Course 1: Storage Device Overview
Read the instructional content and review the infographic to learn the characteristics of a hard drive. When complete, click the Next buttons to move onto the next lesson.
Lesson 2: Hard Drive Overview
Inside the hard drive, you will find the head, actuator arm, actuator axis, platter, and spindle; the actuator arm contains the head and actuator axis. These components work together to read and write data to and from the hard drive, or platter; which is where the data is stored.
The spindle holds the platter in place. When data is read or written to the platter, the spindle spins the platter, and actuator axis and actuator arm then work together to move the head along the platter. The head then reads or writes data to or from the platter; similar to how a laser reads and writes data to or from a CD/DVD, or how a needle reads data from a vinyl record.
Benefits of a Hard Drive:
Hard drives offer larger capacities at lower prices; with larger capacities defined as drives over 500 GB (Gigabytes).