Dave Plummer, the well-known former Microsoft engineer with a hand in adding Zip folders, Task Manager, and even Pinball to Windows, is on a mission to save one ridiculously large bit of storage – not in capacity by modern standards, but certainly in physical size. In a recent video on his YouTube channel (via PC Gamer), Plummer explained that he wanted to use a DEC RA82 disc drive, weighing nearly 200 lb and containing just 622 MB of storage, to run Unix on his DEC PDP-11/73, a 16-bit minicomputer from 1983.
Calling the project “gloriously anachronistic,” Plummer explains in his “SD cards are lame!” video that while he’d been running the PDP-11/73 with more modern solutions, including both real and emulated SCSI drives, these weren’t “satisfying” to use. Instead, Plummer was looking for “period correct storage, with its own beautiful set of limitations, rituals and noises.”
Insert the DEC RA82. Fitted with several 14-inch platters inside a large metal enclosure, this 1980s-era drive is so bulky that Plummer had to buy a hydraulic scissor lift just to raise it into position, requiring both him and his son to “birth it like an ocean liner” inside their home rack.
With a proprietary DEC connector and 15ft of “coaxial weirdness” cabling to hand, Plummer successfully hooked up the RA82 to his PDP-11/73. After a stressful first run attempt, the drive required a low-level format, working through the drive to prepare for future data. With a new partition table and file systems in place, it was ready to install Unix.
This might be a decades-old bit of kit, but Plummer has plenty of praise to share. He explains that DEC did “three big things right” with the RA82. The drive is “smart” and able to heal itself around problems, with a “brain” that handles diagnostics and fault isolation. The end user doesn’t have to worry about the physical elements, like platter speeds, with the drive’s controller handling it all for you.
Directly addressing the “neat but impractical” criticisms that he expects from commentators, Plummer says that it was worth using these two DEC devices together, explaining that it’s a faithful approach, it’s educational, and it’s beautiful. You can’t argue with that – the last minute of the video showcases the glorious noises as the drive kicks into life, even if it isn't entirely straightforward.
SD cards are lame, indeed. Modern drives might be simple and easy to use, but you can’t ignore the beauty of hearing a classic drive like this still working, somehow, in the 21st century.
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