
IBM engineer Shimon Shmueli patented a cable-free USB Flash Drive in September 1999. It is argued that the USB Flash Drive was the brainchild of Amir Ban, Dov Moran and Oron Ogdan from M-Systems, an Israeli company however, their April 1999 patent requires a cable connection. These storage hard drive devices are only inches long, and the person who actually came up with the idea is controversial. The “thumb” or “USB Flash” external hard drives plug into a computer’s USB port. These companies collectively invented the external hard drive technology that we understand today, and external hard drives come in two primary forms. The technology companies behind USB technology were: Compaq, DEC, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC and Nortel.
#PORTABLE DATA BACKUP STORAGE SERIAL#
Universal Serial Bus, or USB, technology was introduced in 1994 by seven technology giants. Johnson’s original external hard drive concepts took on a new form within the computer industry in 1994. It wasn’t until 1994 that the external hard drive once again took center stage. If a user needed more space, he or she would simply replace the internal drive in their computer with one that held more data. Internal hard disk drives were later revamped to increase storage space.

This technology was the primary hard disk drive technology used throughout the remaining 1980’s and the early 1990’s. This early representation of the external thumb and hard drives known today plugged into the back of Apple units.Īpple’s creation failed to take off, and computer companies switched to an internal hard drive interface. In 1983, Apple introduced the ProFile external hard drive. These systems were limited as to the amount of storage they allowed and were not considered user-friendly. These computers generally contained internal hard drive disks or a complicated incarnation of an external hard drive. Hard Drives in the 80’s and 90’sĪpple first introduced the concept of the personal computer in the 1980’s, with Microsoft quickly following suit.

They complemented the tape storage solutions for their servers. Stored in air-controlled rooms, the hard drives were placed side-by-side. These hard drives were huge units that contained several “platters” inside to store data.

This hard drive system was introduced on September 13, 1956. Johnson’s first external hard drive, the IBM 350 Disk File, supported the IBM 305 RAMAC computer system. Johnson is the individual who came up with the idea, of the external hard drive. The initial IBM hard drives are considered external devices because they did not run internally within the computer units.
#PORTABLE DATA BACKUP STORAGE PORTABLE#
While the external hard drive might eventually be replaced by cloud storage and backup, portable hard drives (and hard drive technology overall) has certainly changed since 1953. Hard drive technology has changed to meet commercial needs since then, and they’ve also become a lot easier to use.Įxternal hard disk drives that were once the size of refrigerator units are now merely inches long and can store several gigabytes- and now terabytes- of data.Įxternal hard drives are a great way to back up, protect, and transport critical business files. They can be one of the best hardware solutions for storing large amounts of data and ensuring that you have a foolproof disaster recovery plan. The first model was produced in IBM’s San Jose, California laboratory.

They discovered a need for this type of technology in 1953, and the first hard drive was invented and then patented in 1956. Hard drives, also known as hard disk drives (HDDs) were a technology thought up by IBM- and they dominated the market for nearly 30 years.
