HDD price per byte improved at the rate of − 40 % per year during 1988 – 1996 , − 51 % per year during 1996 – 2003 and − 34 % per year during 2003 – 2010 . The price improvement decelerated to − 13 % per year during 2011 – 2014 , as areal density increase slowed and the 2011 Thailand floods damaged manufacturing facilities and have held at -11 % per year during 2010-2017 . IBM 's first hard disk drive , the IBM 350 , used a stack of fifty 24-inch platters and was of a size comparable to two large refrigerators . In 1962 , IBM introduced its model 1311 disk , which used six 14-inch ( nominal size ) platters in a removable pack and was roughly the size of a washing machine . This became a standard platter size for many years , used also by other manufacturers . The IBM 2314 used platters of the same size in an eleven-high pack and introduced the " drive in a drawer " layout . sometimes called the " pizza oven " , although the " drawer " was not the complete drive . Into the 1970s HDDs were offered in standalone cabinets of varying dimensions containing from one to four HDDs
2011 Thailand floods
2011 Thailand floods
Hard disk drive