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Hard disk drive

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"Hard drive" redirects here. For other uses, see Hard drive (disambiguation).
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive or
fixed
disk[b]
is a data storage device used for storing
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and retrieving digital information using one or more
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rigid ("hard") rapidly rotating disks (platters) coated
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with magnetic material. The platters are paired with
Interaction
magnetic heads arranged on a moving actuator arm,
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which read and write data to the platter surfaces.[2]
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Data is accessed in a random-access manner,
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meaning that individual blocks of data can be stored
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Hard disk drive
or retrieved in any order rather than sequentially. An
A 2.5-inch SATA hard drive
HDD retains its data even when powered off.
Date invented 24 December 1954[a]
Introduced by IBM in 1956,[3] HDDs became the
Invented by
Related changes
dominant secondary storage device for general-
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purpose computers by the early 1960s. Continuously
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improved, HDDs have maintained this position into the
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modern era of servers and personal computers. More than
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200 companies have produced HDD units, though most

current units are manufactured by Seagate, Toshiba and
Western Digital. Worldwide disk storage revenues were US
$32 billion in 2013, down 3% from 2012.[4]
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The primary characteristics of an HDD are its capacity and
Printable version
performance. Capacity is specified in unit prefixes
Languages
corresponding to powers of 1000: a 1-terabyte (TB) drive
Afrikaans
has a capacity of 1,000 gigabytes (GB; where 1 gigabyte =
Alemannisch
1 billion bytes). Typically, some of an HDD's capacity is
unavailable to the user because it is used by the file
Aragons
system and the computer operating system, and possibly
Azrbaycanca
inbuilt redundancy for error correction and recovery.

Performance is specified by the time required to move the
heads to a track or cylinder (average access time) plus the
()
time it takes for the desired sector to move under the head
Bosanski
A disassembled and labeled 1997

HDD lying atop a mirror
An overview of how HDDs work
(average latency, which is a function of the physical rotational speed in revolutions per minute),
and finally the speed at which the data is transmitted (data rate).
Brezhoneg
The two most common form factors for modern HDDs are 3.5-inch, for desktop computers, and
Catal
2.5-inch, primarily for laptops. HDDs are connected to systems by standard interface cables such
etina
as SATA (Serial ATA), USB or SAS (Serial attached SCSI) cables.
Cymraeg
As of 2015, the primary competing technology for secondary storage is flash memory in the form of
Dansk
solid-state drives (SSDs), which have higher data transfer rates and significantly lower latency and
Deutsch
access times, but HDDs remain the dominant medium for secondary storage due to advantages in
Eesti
price per unit of storage and recording capacity.[5][6] However, SSDs are replacing HDDs where
speed, power consumption and durability are more important considerations.[7][8]

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Espaol
Esperanto
Euskara
Franais
speed, power consumption and durability are more important considerations.[7][8]

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Technology
Frysk
2.1 Magnetic recording
Furlan
2.2 Components
Gaeilge
2.3 Error rates and handling
Galego
2.4 Future development
Hrvatski
Bahasa Indonesia
Interlingua
slenska
Italiano
3 Capacity
3.1 Calculation
3.2 System use
3.3 Units
4 Form factors
5 Performance characteristics
5.1 Time to access data
Basa Jawa
5.2 Seek time
5.3 Latency
5.4 Data transfer rate
5.5 Other considerations
Kiswahili
Latina
Latvieu
6 Access and interfaces

7 Integrity and failure
8 Market segments
9 Manufacturers and sales
Lietuvi
10 External hard disk drives
Limburgs
11 Visual representation
Lingla
12 See also
Lumbaart
13 Notes
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Magyar
14 References
15 Further reading
Malagasy
16 External links
Bahasa Melayu
Nederlands
History
[edit]
Main article: History of hard disk drives

HDDs were introduced in 1956 as data storage for an IBM
real-time transaction processing computer and were
developed for use with general-purpose mainframe and
Norsk bokml
minicomputers. The first IBM drive, the 350 RAMAC, was
Norsk nynorsk
approximately the size of two refrigerators and stored five
Occitan
million six-bit characters (3.75 megabytes)[9] on a stack of

