How A Hard Drive Works
How A Hard Drive Works
When you save a document, it gets written somewhere "non-volatile" that keeps its state even when the
power is off. How does that work for a hard drive?
The hard drive contains a spinning platter with a thin magnetic coating
A "head" moves over the platter, writing 0's and 1's as tiny areas of magnetic North or South on the
platter
To read the data back, the head goes to the same spot, notices the North and South spots flying by, and
so deduces the stored 0's and 1's
A Modern hard drive can store well over a trillion 0/1 bits per platter, so the individual North/South spots
are quite small
"Flash" storage is made with chips (no moving parts) and is gradually replacing spinning hard drives like
this. Flash chips are what's inside camera SDHC memory cards and USB storage keys.
A hard disk drive (HDD) is an internal or external computer component that stores data, such as the operating
system, applications, and user files.
HDDs are “non-volatile” storage devices, meaning they retain stored data even when power isn't being supplied.
How does a hard drive work?
An HDD includes two main elements; a spinning platter and an actuator arm.
The platter is a circular magnetic disk containing tracks and sectors that retain data.
The actuator arm moves across the platter to read and write data.
The platter spins (hence the name) on a spindle to help speed up the read/write process as the actuator arm
moves across it.
The data sectors are spread out randomly (also known as fragmented) across the platter, and below we'll discuss
defragmenting a hard drive to boost performance.
What does a hard disk drive look like?
The platter and the actuator arm are delicate physical mechanisms, so a solid case covers them to prevent
damage under normal use. The hard drive cover will look like a metal box, and it will be clearly labeled as a hard
disk drive or HDD.
Here's what an internal HDD looks like beneath its metal casing. You can see the spinning platter and the actuator
arm, and how they work together to read and write the data upon request.
Instead of an HDD, newer computers are usually fitted with an SSD (solid state drive).