The motor spindle (center) rotates the hard disk. The photo below shows the Xerox Alto, with the computer chassis (bottom) partially removed.Ībove the chassis and below the keyboard is the Diablo disk drive, which is the focus of this article. With 1970s technology, you don't get much storage even on an inconveniently large disk, so Alto users were constantly short of disk space. If this article gives you deja vu, you probably saw Marc's restoration video (above) on Hacker News last week or read the earlier restoration updates:įor mass storage, the Alto uses a Diablo disk drive, which stores 2.5 megabytes on a removable 14 inch disk cartridge. Getting this revolutionary system running again is a big effort but fortunately I'm working with a strong team: Marc Verdiell, Luca Severini, Ron Crane, Carl Claunch and Ed Thelen, along with While creating the Alto, Xerox PARC invented much of the modern personal computer: everything from Ethernet and the laser printer to WYSIWYG editors with high-quality fonts.
Spoiler: the drive runs but the system doesn't boot yet.
This post describes how we cleaned and restored the disk drive and then powered up the system. A Xerox Alto - a legendary minicomputer from 1973 that helped set the direction for personal computing.
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