Hard drive confusion.

[tivaelydoc1]

I've been around computers since the early 90's, eventually getting my A+ degree in high school. And now, something really weird is happening.

Where are the 5.25" hard drives?

I swear, early this year and entirely last year, I've bought dozens of 5.25" hard drives for my computers. I thought 5.25" were for desktop and 3.5" were for laptops. Did I miss something?

Now there are 2.5" and I've got no idea what they are.

I'm reading the Dream Machine 11 and those hard drives look like 5.25" ones to me.

I have no idea what's going on.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

5.25" drives are typically CDR/DVD drives.

3.5" drives are your typical SATA and PATA(IDE) drives.

2.5" drives are the ones found in laptops.

 

[tivaelydoc1]

Really? Has it always been like that?

It feels like someone changed the past and now everything is all smaller.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

Early on, hard drives were 5.25", but by they were being phased out by the early nineties in favor of the 3.5" drives as they took up less space. They 5.25" were mostly found in servers. So you are correct in that they did get smaller.