[Dylan16807]

It's a reason not to use a hard drive from over 20 years ago.

But if you're stuck with hardware that old, an SSD isn't an option.

[wtallis]

IDE SSDs have been a niche but readily-available product for as long as consumer SSDs have been mainstream. CompactFlash cards ensured that the necessary controller chips were available.

[Dylan16807]

Okay I guess you can use a 4GB CompactFlash card that cost a thousand dollars at the time. (While a laptop hard drive could reach 100GB.)