The hard drive is still an indispensable component of the system. And although experts have already introduced SSD to the market, not everyone can afford it, but you need to store photos of your family and favorite films somewhere. This storage remains a hard drive to this day. A drive is a random access memory device.
About device
Everyone knows that a hard disk (drive) allows you to record and store information. But how does he do it?
Often the technology of recording data on the railway is compared with the work of a tape recorder. There is a certain working surface that moves relative to the read head. On the surface of the disk there is a ferromagnet that interacts with an electrically charged head. Depending on the magnitude of the signal, the direction of the vector changes.
During this process, the magnetic flux in the head changes, an alternating electrical signal appears.
Title
They call the hard drive a drive, a hard drive, or shorten its name to HDD. And if everything is clear with the first and third names, then there are questions to the Winchester.
There is a theory that the device received such a nickname thanks to one employee who was involved in the development of railway. In 1973, the popular 3340 model appeared, which structurally approached modern ideas about the hard drive.
During its development, the engineers called the modification “30-30” among themselves. It was 30 MB each that had both modules. Such an internal name coincided with the designation of the then popular hunting weapon.
Winchester hard drive (drive) in the United States was called until the 90s of the last century. In Russian, it is still often used and has some semi-official status. Sometimes the name is abbreviated to “screw” or “screw”.
Characteristics
It is easy to guess that the hard drive is a non-universal device. That is, when collecting a PC, you can’t take the first train you get. In any case, you will have to study the characteristics:
- interface;
- capacity;
- physical size;
- spindle rotation speed;
- input-output, etc.
Interface
This is perhaps the most universal parameter of railway. Essentially, an interface is a way of interaction between two different mechanisms. In the case of a hard drive, communication lines, signals, technical means, etc. are meant.
Theoretically, modern models can use different interfaces: ATA, SATA , eSATA, SAS and many others. In practice, more and more often you can find a hard disk that works in conjunction with SATA. This is the most modern and most popular interface. Although when choosing a hard drive, it is still better to pay attention to its availability and the ability to connect it to the motherboard.
Capacity
Most often it is this characteristic that affects the choice of the buyer. Someone needs a 1 TB hard drive, while 200 GB is enough for someone. That is, capacity is the amount of information that can fit on a particular model.
Since the development of the first models of hard drives, their capacity has been continuously increasing. And today, you can purchase a 10 TB drive. Of course, such volumes are needed more in production than in home PCs, nevertheless, such an opportunity already exists, and developers are unlikely to stop there.
A 1 TB hard drive is now considered the most popular. It is especially purchased for gaming systems. This volume will be quite enough for games and personal data.
Physical size
If we talk about stationary computers, then this characteristic has practically no significance. In PC cases, there is a lot of space for installing any form factor of the railway. For a laptop, only a 2.5-inch drive is suitable. It has smaller dimensions than a modification for a computer, so that it is easier to put in a laptop case.
Almost all storage devices (hard drives) for PCs have a 3.5-inch form factor. Although the market can be found even smaller copies.
Spindle speed
An important characteristic of railway, which affects the access time and the average speed of information transfer. Models for laptops are usually equipped with hard drives with standard indicators of spindle speed: 7200, 5400 and 4200. In stationary computers, there is a wider choice of models for this characteristic: 5400, 5700, 5900, 7200 and 10 000. For fast loading and comfortable work, it is better to choose the hard drive at a speed of 7200 or 10,000 rpm.
Input Output
The number of I / O operations per second depends on many factors. Usually it is evaluated by the previous parameter. If the railway runs at a speed of 7200 rpm, then this parameter will be approximately 75-200 op./s. The number of operations is most often affected by random access time.
If the hard drive performs a linear operation, then the described parameter will be determined by the total time of information transfer. And it depends on the speed of reading and the size of the transmitted data.
Other characteristics
For mobile devices, an important factor is the energy consumption of the hard drive. Also, many pay attention to the data transfer rate. The size of the buffer can vary from 8 to 128 MB. You can pay attention to shock resistance.
SSD and HDD
What is the difference between a solid state drive and a hard drive? For many, this issue becomes key when assembling the system. This is not surprising, since SSDs (solid state drives) are touted from all sides, but its cost is noticeably higher than that of railway. Hence doubts arise.
It should be noted right away that a solid-state drive is a device that is no longer represented by magnetic disks, but by a chipset on the board. It can be called a large flash drive with great speed.
It is believed that hard drives are ideal for data storage, but solid-state drives do a good job. Therefore, if you can’t decide what to buy in the system, buy both HDD and SSD. The first will serve as a repository of personal data, but the second will be responsible for the operation of the system.
To understand the difference between both devices, you need to compare them. For example, by speed parameter. It is because of it that they install a flash drive instead of a hard drive. SSD works with the operating system 15 times faster. In just 10-15 seconds, the SSD will read and transmit the information, while the HDD will take about 40 seconds.
It is important to mention the noise. Since there are no moving parts in the solid state drive, and the microchips are firmly fixed on the board, it does not make noise at all. Winchester in this case can be very noisy.
SSD at peak times can consume up to 2 watts, while the hard drive - up to 7 watts. Because of their structure, SSDs are considered more reliable because they have an unlimited number of write cycles. But the Winchester may one day stop working.
External storage
Few people know, but there may be a hard drive and an external memory drive . In order not to damage its structural elements, the developers “put” it in a plastic case. What is such a device for?
Sooner or later, the amount of free space on the PC ends. It becomes difficult to allocate the extra 100 MB, and without them the system starts to work very slowly. To unload it, you can purchase an additional hard drive and install it in the case. But it will be much more profitable to buy an external drive.
In this case, we will get a kind of assistant who will help:
- unload the computer;
- Store important information
- Transfer it from one PC to another.
If you travel a lot, shoot videos and photos on the camera, then sooner or later the free volume on the USB flash drive will end. It will be necessary to transfer everything to a PC, but there is still a bit of space left. To do this, it is best to get an external drive: be it a hard drive or SSD.
When choosing an external hard drive, you should pay attention to the volume (500 GB will be enough for the first time), device security and dimensions. Among the reliable manufacturers in this segment are Hitachi, Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital.
Network drive
Few people know about a concept like NAS. This is an abbreviation of the English name Network Attached Storage, which can be translated as "network attached storage."
How does this concept apply to an external hard drive? A network storage device (NAS) is represented by a combination of large storage media. All mechanisms operate due to the hardware platform, which allows you to connect the drive to a local network.
Hard disks most often become storage media in the NAS system, since they have relatively large capacities, low cost, and good exchange rate. A network drive can now be part of a home or office network, it helps to solve many complex tasks, saves time, money and effort of employees or a private user.
findings
A hard drive is a device that is currently popular among drives. Despite the fact that it is technologically noticeably outdated, it continues to be in demand. Together with the hard drive, a solid-state drive is being actively introduced, which turned out to be much more reliable and faster, but at the same time more expensive. Therefore, to build a PC, the most profitable option is a hybrid disk (HDD + SSD) or a separate purchase and installation of both devices.