What is a hard drive?
The hard disk or hard drive is an internal storage device which holds programs and data used by your computer. A box about the size of a VHS video cassette (about 1 inch shorter) containing magnetically coated disks. These disks can hold massive amounts of information. Hard drives are used to store your software programs and information created from them. Imagine it being a giant filing cabinet inside of your computer, holding all your information. The benefits of this, is that you can permanently store all of your software programs such as: • word processors • spreadsheets • Games (yeah!
A hard drive, also known hard disk or hard disk drive, is a non-volatile data storage device. Technically, hard drives and hard disks are not the same since hard drives consist of multiple hard platters, the hard disk reader and writer head, the hard drive motor, and the drive electronics. On the other hand, a hard disk is the storage medium itself. The hard drive was invented in mid-20th century. Its earliest versions were mainly used in computers and could only store around five megabytes of data. Now, hard drives have applications in photography, videography, and mobile computing and communications technology, and currently, a hard drive that can store up to 1 terabyte or 1024 Gb of data is being developed.
A hard drive, also known as a hard disk drive or HDD, is a fundamental part of modern computers. The hard drive is where all of your programs and files are stored, so if the drive is damaged for some reason, you will lose everything on your computer. A hard drive uses similar memory storage technology to cassette tapes and video tapes. You may already know that tapes store information on long, thin strips of tape with a delicate magnetic material on its surface. Likewise, hard drives contain round, mirror-like platters that are covered with that same magnetic recording medium. The platters inside a hard disk drive are usually made of glass or aluminum. It is the polished magnetic material on the surface that makes the platter appear shiny, like a mirror. A clean, polished surface is critical to the proper functioning of the hard drive — even the smallest spec of dust can cause irreparable damage. Just as a head inside of your cassette player or VHS player reads the data on the tape, a
