Saturday, December 12, 2009

Hard Drives - Understanding How They Work

By Matthew Kerridge

Hard drives are found in all computers and laptops. There are also external hard drives you can plug into your current computer to use. Many computers will also contain more than one hard drive. Supercomputers and mainframes will be connected to many different drives. Many video players and camcorders also use a hard disk.

The first hard drives were very large and could not store a lot of information only a few MB. The name hard drive was used due to the hard disk in the hard drive as well as the name needed to differentiate it from floppy disks. The hard drive contains a hard platter. This platter contains magnetic information and the same process to get information onto the platter is the same as using a recording cassette.

The hard platter will be made of either high precision aluminum and very few platters are made of glass. These disks or platters are polished to be very smooth, like mirrors. Your hard disk besides will store allow your data and any of it can be accessed in an instant.

Most hard drives will use high precision aluminum but some may also be a glass disk. These disks are polished so that they are mirror smooth and you can get any piece of information that you want at any time. The materials that comprise the hard disk make them long lasting. Hard disks also last longer because the write heads do not actually touch the disk but fly over it. This lack of contact gives them a longer life.

Hard disks also spin very fast which makes them more desirable. This fast spinning means that you can have your information in an instant. With all of the technological advances going into computer technology the size of hard drives have become smaller and smaller and you can store more and more information. There are now hard disks available that can hold a terabyte of data.

Your hard drive will affect your computers performance. This is measured by the seek time or how much information can be sent to your CPU, also known as the data rate. The seek time measures how long it takes your computer to locate the requested information and then transfer it to your CPU. All of your drives will come with a maximum amount of storage space available.

There are many hard drives you can choose from and many are very affordable. Many people will own and additional external hard drive to use as back up for their computer. - 22787

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