Overview
Harddiskdrive(HDD)referstoadevicethatcontrolsharddiskaddressingandaccessingdatainapersonalcomputer.Throughtheharddrive,thecomputercanstoredata.Althoughharddiskdriveandharddiskaretwoconcepts,sincethetwoareusuallypackagedtogether,bothharddiskandharddiskusuallyrefertothedeviceformedbythecombinationofthetwo.
Composition
Themechanicalharddiskismainlycomposedofamagneticheadandamagneticdisk.Themagneticheadisthekeypartofthemechanicalharddisktoreadandwritedata.Whenthemechanicalharddiskisworking,theheadwillwritetrackdataorreadexistingdatawhilethediskisspinning.
Howitworks
TheharddisksusedinearlydesktopcomputersusedIDEinterfaces.IDEinterfaceharddisksarecheapbutcost-effective;mostpersonalcomputersuseSATAinterfacesorSCSIinterfaces.TheadvantageoftheSCSIinterfaceharddiskisthatuptosevendifferentdevicescanbeconnectedtothesamecontrollerpanel.Sincetheharddiskrotatesataconstanthighspeedof3000-15000revolutionsperminute,itonlytakesashorttimetoreaddatafromtheharddisk.
Theworld’sfirstharddisk
Theworld’sfirstharddiskisIBM’sSystem305,producedin1956,usedforRAMACrandomcalculationandcontrolledaccessmethodtostoredata.Theentireharddriverequires50platterswithadiameterof24inchesandthesurfaceiscoatedwithmagneticpulp.Thecapacityofthisharddriveisonly5MB.
Precautions
Ifthesolidstatedriveispoweredoff,itmaycausethecurrenttodisturbthemaincontrol,whichwillcausethemaincontroltogodown.Therefore,userswhousesolid-stateharddrives,pleasedonotcutoffthepowercasually.Althoughsolid-stateharddrivesareseveralordersofmagnitudelesslikelytobedamagedthanmechanicalharddrivesinprinciple,theystillcannotwithstandman-madefailures.