Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

(NT) What is a HDD?

by hpinvent Sep 14, 2005 7:34AM PDT

Discussion is locked

2 Posts

- Collapse + Expand Details

- Collapse -

Hard Disk Drive

by Ray Harinec Sep 14, 2005 7:45AM PDT

Also know as Hard Drive.

- Collapse -

It's where all your "stuff" is stored. . .

by Coryphaeus Sep 14, 2005 10:07AM PDT

It's called a Hard Disk Drive because the disk(S) are hard pieces of aluminum coated with a magnetic material. Think of it working like a tape (video, audio) as being magnetic, small areas of it are recorded like tape. These areas are in concentric circles. Most drives spin at 7,200 RPM allowing fast access (reading - writing). As technology improves, more data (bits and Bytes) are stored.

FDD - Floppy Disk Drive came from the really old disks that were made of mylar coated with a magnetic material, usually ferrite. They were 5-1/4 inches in diameter and were flexible. Thus the term floppy.

Wayne

Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to
use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.
Click here to see the CNet faces, learn a little about telephones,
internet connections, spyware removal, and data, and download free software.

Back to Computer Newbies forum