Difference between revisions of "Hard Drives"
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==How Hard Drives work:== | ==How Hard Drives work:== | ||
| − | A hard drive usually consists of several mirror smooth disks (also called platters). Each disk can be read and written from both sides by extremely light and fast heads, moved by an arm that is controlled by a mechanism at a corner of the hard drive. The arm of a hard drive can move from the hub to the edge and back up to 50 times per second. | + | A hard drive usually consists of several mirror smooth disks (also called platters). Each disk can be read and written from both sides by extremely light and fast heads, moved by an arm that is controlled by a mechanism at a corner of the hard drive. The arm of a hard drive can move from the hub to the edge and back up to 50 times per second.<br />Hard drives come in all kinds of sizes. Most Desktop Computers today use 3.5 inch disks where as laptops and other mobile technologies use smaller size disks, usually 2.5 inches and use fewer platters than Desktop hard drives since the amount of space required is often limited. Hard drives usually operate at 5400 or 7200 RPM on laptops and 10,000 to 15,000 RPM on Desktop Computers. |
| − | Hard drives come in all kinds of sizes. Most Desktop Computers today use 3.5 inch disks where as laptops and other mobile technologies use smaller size disks, usually 2.5 inches and use fewer platters than Desktop hard drives since the amount of space required is often limited. Hard drives usually operate at 5400 or 7200 RPM on laptops and 10,000 to 15,000 RPM on Desktop Computers. | + | |
Revision as of 09:54, 28 November 2008
IntroductionThe hard drive (also called a hard disk) is the primary computer storage device, which reads and writes on one or more disks. Hard drives are found in desktop and laptop computers as well as in servers and other mainframe computers. They are also used in printers for storing fonts and print jobs as well as digital music players and many other portable and stationary computer-based devices. Although removable hard drives in cartridges use the same media and similar drive technology, they are usually called external hard drives.
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...by studentsThe first thing I do when buying a computer or laptop, is checking its memory capacity, as well as Ram size and CPU performance. The capacity of the hard drive is important to me, since I store a lot of music, pictures, and Videos which all require a fair amount of memory space. Recently, I had to purchase an external hard drive just because I couldn’t store all my data on my 80GB laptop hard drive. The thing I don’t like about having an external hard drive is that whenever I go somewhere with my laptop and like to access data stored on my external hard drive, I have to carry it with me. It only takes about 20 DVD videos to fill up 100GB of memory space and now that you can watch videos on Blue-Ray disks that take up even more memory space, a hard drive with a memory capacity of 1TB (1000GB) could eventually be your next optimal hard drive. |
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How Hard Drives work:
A hard drive usually consists of several mirror smooth disks (also called platters). Each disk can be read and written from both sides by extremely light and fast heads, moved by an arm that is controlled by a mechanism at a corner of the hard drive. The arm of a hard drive can move from the hub to the edge and back up to 50 times per second.
Hard drives come in all kinds of sizes. Most Desktop Computers today use 3.5 inch disks where as laptops and other mobile technologies use smaller size disks, usually 2.5 inches and use fewer platters than Desktop hard drives since the amount of space required is often limited. Hard drives usually operate at 5400 or 7200 RPM on laptops and 10,000 to 15,000 RPM on Desktop Computers.
Function of a Hard Drive:
The hard drive in a Computer is able to store a large capacity of memory for any given period of time without any energy consumption meaning that it is nonvolatile, unlike other memory devices used in a computer that require constant energy supply. For example, Ram is used for storing data, but it is only able to store data when having constant power supply. As soon as the Rams power supply stops all data stored from that memory device will be lost.
Hard Drives in the future:
Most nonvolatile Hard Drives used today are non-static Hard Drives. This means that these Hard Drives still contain moveable parts like disks and moving arms which can be easily damaged when not being handled with care. Some of today’s computers already contain static memory, which contain no moveable parts just like a flash drive which is more expensive but therefore also more durable.
History:
Most hard drives used today are non-static hard drives. This means that these hard drives contain moveable parts like rotating disks and moving arms which can be easily damaged when not being handled with care. Some of today’s computers already have Solid State (static) hard drives that have no moveable parts and operate just like Flash Drives. Solid State Drives compared to conventional hard drives wear out slower, don’t break as easily and have less power consumption, but its memory capacity can be very limited. As of today (2008), Solid State Drives can be bought with a memory capacity of 64GB, and with memory capacity doubling every 1 to 2 years, Solid State Drives will be very common in future.
References
http://www.computerworld.com/common/images/site/features/2008/042008/ST%20506%201_edited-1.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BRL61-IBM_305_RAMAC.jpeg http://img.clubic.com/photo/00031402.jpg www.howstuffworks.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_drive http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_drive
