Hard Drives Explained
In this age of high-speed data flow, you need a place to keep all of your files, photos, music and video. The hard drive is what stores it all, and many computer users have upgraded their hard drives more than once, to allow more programs and files to fit.
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History
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The first Hard Disk Drive (HDD) was introduced in 1956 with a capacity of 5 megabytes. It was made up of a series of magnetically coated platters, was roughly the size of a large vending machine, and weighed over one ton.
Bits and Bytes
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A HDD is categorized as non-volatile because the data stored on the disks remains there when power is removed. The platters spin at a high rate of speed and the information is read or written on the magnetic coating in the form of ones and zeros.
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Form Factors
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The first HDD in a personal computer required the same space as that of two CD-ROM drives. Today the HDD takes up the same space as a 3 1/2-inch floppy drive. A laptop HDD is smaller and thinner than an empty billfold.
Outside the Box
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An external HDD can give you all the storage you may require and can be taken with you to share videos, read books or even secure your business's database offsite.
The Future
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While boasting a storage capacity of up to 2 terabytes (depending on model), the modern HDD is still the slowest component of a computer which, and uses the oldest technology. The near future might well see a Solid State HDD with no moving parts, and a laser hard drive that uses the optical technology of a CD or DVD.
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References
- Photo Credit Wikimedia Commons
