Looking at a TRS-80 12 MB External Hard Drive from 1983

Although hard disks weren’t a common feature yet in many home computers in the 1980s, they were becoming increasingly more affordable. For relative meanings of the word ‘affordable’, naturally. Looking at a TRS-80 12 MB External Hard Drive from 1983.

This is illustrated by the 12 MB HDD for the Radio Shack TRS-80 that [Clint] over at LGR recently took a peek at. Costing a cool $3,495 in 1983 – or $11,932 in 2026 USD – this 12 MB storage wonder used a Tandon TM-603 full-height 5.25″ HDD inside. Lacking a working TRS-80 to try it out with, the video is limited to just a basic powering up and opening up of the unit, but [Clint] will be donating it to a computer museum who can hopefully put it to use again.

The connection to the TRS-80 computer is handled by a ribbon cable, while the HDD has its own built-in power supply, rated at 60 Watt. On the main board for the external HDD controller there is a Signetics 8X300 microprocessor that forms the brains of what makes it into an external drive for the TRS-80. Despite its age, it still looks brand new inside, so despite the Rifa capacitors in the PSU, [Clint] decided to power it on.