Assignment # 2

What is a Hard disk drive?

Submitted to:
Ms. Darakhshan Batool

Submitted by:
Maria Sameen

Semester: I

Department of Computer Arts

Fatima Jinnah Women University,

Rawalpindi
Q:What is a Hard disk Drive?

Hard disk drive (HDD):

A computer hard disk drive (HDD) is a non-volatile memory hardware device that
controls the positioning, reading and writing of the hard disk, which furnishes data storage.

History of hard disk drives:

The hard disk was created in 1953 by engineers at IBM who wanted to find a way to
provide random access to high capacities of data at a low cost. The disk drives developed
were the size of refrigerators, could store 3.75 megabytes of data and began shipping in 1956.
Memorex, Seagate and Western Digital were other early vendors of hard disk drive
technology.

Hard disk drive form-factor size has continued to decrease as the technology evolves. By the
mid-1980s, 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch form factors were introduced, and it was at this time they
first became a standard in personal computers (PCs).

Hard disk drive density has increased since the technology was first developed. The first hard
disk drives were able to store megabytes of data, while today they are in the terabyte (TB)
range. Hitachi released the first 1 TB hard drives in 2007. In 2015, HGST announced the first
10 TB hard drive.
 Kinds of Hard Drives:
The computer hard drive isn't the only kind of hard drive, and SATA and PATA aren't the
only ways they can connect to a computer. What's more is that there are many different sizes
of hard drives, some very small and others rather large.

For example,

USB:
The common flash drive has a hard drive, too, but it doesn't spin like a traditional hard
drive. Flash drives have solid-state drives built-in and connect to the computer through USB.

External HDDs:
Another USB hard drive is the external hard drive, which is basically a regular hard drive
that's been put into its own case so that it's safe to exist outside the computer case. They
usually interface with the computer over USB but some use FireWire or eSATA.

An external enclosure is a housing for an internal hard drive. You can use one if you want to
"convert" an internal hard drive into an external one to make your own external hard drive.
They, too, use USB, FireWire, and so forth

External hard drives can be used to expand the storage capacity, or act as a portable place to
back data up to. An external hard drive can connect to a computer or device through a USB
2.0 interface or with eSATA. External hard drives may also have slower data transfer rates
compared to internal HDDs.
 Usage of Hard disks:
Hard disk drives are commonly used as the main storage device in a computer. HDDs
often store operating system, software programs and other files, and can be found in desktop
computers, mobile devices, consumer electronics and enterprise storage arrays in data
centers.

A hard disk drive -- often shortened to hard drive -- and hard disk are not the same things, but
they are packaged as a unit and either term can refer to the whole unit.

In a computer, an HDD is commonly found in the drive bay and is connected to the
motherboard via an ATA, SATA or SCSI cable. The HDD is also connected to a power
supply unit and can keep stored data while powered down.

Hard disk drive components and how it works:

Most basic hard drives consist of a number of disk platters that are positioned around a
spindle inside a sealed chamber. The chamber also includes read-and-write heads and motors.

The motor is used to spin the platters, which hold the data, at up to 15,000 rotations per
minute (a higher rpm number results in faster performance). As the platters spin, a second
motor controls the position of the read-and-write heads that magnetically record information
to, and read information from, tracks on each platter.
 HDD technology developments:
In 2013, Seagate announced hard disk drives that use shingled magnetic recording (SMR)
technology. SMR increases storage density in hard disk drives by layering the magnetic
tracks on each disk, rather than placing them parallel to each other. It is referred to as
shingled because the tracks overlap similar to shingles on a roof.

HGST announced the first helium-filled hard disk drive in 2012. Helium is less dense, cooler
and lighter than air, and can, therefore, consume less power, increase drive density and
improve performance compared with traditional hard disk drives. In 2016, Seagate
announced its own 10 TB helium hard drive.

HDD vs. SSD:

The main alternative to hard disk drives in PCs and the enterprise are solid-state drives
(SSDs). HDDs are now starting to be replaced by SSDs.

Unlike hard disks, SSDs contain no moving parts. SSDs also have lower latency than HDDs,
and therefore are often favored to store critical data that needs to be accessed quickly and for
applications with a high input/output demand. SSDs are configured to deliver high read and
write performance for sequential and random data requests. Additionally, SSDs don't store
data magnetically, so the read performance remains steady, regardless of where the data is
stored on the drive

However, SSDs are more expensive than HDDs from a price-per-gigabyte standpoint. Many
enterprise storage arrays ship with a mix of HDDs and SSDs to reduce costs while providing
better performance. SSDs also have a set life expectancy, having a finite number of write
cycles before performance slows. This detrition happens faster than how long it takes for an
HDD to fail over time.

Storage Capacity:
The hard disk drive capacity is a huge factor in determining whether someone will buy a
particular device like a laptop or phone. If the storage capacity is rather small, it means it will
fill up with files faster, whereas a drive that has lots and lots of storage can handle much
more data.

Choosing a hard drive based on how much storage it can retain is really up to opinion and
circumstance. If you need a tablet, for example, that can hold lots of videos, you'll want to be
sure to get the 64 GB one instead of the 8 GB one.

The same is true for computer hard drives. An offline, at-home storage preference might
drive you to buy an internal or external hard drive that supports 4 TB versus a 500 GB one.