What is the main function of hard?

Definition of hard disk

A hard disk is also known as a hard drive or fixed disk. It is said to be rigid magnetic disc that stores data. It is located within a drive unit. Hard disk is a non-volatile storage device that contains platters and magnetic disks rotating at high speeds. Non-volatile means the data retains when the computer shuts down.

It is installed internally in our computer systems. Hard disk is located within a drive unit on the computer's motherboard and comprises one or more platters packed in an air-sealed casing.

Its main components include a read/write actuator arm, head actuator, read/write head, spindle, and platter. A circuit board (also called as the interface board or disk controller) is present on the back of a hard drive. It lets the hard drive to communicate with the computer.

Function of Hard disk

The hard disk is a secondary storage device, which is designed to store data permanently. The secondary storage devices include a large storage capacity as compared to the primary storage devices. The data stored in a hard disk is retained when our computer system shuts down. The data stored in the hard disk can be of many types such as the operating system, installed software, documents, and other files of computer.

Hard disk was introduced in the year 1956 by IBM. The first personal computer contains a hard drive of less than 1 megabyte, while modern computers contain a hard drive of 1 terabyte.

Every computer contains atleast one hard drive to store data and software. In Windows operating system, the hard drive is known to be the C drive, and in MAC, it is simply called as the hard drive. The desktop computers which have external hard drives are used for backup purposes or additional storage.

The size of hard drives is measured in gigabytes and terabytes. Usually, 500GB hard disks are common in modern computers. As an instance, a song of length four-minute is approx. 4MB in size, and in 1 gigabyte, there are 1,000 megabytes, it means that a 500GB hard drive can store approx. 250,000 songs.

Let's see some advantages and disadvantages of the hard disk.

Advantages of the hard disk

The advantages of a Hard Disk Drive are given as follows:

• One of the significant advantages of a Hard Disk drive is that its cost is low.
• Another advantage of a Hard Disk is that it is readily available in the market.
• Hard Disk is faster than optical disks.
• The capacity for storing the data in HDDs is large.

Disadvantages of the hard disk

The disadvantages or limitations of Hard Disk Drive are given as follows:

• The speed of reading and writing in HDD is slower than the RAM.
• HDDs are noisy.
• Another disadvantage of HDD is energy inefficiency.
• HDDs consume more power.
• The form factor of HDDs is heavier than the SSDs.

The hard disks are robust and can be used for a long time. But hard disks can be crashed, and the main reason is head crash. If the hard drive is crashed, we may lose all our documents, photos, etc., stored in it.

In this article, you will know what is Hard Disk and what are the types of it? Hard disks are also often called Disk drive or “Hard Disk Drive (HDD)”. Just as a library is required to handle books in the library, the same computer also needs such a place in which it can store digital data.

Computers use two types of storage devices to store and process digital content (Document, Image, Videos, Software, Operating system, Program). In which Hard Disk is a secondary memory device. It keeps the data stored permanently.

Whereas the primary memory device (RAM) serves to process the computer’s programs. It is also called temporary memory. Hard Disk is seen as an important component of a computer because no computer will work without it. In this post we will tell you what is a hard disk in a computer? In which you will get to know a lot about Hard Disk. So let’s first know, what is called a hard disk and then we will talk about other aspects of it.

Hard Disk Definition, functions and types

Table of contents

What is Hard Disk

Hard Disk, also called Hard Disk Drive (HDD), is a non-volatile memory hardware device. Hard disk work is to permanently store and retrieve computer data. They are called non-volatile device, which can store any type of data in the computer for a long time.

That is, the computer keeps the data safe even after power off. Hard Disk is also called Secondary Storage Device. It exists inside a computer case (CPU) and is connected to the computer motherboard using data cables (PATA, SCSI, SATA).

Hard Disk uses magnetic storage to store and retrieve digital information. That is why it is also called Electro-mechanical data storage device. The hard disk consists of one or more circular rotating disks to store the data.

Each platter has a very thin strip, which is made using magnetic material. There are many tracks and sectors present in these platters and it rotates through the spindle. When the platter starts rotating, a Read / Write arm in the Hard Disk moves it from right to left.

Its job is to read data and write data from platter. The faster the spindle rotates the platter, the faster the data will be stored in the Hard Disk. Its speed is measured in RPM (Revolution Per Minute). This means how many rounds the platter took in a minute. Most Hard Disk ranges from 5400 RPM to 7200 RPM.

