hard disk drive Last modified: Wednesday, February 27, 2008
The mechanism that reads and writes data on a hard disk. Hard disk drives (HDDs) for PCs generally have seek times of about 12 milliseconds or less. Many disk drives improve their performance through a technique called caching.  There are several interface standards for passing data between a hard disk and a computer. The most common are IDE and SCSI. Hard disk drives are sometimes called Winchester drives, Winchester being the name of one of the first popular hard disk drive technologies developed by IBM in 1973. See What's Inside a Hard Drive? in the Did You Know ... ? section of Webopedia. Also see Formatting a Hard Disk Drive in the "Did You Know...?" section of Webopedia. Also see Learn How to Defrag Your Hard Drive in the Did You Know...? section of Webopedia. Also see "Tips to Fix a Slow Running Computer" in the Quick Reference section of Webopedia.
•E-mail this definition to a colleague• Sponsored listings Hard Drives - Customize Hard Drives with your company logo. Guaranteed low prices and great service. Shop online. Sun Server Bundles - Save 15% on a Server/Storage Bundle. Limited Time Only. Learn More Now. Hard Drives - Complete line of adapters - from software RAID to SAS/SATA hardware RAID. Learn more, access podcasts of industry experts on data storage technology. For internet.com pages about hard disk drive . Also check out the following links! Hard Disk Interfaces and Configuration  Describes the different major interface standards currently used by hard disks (and other devices). Provides sections about the IDE/ATA and SCSI interfaces. This page is from "The PC Guide." Internal Hard Drive Parts  What's inside your internal hard drive? Find out here. PC Guide's hard disk drive reference  Offers a large amount of information covering construction and operation, geometry and formatting, performance factors, BIOS and size issues, interfaces, configuration and file systems. The Storage Review  Focuses on reviews and technology news related to storage devices, particularly hard disk drives. Troubleshooting Hard Disk Drives  Includes troubleshooting information for a wide variety of hard disk problems. This page is from "The PC Guide." Webopedia Quick Reference: Common Windows PC Issues  Tips to Diagnose and fix a slow running computer. Webopedia's "Did You Know... Preventative Maintenance Tips for Your PC"  The following tips will serve as a basic guideline to keep your PC maintained to run efficiently, increase component lifespan and also will help lessen the likelihood of PC failure. Windrivers.com - device driver information  A comprehensive resource for information about Windows 3.1, 95 and NT device drivers. Offers searchable categories for companies, products and FCC ID numbers as well as hard drive and memory specifications, and downloadable utilities. IDE Device Setup / Autodetection Describes the BIOS settings that control the setup of IDE/ATA devices (particularly hard disk drives). This page is from "The PC Guide". Operation of the Hard Disk Drive Outlines the construction and operation of a PC’s hard disk drive and its relevant interface standards. Includes graphics, diagrams and an integrated glossary. This page is from "The PC Technology Guide." Sponsored listings digitalmedix - Expert Data Recovery Services - Your trusted advisor for hard drive & RAID recovery services. Call now to talk with an engineer. Anthology Solutions: Terabyte Data Storage - Terabyte storage appliance with built-in secure networking features.	Hard Disk Drives disk compression disk drive GMR hard disk JBOD SCA scratch disk spin valve superparamagnetism TCQ Von Neumann machine Give Us Your Feedback Hard Drives hard disk drive Products Shop by Top Models: Western Digital My Book Essential 500GB External USB 2.0 - WDH1U5000N 500 GB Hard Drive 16 store offers from $100 - $187 Seagate FreeAgent™ ST901603FGA1E1-RK 160 GB USB 2.0 Hard Drive 10 store offers from $88 - $149 Seagate FreeAgent™ (ST305004FDA1E1-RK) 500 GB USB 2.0 Hard Drive 18 store offers from $100 - $170 Western Digital My Book™ Essential Edition 2.0 (1000 GB) 1 TB USB Hard Drive 19 store offers from $200 - $280 Western Digital Passport™ WDXMS2500TN 250 GB USB 2.0 Hard Drive 3 store offers from $123 - $200