hard disk

computing
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Also called:
hard disk drive or hard drive

hard disk, magnetic storage medium for a computer. Hard disks are flat circular plates made of aluminum or glass and coated with a magnetic material. Hard disks for personal computers can store terabytes (trillions of bytes) of information. Data are stored on their surfaces in concentric tracks. A small electromagnet, called a magnetic head, writes a binary digit (1 or 0) by magnetizing tiny spots on the spinning disk in different directions and reads digits by detecting the magnetization direction of the spots. A computer’s hard drive is a device consisting of several hard disks, read/write heads, a drive motor to spin the disks, and a small amount of circuitry, all sealed in a metal case to protect the disks from dust. In addition to referring to the disks themselves, the term hard disk is also used to refer to the whole of a computer’s internal data storage. Beginning in the early 21st century, some personal computers and laptops were produced that used solid-state drives (SSDs) that relied on flash memory chips instead of hard disks to store information.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Erik Gregersen.