Swapping Plates In A Hard Drive

Computer operations Went obsolete when “winchester” drive technology (the great grandfather of modern sealed hard drives) became cheap and large enough that the old removable hard drive platters became passe Knowledge Assumed - a strong back and arms (those platters were heavy). Ability to operate machinery. When useful - This was the first method of doing disk to disk backup. There were usually a couple of these machines and the contents of one platter could be transferred then removed for backup. Kind of like floppy backup only with heavier disks. Not much use outside of computer operations - unless you were looking to become an olympic weightlifter.

Basically you had a washing machine sized machine with a disk platter in it that spun around. You would spin down the disk platter then wait for the interlock to release so you could open the lid. Next you would drop a lid that looked like a cake plate cover over the disk platter - making sure the heads had safely stored out of the way. The cover had a screw handle on top that you turned until the platter unseated from the spindle. Then using your best 'clean and jerk' technique you lifted the platter out of the machine and put it on a base plate. You could then put in a new disk platter, unscrew the lid so that it seated on the spindle and then close the lid and spin the drive up. Of course you had to be very careful no foreign material entered the cavity or you would have a head crash. Now you could copy data from another removable drive, remove that platter and replace it with the copy you just made (remember rotate your backups?)