A 1970s Cray-1 hard drive has been imaged
Specs on storage module drive: <a href="http://ia600707.us.archive.org/32/items/9760_9762_oct73/9760_9762_Oct73.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://ia600707.us.archive.org/32/items/9760_9762_oct73/9760...</a> .<p>The unit has an average seek time of 30ms in 1973. Today, in common 7200 RPM drives, it seems to be around 8-9ms. There is only a factor of improvement of 3 to 4 times.<p>I find this pleasantly surprising.