Computer Drives

The most common of the computer drives today is the Hard Disk Drive usually just called a hard drive or hard disk. A hard drive is a non-volatile storage device that stores digital data on magnetic platters. In these pages, we'll take a look at how hard drives and DVD drives work, we'll look at internal and external drives, and how to care for your hard drive.

 

What Is A Hard Drive?

 

Almost everything you do on a computer starts or ends with the hard drive. It is the main stoarage location for your operating system and installed applications. I'll take a look here at how a hard drive works and what makes it tick. I'll explain platters and spindles, actuators and heads. I will also take a look at how hard drives actually store and retrieve data, data capacities, and read/write times.

This will give you a solid foundation on what to look for when you are looking to upgrade a hard drive or install a new hard drive.

How A Hard Drive Works

 

Internal Hard Drives

 

We'll take a look here at internal drives. We'll look at the differences between them and what to take into consideration when looking to increase your storage capacity. I'll discuss how to add a hard drive into your system and things to verify before buying one. I'll talk about the different form factors and interfaces that today's computer drives use.

This will help you to decide what type of internal hard drive you need when you are looking to add more storage.

Internal Hard Drives

 

External Hard Drives

 

The first external hard drives were quite large and not really portable. These shrank down and became today's internal hard drive. Now external drives are becoming more and more popular for use as backup drives or storage of multimedia. We'll look at the different options that are out there and how to best decide what type and size of external drive to get.

This article will give you a good idea of what to look for when you decide to add an external drive to your computer.

External Hard Drives

Hard Drive Care

Give your hard drive some care, and your hard drive will care for you. We'll look at some of the different things you can do to keep your hard drive cleaned up and running smooth. This includes hard drive defragmentation, system clean-up, and general system maintenence.

Keeping your hard drive cleaned up will not only keep your system running smoother, but it will also extend the life of your hard drive. The less movement that a hard drive has to perform, the less worn out the parts can become.

Hard Drive Maintenance

DVD Drives

 

DVD drives are pretty standard on today's computers, both the laptop and desktop variety. From data storage to full length movies to applications, the DVD drive has become a must and has pretty much replaced the floppy drive. Ttake a look here at the different types and formats of DVD's. This article will also go over what to look for when buying a DVD drive and things that you should take into consideration.

Not sure if you should get a Blu-ray drive for your computer? This will help you make that decision by showing you the pros and cons of Blu-ray.

DVD Drives

 

 

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