Hard drive

Posted by Melda Research on April 9th, 2019

Why the topic

            Information privacy is a primary concern to many users of hard drives as their major data storage devices. Hard drives provide both internal and external forms of data storage. The choice depends on the sensitivity of the data at hand. Some ethical concerns exist relating to the use of hard drives as the primary data storage. Most of the users do encrypt the information stored on the hard drives rendering them vulnerable to any malicious user. It is necessary that hard drives have proper security features to enable them provide effective data security. Many of the hard drives in use are either within a computer as the primary storage device and others connected via a USB cable. The concern about this is the ability of a third party to get access to the information in them without authorization. Hard drives are not among the best storage devices if they have no encryption.
Advantages of the hard drive

            Hard drives are the cheapest option for high capacity storage of data. The only alternative to high capacity internal or external data storage is a solid state drive, but their cost is extremely high. Thus, hard drives provide the cheapest mode of storage compared to the other types.

            They offer a high commercial storage capacity extending up to 3 TB (Terabytes) at a low price. The external hard drives can store up to 6 TB of data. They offer a storage capacity of the big corporations that require storing their data on the physical hard drives (Westover, 2014).

            Replacing and upgrading the hard drives is easy depending on the need. In addition, most of the computers have provisions for more than one drives. Hence, a computer can have two disks in which one acts as a mirror of the other and create a backup copy (Westover, 2014).

Disadvantages
            Hard drives have a size as compared to other forms of storage devices. They come in two sizes of 3.5 inches and 2.5 inch disks. Size may, not a big issue, but it reduces their portability and convenience. Another issue is the fact that, they have moving parts inside their enclosure. The spinning plates and the delicate arm make the drive prone to damage and reading or writing errors.
            Hard drives have a lower average speed in comparison to other forms of storage. It takes some time to access the data in it, unlike the other solidstatedrives that do it instantly. They are also prone to fail that might malfunction all the operations of the computer. If subjected to frequent crashes, it damages the surface of the disk leading to loss of data in that sector. High temperatures, dust, and continuous usage may also affect their functionality.

Working principle of a hard drive

            It has a shiny circular platter of a magnetic material segmented into billions of tiny areas. Each of the areas is independent and can be magnetized (to store a 1) or demagnetized (to store a 0). Magnetism finds uses in computer storage since it continues to store information even when the power is off. They utilize the same principle that materials apply upon the magnetization, and they don’t lose it unless demagnetized. It has an arm that moves a small magnet called a read-write head back and forth over the platters as it stores information. It has an electrical connection circuit that controls all the operations and joins it to the rest of the computer (Al Mamun, Guo & Chao, 2007).

References

Abdullah Al Mamun, Guoxiao Guo, Chao Bi (2007) . CRC Press, 2007: A detailed reference covering the design and manufacture of           hard drives

Extend your hard drive (1997). PC Computing, 10(8), 238

Removable hard drive (1993) Macworld, 10(8), 120                                                            

Westover, B. (2014). Secure Storage For All Your Most Important Files. PC Magazine, 96-100.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in pre written college essays. If you need a similar paper you can place your order from pay someone to write my research paper services.