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What is a Hard Drive?Our website is all about hard drive information. Learn about the major brands, different types, interfaces, and how they work. Every computer needs to store data and that's what hard drives are all about. What is a hard drive? A hard drive is a device used to store data in a non-volatile manner (when the power is shut off the data remains) for most computers and many modern electronic devices. Hard drive information will allow you to make some good choices on replacement hard drives or even the next computer you buy. There are several versions of hard drives depending on the interface (as in IDE or SATA which are the two most popular right now), amount of data capable of being stored, the speed of the platters that the data resides on while stored, and the physical size. The modern hard drive consists of several key components used in this process, rigid platters, motors to turn the platters on a spindle, an acuator arm with read-write heads that float on a cushion of air that encodes the data magnetically on the platters, and a circuit board with the chips designed to tell the hard drive how to do all this data writing and reading.
IBM came up with the first hard drives in 1956. The reason they are named "Hard" drives is they replaced the floppy magnetic media that was flexible. Although the technology has improved dramatically and the size has continued to shrink, modern day hard drives still use the same principles designed for the original units. The hard drive business has continually changed in that the technology and very stringent controls necessary to manufacture hard drives have forced out all of the original developers. There are currently only five large hard drive manufacturers in the world. In order of sales they are Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi, Samsung, and Toshiba. Seagate products are very popular in the high end IT areas but Western Digital rules the consumer markets. Samsung does more in the very price contentious consumer market in both desktop and laptop models. Hitachi and Toshiba are very strong in the laptops. Almost any hard drive for sale is made by one of these five companies regardless of the name on the box.. When discussing hard drives and their operation there are some basic ways to measure their abilities. Basic hard drive information for each model is usually expressed in the follow specifications:
For the most part we'll keep to the basics of amount of data capacity, cache size, speed of the spindle, interface, and form factors (size). We may also include power consumption, mean failure times (average life span), amount and speed of data being stored or retrieved, noise, and shock resistance. Power consumption, size and shock resistance are very important when it comes to laptops or other portable devices. Here are some of the different brands and types of hard drives we'll be discussing. How
To Buy Hard Drive - Learn how to get the best deal on
new hard drive.
Most of the information provided is designed to help you make the best choice when buying a new computer, replacing a failed hard drive, or upgrading your current hard drive to get better performance or storage capacity. Hard drives are one of the two components most likely to fail in any computer (the other is the power supply) and other than video cards and RAM, the most often replaced or upgraded component. A Key Consideration is your budget: Price based on value is always a constant. Most people have a budget and want to get the best deal. So price is a major consideration above and beyond the other aspects of any hard drive. But don't let $10 put you at risk. Hard drives are pretty reasonable in cost and going too cheap may not be worth the risk. Warranties are important too: A good sign of quality is great warranty. If the manufacturer offers a strong guarantee then chances are they have good quality control or they will be out of business. But keep in mind that like all electronics there is a percentage of drives that will fail early. If they have a low failure rate of less than one percent, you still might be in the one percent when millions are manufactured and sold every year. Even if the manufacturer replaces the hard drive, it won't save your data. So always back up and it won't be a disaster, just an inconvenience. We have a few articles on making backups easy and quick so don't forget to backup on a regular basis. And if you have any questions on hard drive information above and beyond what we have provided, just send us and email and we'll be happy to help in any way we can. |
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