What is Hardware

Know what the CPU is

What is a Graphic Card

Before the use of Hard Disk, floppy disk was used to store information in the computer. But it could store data up to 3.14MB only. Rather, Hard Disk has the capacity to store many terabytes of data. The first hard disk was invented by IBM in 1956 and the RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) was the first hard disk.

What are the different types of Hard Disk?

Currently, there are four types of Hard Disk:

1. PATA (Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment) – This is the oldest type of hard disk. It was first used in 1986. PATA Hard Disk uses the ATA interface standard to connect to the computer. It was earlier referred to as Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE). It is a medium speed hard disk, its data transfer rate is up to 133MB / s. This drive stores data using magnetism.
2. SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) – In most of today’s computers and laptops you will find this type of Hard Disk. The data transfer rate of SATA Hard Disk is higher than a PATA drive. Its speed can be from 150MB / s to 600MB / s. SATA cables are very thin and flexible, which is much better than PATA cables. It is better than the old hard disk drive in many ways.
3. SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) – This type of hard disk uses a small computer system interface to connect to the computer. This is quite parallel to the IDE hard drive. The new version of the SCSI Hard Disk (16-bit ultra – 640) has a data transfer speed of up to 640 MBps and can connect to 16 devices with a cable of 12 meters in length.
4. SSD (Solid State Drives) – It is one of the latest drives today. Much better and faster than all other hard disk devices. SSD uses flash memory technology to store data. Its data access speed is very fast. It costs a lot more than an HDD drive.

• Information on Computer Science

What is the function of SMPS

• What does computer monitor work

We know how many types of hard disks are there. Now let’s understand a little detail about its structure. Below we will tell you about the important parts of Hard Disk through which a hard disk works.

Hard disk parts

Some of the major components of Hard Disk and their functions are shown below.

1. MAGNETIC PLATTERS is an important part of it, in which digital information is stored magnetically. In this, the data is saved in binary form (0 to 1).
2. READ / WRITE HEAD is a small magnet mounted next to the read right arm. It moves the platter from right to left and works to record and store information.
3. The read-write arm rotates with the help of ACTUATOR.
4. READ-WRITE ARM is the back of the read right head, both of them are connected.
5. SPINDLE is a type of moter, it is present in the middle of the platter. With its help, the platters move around.
6. CIRCUIT controls the effect of data from the BOARD platter.
7. CONNECTOR transmits data from the circuit board to the read-write and platter.
8. LOGIC BOARD is a type of chip that controls all information input or output from HDD.
9. HSA is the parking area of ​​the reed right arm.

Apart from this, there are many more parts of Hard Disk. If you want complete information about them, click here.

Function of Hard Disk

The main function of a Hard Disk is to store computer data forever. Therefore it is also called Permanent Storage. This data can be of many types, such as your personal files, documents, software, operating system etc. How much data can be stored in these hard disks, it depends on the storage capacity of the Hard Disk. Today you will find such hard disks whose capacity to store data ranges from gigabytes to terabytes.

What is SSD?

The full form of SSD is Solid State Drive. You can also call it a replacement for HDD (Hard Disk Drive). In this, flash memory is used to store data. SSD is stronger than an electromechanical drive. Therefore it is also called solid-state device. The access time of this type of drive is very long. It does not sound like the rest of the hard disk and runs without interruption.

It is much smaller in size than a hard disk drive, so it occupies less space inside the CPU. SSD has two major components that make it. Which includes flash controller and NAND flash memory chips. SSDs are used in most computers and laptops today. It is a better storage device than HDD.

Major differences between HHD and SSD (SSD vs HDD)

Let’s talk about HDD first. It is made of magnetized element and has mechanical parts inside it. Its storage capacity is very high, due to which you can store 1TB or more data in your computer. If you buy an HDD, you will get it at very cheap prices. The data access speed of HHD is quite sluggish. That is, it takes a long time to start your program and computer.

SSD is much faster than this and this is also a big achievement. It uses Integrated circuits (IC, Chips) to store data. It is much smaller in size than a HDD. It comes with different storage capacity. But its price is very high which is difficult for the common man to bear. But if you buy an SSD with less storage, then your computer becomes very fast.

Conclusion

In this post you have learned what is Hard Disk and how it is there? Hopefully, by now you must have known about the hard disk. If you use a computer, then we would advise you to never open the hard disk that is in it, otherwise it can be damaged. We have explained in detail about almost all aspects of the hard disk in this post, but still if you have any question, please tell in the comment below. If you want, you can share this post to your friends. Thank you.

What is the function of hard?

What is hard disk and its function?

What is the function of disk drive?