I meant to post this earlier, but I found out that the Computer HDD is about to turn 50. And for the size, I would not suggest you use the old IBM Hdd for your iPod. Even if the HDD was fast enough which I doubt, and even if the CPU was fast enough to decode the MP3 datastream, which it was not since it was using valves, the HDD was not big enough. Or was it too big. It was the size of two oversized fridges, containing 50 magnetic HDD ‘platters’…

And in one of the cabinets was an air compressor so even if the other technology worked you certainly could not hear the MP3 player. Air compressors are fairly noisy. You certainly do not want one in your lounge room… Anyway the entire HDD could not even fit two MP3 copies if the Elvis Presley song Hound Dog on it since the total capacity is 5 MBytes. All this for only the equivalent of US$250,000 in todays dollars… Good value I guess 🙂

Personally I like the 40 GByte HDD in my iPod… It does not weigh much, uses almost no power, and is quiet. Amazing what 50 years of development can achieve.