In the late 1980s and early 1990s IDE technology only supported 2 hard drives - and they weren't very big (40 MB was pretty common). In order to get more space, another controler card was needed - but worse than that, most computers didn't have free drive bays in which to mount additional drives. The hard card filled this need by providing the hard drive and controller on a single ISA expansion card.

Donated by Ross Wilson.