A hard disk is a device used to store information accessible to a computer. The hard disk It was developed several decades ago by IBM and had a prodigious size, but with the passage of time and technological development, it decreased its dimensions and acquired more capacity. Today they are still in force due to their low cost, but it is assumed that in the immediate future they will be left aside by more efficient alternatives, unless there is a significant technological change in them.
Hard drives have certainly been a fundamental part of computing in recent decades and their evolution allowed computers to conquer the home environment because they provided a source of storage that was accessible to the general public.
Characteristics, past and present
The hard disk It consists of a series of plates that are one below the other, forming a kind of cylinder. These plates are enclosed in a casing that prevents the entry of dust, preventing damage to them. There is a series of arms on each disc that move on the plates and that are in charge of reading and writing; since the arms move between the face of one plate and that of another, there is the possibility of reading in each of them; the arms advance on the surface of the plates but never touch it, there is a thin layer of air between both surfaces. The discs are divided into tracks that refer to concentric circles and in turn these circles are divided into sectors.
High accuracy
The surprising thing about this whole process is that it is carried out with great efficiency and precision in a small space; In the past, the mechanics by which a disc moved was similar, but the immense dimensions for what we are used to.
A box to store an abysmal amount of information
As we have said, hard drives were enormously important in computing because their evolution allowed a more than significant data storage. In this regard, there was a continuous innovation in them, making them able to record data at different densities. Nowadays, however, this capacity for innovation seems to have stopped and that is why there are other alternatives designed to supplant this device. However, for the moment they are somewhat onerous and therefore it is to be expected that the life of the hard disk remain in force for a few more years until it is definitively obsolete.
