[dual_dingo]

At around 1990 as a high school student I was working in a wholesale supermarket and in the office they had a microcomputer (IIRC a MicroVAX) which had audible database transactions. Every time one of the cashiers scanned an item, you could hear the hard disk move into place to write out the data. I found that endless fascinating for the same reason.

[vincent-manis]

One of the earliest computers I worked on (ca. 1968) was an IBM 1130. Its disk drive (5MB, I think) used a voice coil. I'd set up a Fortran compile, then walk to the other end of the (smallish) building to get a coffee. There was a particular clunk kind of sound as the compiler started to write out the object file. When I heard that, it was time to go back to the machine room.