Ozbekcha/
50 disks.
Video of modern HDD operation
(cover removed)
In 1962 IBM introduced the model 1311 disk drive, which
Plattdtsch
was about the size of a washing machine and stored two
Polski
million characters on a removable

disk pack.
Users
could
Improvement
of HDD
characteristics
over time
Portugus
Romn
Parameter
Capacity
(formatted)
Shqip
Physical
Sicilianu
volume
Simple English
Slovenina
Slovenina
Weight
Started with
Developed to
Improvement
two-million-to-
3.75 megabytes[9]
eight terabytes
68 cubic feet (1.9 m3)[c][3]
2.1 cubic inches (34 cc)[10]
57,000-to-one
2,000 pounds (910 kg)[3]
2.2 ounces (62 g)[10]
15,000-to-one
Average
one
about
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Slovenina
Average
access time
/ srpski
Srpskohrvatski /
Price
Suomi
Areal density
Svenska
about
about 600 milliseconds[3]
a few milliseconds
US$9,200 per
< $0.05 per gigabyte by
180-million-to-
megabyte[11][dubious discuss]
2013[12]
one
826 gigabits per square inch
> 400-million-
in 2014[14]
to-one
2,000 bits per square inch[13]
Tagalog
200-to-one
buy additional packs and interchange them as needed, much like reels of magnetic tape. Later
Taqbaylit
models of removable pack drives, from IBM and others, became the norm in most computer
/tatara
installations and reached capacities of 300 megabytes by the early 1980s. Non-removable HDDs
were called "fixed disk" drives.
Some high-performance HDDs were manufactured with one head per track (e.g. IBM 2305) so that
Trke
no time was lost physically moving the heads to a track.[15] Known as fixed-head or head-per-track
disk drives they were very expensive and are no longer in production.[16]
Vneto
In 1973, IBM introduced a new type of HDD codenamed "Winchester". Its primary distinguishing
Ting Vit
feature was that the disk heads were not withdrawn completely from the stack of disk platters when
Winaray
the drive was powered down. Instead, the heads were allowed to "land" on a special area of the
disk surface upon spin-down, "taking off" again when the disk was later powered on. This greatly
reduced the cost of the head actuator mechanism, but precluded removing just the disks from the
Zazaki
emaitka
drive as was done with the disk packs of the day. Instead, the first models of "Winchester
technology" drives featured a removable disk module, which included both the disk pack and the
Edit links
head assembly, leaving the actuator motor in the drive upon removal. Later "Winchester" drives
abandoned the removable media concept and returned to non-removable platters.
Like the first removable pack drive, the first "Winchester" drives used platters 14 inches (360 mm)
in diameter. A few years later, designers were exploring the possibility that physically smaller
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platters might offer advantages. Drives with non-removable eight-inch platters appeared, and then
drives that used a 514 in (130 mm) form factor (a mounting width equivalent to that used by
contemporary floppy disk drives). The latter were primarily intended for the then-fledgling personal
computer (PC) market.
As the 1980s began, HDDs were a rare and very expensive additional feature in PCs, but by the
late 1980s their cost had been reduced to the point where they were standard on all but the
cheapest computers.
Most HDDs in the early 1980s were sold to PC end users as an external, add-on subsystem. The
subsystem was not sold under the drive manufacturer's name but under the subsystem
manufacturer's name such as Corvus Systems and Tallgrass Technologies, or under the PC
system manufacturer's name such as the Apple ProFile. The IBM PC/XT in 1983 included an
internal 10 MB HDD, and soon thereafter internal HDDs proliferated on personal computers.
External HDDs remained popular for much longer on the Apple Macintosh. Every Macintosh made
between 1986 and 1998 had a SCSI port on the back, making external expansion simple; also,
older compact Macintosh computers did not have easily accessible hard drive bays (or in the case
of the Macintosh 128K, Macintosh 512K, and Macintosh Plus, any hard drive bay at all), so on
those models external SCSI disks were the only reasonable option.
The 2011 Thailand floods damaged manufacturing plants, and impacted hard disk drive cost
adversely in 20112013.[17]
Driven by ever increasing areal density since their invention, HDDs have continuously improved
their characteristics; a few highlights are listed in the table above. At the same time, market
application expanded from mainframe computers of the late 1950s to most mass storage
applications including computers and consumer applications such as storage of entertainment
content.
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Technology
[edit]
Magnetic recording
[edit]
See also: Magnetic storage

