Hard disk
From Nikonians Wiki
A hard disk (HDD) is an electromagnetic device for storing data, and is the most common means used by personal computer systems for storing large amounts of data semi-permanently. The hard disk usually sits inside the computer case, although many users also have external hard disks, which sit in their own enclosures, generally with their own power supplies.
Although computer users rely on hard disks, they are intrinsically fragile, which is why an appropriate backup routine is necessary.
Hard disk failures occur in the following ways:
- physical shocks, such as dropping a laptop or kicking a computer casing
- electrical shocks, such as lightning hitting an unprotected electrical, a mains surge, or the spike that comes when a fuse blows elsewhere in a building
- wear and tear — typically, a hard disk will last 3-5 years
- data corruption, often caused by repeatedly resetting the computer without then running a disk repair utility
- data corruption caused by application malfunction, for example saving a file when the application abruptly closes
- data corruption caused by ill-advised user interference, for example running a low-level application such as Norton Utility or running a disk rebuilding application on a disk which already contains some errors without first correcting them
Most data on a hard disk is in principle recoverable, even if the disk shatters. However, the costs can run into $100,000s for a full 'clean room' rebuild of a physically shattered disk. A sound backup routine is infinitely preferable.
Often HDD's are being replaced with faster Solid State Drives (SSD) in modern computers, or you can use combinations of both, e.g. a smaller set of SSD's and larger set of HDDs, probably both in a RAID configuration.
- This page was last modified on 12 March 2021, at 15:38.
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