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I understand Hard disk present before 1988 and I came to know that Giant magnetoresistance effect used in applications in Hard Disk manufacturing and this effect is discovered in 1988

So what effect were used for manufacturing HDD before 1988?

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    $\begingroup$ The same as used for floppy disks, cassette tapes, reel-to-reel tapes, and other applications going back to the early 1900s... The 'giant' effect just meant that the area of a bit could be made much smaller, meaning that washing-machine sized Winchester disk that held 10Mb could become a tiny little 8Tb drive on a keychain. $\endgroup$
    – Jon Custer
    Jun 15, 2022 at 12:46
  • $\begingroup$ @JonCuster I clearly mention in the question that effect is discovered in 1988. You are saying 1900s. I am confused. $\endgroup$ Jun 16, 2022 at 3:19
  • $\begingroup$ The GMR is used on the read head to sense the orientation of the magnetic domains on the media. By making the response 'giant', the size of a domain on the media could be greatly reduced. Before GMR was discovered, well, there is plain old magnetoresistance to read the media. You just end up with a lower data density on the media. $\endgroup$
    – Jon Custer
    Jun 16, 2022 at 13:17
  • $\begingroup$ @JonCuster The disk itself was the size of a pizza, or sometimes a birthday cake. It was the machine that read the disk that was washing machine sized. $\endgroup$
    – Spencer
    Jun 17, 2022 at 17:21
  • $\begingroup$ This question might be more appropriately asked at Retrocomputing Stack Exchange. $\endgroup$
    – JRN
    Jul 2, 2022 at 13:53

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