According to Abbreviationfinder, HDD stands for Hard Disk Drive. A hard drive (also known as a hard drive in some countries) is a device used in computers and other devices to store digital information. Regarding their composition, they have disks that are linked by a common axis and that rotate inside a metallic structure, with writing and reading heads on each disk.
Since the creation of the first hard drive in 1956, these devices have managed to increase their storage capacity while falling in price. The flow of information circulating these days requires computer users to have large-capacity hard drives to store all kinds of data, from text documents to high-definition movies, including music and photos.
Hard drives communicate with the rest of the components through a standardized interface such as IDE (also known as ATA), Serial ATA, FC, or SCSI. The choice of this interface depends on the type of computer (whether it is a workstation, a server, etc.).
The logical structure of the hard drive includes discrete sectors. The boot sector or Master Boot Record houses the partition table, while these partitions contain the file systems.
When choosing a hard drive for a computer, consider the average read and write time (how long it takes to write or read data), the average seek time, the average access time, and the transfer rate (how long it takes to transfer data to the computer), among other factors.
Major manufacturers of hard drives include Seagate, Western Digital, Quantum, Hitachi, Toshiba, and Samsung.
Differences with SSDs
For several years now, hard drives have seen the birth of their biggest (and perhaps only) opponent: SSDs, an acronym for Solid State Drive. Without going into technicalities, it is a very different technology from the first, but not necessarily revolutionary in itself, since it is not substantially far from flash memory or RAM modules. Hardware connoisseurs anticipated their creation long before they were released, knowing that the only obstacle to their manufacture would be price.
Even today, when solid state drives are relatively popular, no one has managed to offer the market a product that can compete with hard drives in capacity and price. They rely, on the other hand, on their incredible read and write speed, which exceeds that of their old competitors by at least three times (they are at least 300% faster).
Among other advantages, we find energy saving; The reason is that they have no moving parts, so they use much less electricity to function. This directly affects the heat they produce, which is also much lower, making mobile devices such as notebooks and tablet PCs more comfortable to use when in contact with the body. As if these two features weren’t strong enough, their compactness makes them much more resistant to shocks and falls; Put in numbers, they are an average of five times stronger.
At first glance, a mid-range computer fitted with an SSD can be impressively transformed, dramatically reducing operating system and program loading times, and offering an overall smoother and more enjoyable user experience. However, given the large price difference, favorable for hard drives, most people are reluctant to take the leap, valuing not only the economic aspect but also the greater capacity they obtain with traditional technology.
