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hard drive
(redirected from Hard drives)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia 0.04 sec.

hard drive

The primary computer storage device, which spins, reads and writes one or more fixed disk platters. In practice, the terms "hard drive" and "hard disk" are used synonymously. Hard drives are the storage medium in desktop and laptop computers as well as all servers and mainframes throughout the world. They are also used in printers for storing fonts and print jobs as well as digital music players and a myriad of other portable and stationary computer-based devices. Although removable disks encased in cartridges use the same "hard" disk media and a similar drive technology, they are mostly called "removable drives" rather than hard drives.

The term "hard" differentiates high-capacity rigid disks made of aluminum or glass from low-capacity floppy disks made of plastic. See hard drive capacity and hard disk.


hard drive - hard disk drive


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In fact, some predict that solid state storage or Flash memory--like the thumbnail-size SD card you probably use in your digital camera-will match and then pass magnetic hard drives in value and performance.
Today's massive capacity hard drives and stringent data availability requirements are driving the need for more robust data protection and failure resiliency.
Each compact all-metal chassis includes DataPort removable drive carriers which feature 25,000 insertion-rated connectors, patented drive cooling technology and can support either Serial ATA or IDE/ATA hard drives of any capacity.
 
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