Drive bay
standard-sized area for adding drives or other hardware to a computer
A drive bay is a standard-sized area for adding hardware to a computer. Most drive bays are fixed to the inside of a case, but some can be removed.
Over the years since the introduction of the IBM PC, it and its compatibles have had many form factors of drive bays. Four form factors are in common use today, the 5.25-inch, 3.5-inch, 2.5-inch or very rarely 1.8-inch drive bays in niche and mostly older portable devices. The 3.5 inch is the most common bay in use today. These names do not refer to the width of the bay itself, but rather to the width of the disks used by the drives mounted in these bays.
Form factors
8.0-inch
8.0-inch drive bays were found in early IBM computers, CP/M computers, and the TRS-80 Model II. They were 4+5⁄8 inches (117.5 mm) high, 9+1⁄2 inches (241.3 mm) wide, and approximately 14+1⁄4 inches (361.9 mm) deep, and were used for hard disk drives and floppy disk drives. This form factor is obsolete, a famous example being the Shugart SA1000 winchester drive. Later models of floppy drives like the Shugart SA810 HH from 1982 were 12 inches deep and 2 inches high and didn’t require any AC power too. 8 inch floppy drives often needed 24v+ dc while HDDs required mains AC.
5.25-inch
5.25-inch drive bays are divided into two height specifications, full-height and half-height.
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