The Seagate ST1 is a miniature 1-inch

hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...

with the

CompactFlash CompactFlash (CF) is a flash memory mass storage device used mainly in portable electronic devices. The format was specified and the devices were first manufactured by SanDisk in 1994. CompactFlash became one of the most successful of the e ...

Type II form factor, much like

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

's Microdrive. Unlike

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

and

Hitachi () is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...

and allegedly GS Magicstor branded drives, Seagate developed their technology from scratch. As of 2005 most 5 gigabyte

MP3 player A portable media player (PMP) or digital audio player (DAP) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. Normally they refer to small, battery-powered devices ...

s in production had ST1 drives embedded in them. ST 1 drive

Notable improvements over IBM's design include: *2-

megabyte The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Its recommended unit symbol is MB. The unit prefix ''mega'' is a multiplier of (106) in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one megabyte is one million bytes ...

data buffer *A mechanism to hold the

read-write head A disk read-and-write head is the small part of a disk drive that moves above the disk platter and transforms the platter's magnetic field into electric current (reads the disk) or, vice versa, transforms electric current into magnetic field ...

in place when the drive is not in use *Some level of internal diagnostics All ST1 drives have "For Embedded Application Only" printed on the back of them, which has led some people to think that the CF mode required for use in

digital camera A digital camera, also called a digicam, is a camera that captures photographs in Digital data storage, digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film or film stock. Dig ...

s is disabled. This is in fact not true and was most likely put there to remind the user that the drive was not designed for continuous use in a desktop computer.

ST1 models

ST1 Series: *ST625211CF/FX (2.5GB) (2004) *ST650211CF/FX (5GB) (2004) ST1.2 Series: *ST64022CF/FX (4GB) (2005) *ST66022CF/FX (6GB) (2005) *ST68022CF/FX (8GB) (2005) ST1.3 Series: *ST660712DE/DEG (6GB) (2006) *ST680712DE/DEG (8GB) (2006) *ST610712DE/DEG (10GB) (2006) *ST612712DE/DEG (12GB) (2006) The CF, DE, DEG, FX suffixes are for CompactFlash+ Type II, ZIF, ( zero insertion force) IDE interface, Flex (IDE interface) interfaces respectively. DEG models also include an additional free-fall sensor for robust drop performance. Unlike most hard disk drives produced at that time, ST1.2 drives have physical sector size of 1024 bytes.

References

External links

*Seagate ST1 Series datasheets
ST1.2ST1.3
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seagate St1 Portable hard drives