Hard Drives

Shopping for hard drives

When shopping for a hard drive, there are several key specs to consider before buying, such as storage capacity, form factor, interface type, cache and rotational speed. Storage capacity is an important factor as it decides how much data can be stored on the disk itself. Try to assess both your current and future storage needs when deciding which capacity drive(s) to purchase.

Form factor

Form factor refers to the physical size and shape of an internal storage device, such as a hard drive. The two main types of form factors used in modern computing are Large Form factor (LFF) or 3.5 inch and Small Form Factor (SFF) 2.5 inch although other sizes are also available too. Internal hard drives typically come in these two sizes and are used for PCs, laptops, servers and storage devices. Similarly, external hard drives also come in these two form factors, although they may also be slightly larger due to the casing which houses them. The type of device the hard drive will be used with often dictates what form factor should be chosen.

Interface

The interface determines the speed of data transfer between the hard drive and other components in a computer or storage device. Cache memory helps to improve overall performance by storing frequently accessed data for faster retrieval. Rotational speeds determine how quickly a hard drive can access stored information. The faster the speed, the quicker data can be read from and written to the hard drive.

HDD vs SSD

Hard drives are often compared to solid state drives (SSDs), which use flash memory instead of moving parts for storage. Compared to hard disks, SSDs boast faster read/write speeds due to their lack of physical platters or heads. Additionally, SSDs are more reliable since they contain no moving parts and generate less heat. However, hard disks still have some advantages over SSDs; they usually offer larger capacity and better price per gigabyte of storage space. For this reason, hard drives are the preferred choice for storing large amounts of data in PCs, laptops and servers.

Hotswap hard drives

Hot-swappable hard drives, also known as hot-plug or hotswap, refer to a type of drive that can be removed from and connected to an electronic device without the need for manual restarting of that device. This allows users to replace failed or malfunctioning drives with new ones, thereby improving system performance and reducing downtime. Hot swappable hard drives are most commonly used in servers, workstations and network storage devices due to their high durability and cost effectiveness.