An HDD records data by magnetizing a thin film of
ferromagnetic material[d] on a disk. Sequential changes in
the direction of magnetization represent binary data bits.
The data is read from the disk by detecting the transitions
in magnetization. User data is encoded using an encoding
Magnetic cross section & frequency

modulation encoded binary data
scheme, such as run-length limited encoding,[e] which

determines how the data is represented by the magnetic transitions.
A typical HDD design consists of a spindle that holds flat circular disks, also called platters, which
hold the recorded data. The platters are made from a non-magnetic material, usually aluminium
alloy, glass, or ceramic, and are coated with a shallow layer of magnetic material typically 1020
nm in depth, with an outer layer of carbon for protection.[19][20][21] For reference, a standard piece
of copy paper is 0.070.18 millimetres (70,000180,000 nm).[22]
The platters in
contemporary
HDDs are spun at
speeds varying
from 4,200 rpm in
energy-efficient
portable devices,
to 15,000 rpm for
Diagram labeling the major
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Diagram labeling the major

components of a computer HDD
high-performance
servers.[24] The
first HDDs spun at
1,200 rpm[3] and, for many years, 3,600 rpm was the
norm.[25] As of December 2013, the platters in most
Recording of single magnetisations

of bits on a 200 MB HDD-platter
(recording made visible using CMOSMagView).[23]
consumer-grade HDDs spin at either 5,400 rpm or

7,200 rpm.
Information is written to and read from a platter as it rotates
past devices called read-and-write heads that operate very
close (often tens of nanometers) over the magnetic
surface. The read-and-write head is used to detect and
modify the magnetization of the material immediately under
it.
In modern drives there is one head for each magnetic
platter surface on the spindle, mounted on a common arm.
Longitudinal recording (standard) &

perpendicular recording diagram
An actuator arm (or access arm) moves the heads on an

arc (roughly radially) across the platters as they spin, allowing each head to access almost the
entire surface of the platter as it spins. The arm is moved using a voice coil actuator or in some
older designs a stepper motor. Early hard disk drives wrote data at some constant bits per second,
resulting in all tracks having the same amount of data per track but modern drives (since the
1990s) use zone bit recordingincreasing the write speed from inner to outer zone and thereby
storing more data per track in the outer zones.
In modern drives, the small size of the magnetic regions creates the danger that their magnetic
state might be lost because of thermal effects, thermally induced magnetic instability which is
commonly known as the "superparamagnetic limit." To counter this, the platters are coated with two
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parallel magnetic layers, separated by a 3-atom layer of the non-magnetic element ruthenium, and
the two layers are magnetized in opposite orientation, thus reinforcing each other.[26] Another
technology used to overcome thermal effects to allow greater recording densities is perpendicular
recording, first shipped in 2005,[27] and as of 2007 the technology was used in many
HDDs.[28][29][30]
Components
[edit]
A typical HDD has two electric motors; a spindle motor that

spins the disks and an actuator (motor) that positions the
read/write head assembly across the spinning disks. The
disk motor has an external rotor attached to the disks; the
stator windings are fixed in place. Opposite the actuator at
the end of the head support arm is the read-write head;
thin printed-circuit cables connect the read-write heads to
HDD with disks and motor hub
removed exposing copper colored
stator coils surrounding a bearing in
the center of the spindle motor. Orange
stripe along the side of the arm is thin
printed-circuit cable, spindle bearing is
in the center and the actuator is in the
upper left
amplifier electronics mounted at the pivot of the actuator.

The head support arm is very light, but also stiff; in modern
drives, acceleration at the head reaches 550 g.
The actuator is a
permanent magnet
and moving coil
motor that swings
the heads to the
desired position. A metal plate supports a squat

neodymium-iron-boron (NIB) high-flux magnet. Beneath
this plate is the moving coil, often referred to as the voice
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coil by analogy to the coil in loudspeakers, which is

attached to the actuator hub, and beneath that is a second
NIB magnet, mounted on the bottom plate of the motor
Head stack with an actuator coil on

the left and read/write heads on the
right
(some drives only have one magnet).

