (week 16)\r\n  Format        2.5\"\r\n  Height        19mm\r\n  Interface     PATA\r\n  Platters      4\r\n  Heads         8\r\n  Cache         64KB\r\n  RPM           4500\r\n  Origin        Japan (HCJ)\r\n  -------------------------------------<\/pre>\n
This drive sports four platters, equating to an approximate platter density of 202.5MB.<\/p>\n
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The label.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Hitachi may win an award here for the most plain looking drive of all time. It’s a blank sheet, with a single label, being perfectly flat.<\/p>\n
The label itself is pretty useless, aside from stating this drive was manufactured in Japan, prior to that of Hitachi’s full swing production cycle in the Philippines.<\/p>\n
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The rear.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The rear is, yet again, quite plain. The PCB is flipped, which is nice to see, being quite standard at this point in time.<\/p>\n
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The base.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The base has nothing interesting going on, with the spindle motor vendor being hidden.<\/p>\n
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The PCB.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The microcontroller on this unit is from Zilog, being a ROMless Z8 chip with an embedded DSP processor. Flash is supplied by ATmel, Hitachi for the 64KB of cache and Cirrus Logic for the interface adapter.<\/p>\n
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Inside.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Four-platters in a neat little package.<\/p>\n
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Four platters.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Preamp.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The preamp has no distinct vendor markings, which is somewhat of a shame.<\/p>\n
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The actuator.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Being a 2.5″ drive, the actuator assembly is very compact. There’s a small rubber strip on the right-hand side, but it shows no signs of deterioration on this particular unit.<\/p>\n
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Lost to time.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
While this model refuses to read or write any sector present on its surface, an early-ish 2.5″ drive is a fun sight inside. Four or more platters is quite a treat!<\/p>\n
If you missed the video I made on this drive, you can find it here:<\/p>\n