The voice coil itself is shaped rather like an arrowhead, and made of doubly coated copper
magnet wire. The inner layer is insulation, and the outer is thermoplastic, which bonds the coil
together after it is wound on a form, making it self-supporting. The portions of the coil along the
two sides of the arrowhead (which point to the actuator bearing center) interact with the magnetic
field, developing a tangential force that rotates the actuator. Current flowing radially outward along
one side of the arrowhead and radially inward on the other produces the tangential force. If the
magnetic field were uniform, each side would generate opposing forces that would cancel each
other out. Therefore, the surface of the magnet is half N pole, half S pole, with the radial dividing
line in the middle, causing the two sides of the coil to see opposite magnetic fields and produce
forces that add instead of canceling. Currents along the top and bottom of the coil produce radial
forces that do not rotate the head.
The HDD's electronics control the movement of the actuator and the rotation of the disk, and
perform reads and writes on demand from the disk controller. Feedback of the drive electronics is
accomplished by means of special segments of the disk dedicated to servo feedback. These are
either complete concentric circles (in the case of dedicated servo technology), or segments
interspersed with real data (in the case of embedded servo technology). The servo feedback
optimizes the signal to noise ratio of the GMR sensors by adjusting the voice-coil of the actuated
arm. The spinning of the disk also uses a servo motor. Modern disk firmware is capable of
scheduling reads and writes efficiently on the platter surfaces and remapping sectors of the media
which have failed.
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Error rates and handling
[edit]
Modern drives make extensive use of error correction codes (ECCs), particularly ReedSolomon
error correction. These techniques store extra bits, determined by mathematical formulas, for each
block of data; the extra bits allow many errors to be corrected invisibly. The extra bits themselves
take up space on the HDD, but allow higher recording densities to be employed without causing
uncorrectable errors, resulting in much larger storage capacity.[31] For example, a typical 1 TB
hard disk with 512-byte sectors provides additional capacity of about 93 GB for the ECC data.[32]
In the newest drives, as of 2009, low-density parity-check codes (LDPC) were supplanting ReedSolomon; LDPC codes enable performance close to the Shannon Limit and thus provide the
highest storage density available.[33]
Typical hard disk drives attempt to "remap" the data in a physical sector that is failing to a spare
physical sector provided by the drive's "spare sector pool" (also called "reserve pool"),[34] while
relying on the ECC to recover stored data while the amount of errors in a bad sector is still low
enough. The S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) feature counts the
total number of errors in the entire HDD fixed by ECC (although not on all hard drives as the
related S.M.A.R.T attributes "Hardware ECC Recovered" and "Soft ECC Correction" are not
consistently supported), and the total number of performed sector remappings, as the occurrence
of many such errors may predict an HDD failure.
The "No-ID Format", developed by IBM in the mid-1990s, contains information about which sectors
are bad and where remapped sectors have been located.[35]
Only a tiny fraction of the detected errors ends up as not correctable. For example, specification
for an enterprise SAS disk (a model from 2013) estimates this fraction to be one uncorrected error
in every 1016 bits,[36] and another SAS enterprise disk from 2013 specifies similar error rates.[37]
Another modern (as of 2013) enterprise SATA disk specifies an error rate of less than 10 nonopen in browser PRO version
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recoverable read errors in every 1016 bits.[38] An enterprise disk with a Fibre Channel interface,
which uses 520 byte sectors to support the Data Integrity Field standard to combat data
corruption, specifies similar error rates in 2005.[39]
The worst type of errors are those that go unnoticed, and are not even detected by the disk
firmware or the host operating system. These errors are known as silent data corruption, some of
which may be caused by hard disk drive malfunctions.[40]
Future development
[edit]
HDD areal density's long term exponential growth has been

similar to a 41% per year Moore's law rate; the rate was
60100% per year beginning in the early 1990s and
continuing until about 2005,[41][42] an increase which
Gordon Moore (1997) called "flabbergasting" and he
speculated that HDDs had "moved at least as fast as the
semiconductor complexity."[43] However, the rate
decreased dramatically around 2006 and, during 2011
2014, growth was in the annual range of 510%.[44] Disk
Leading-edge hard disk drive areal

densities from 1956 through 2009
compared to Moore's law
cost per byte improved nearly -45% per year during 1990
2010, and slowed after 2010 due to the Thailand floods
and difficulty in migrating from perpendicular recording to newer technologies.[45][46][47] Moore
(2005) further observed that growth cannot continue forever.[48]
Increasing areal density corresponds to an ever decreasing bit cell size. In 2013, a production
desktop 3 TB HDD (with four platters) would have had an areal density of about 500 Gbit/in2 which
would have amounted to a bit cell comprising about 18 magnetic grains (11 by 1.6 grains).[49]
Since the mid-2000s areal density progress has increasingly been challenged by a
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superparamagnetic trilemma involving grain size, grain magnetic strength and ability of the head to
write.[50] In order to maintain acceptable signal to noise smaller grains are required; smaller grains
may self-reverse (thermal instability) unless their magnetic strength is increased, but known write
head materials are unable to generate a magnetic field sufficient to write the medium. Several new
magnetic storage technologies are being developed to overcome or at least abate this trilemma
and thereby maintain the competitiveness of HDDs with respect to products such as flash memorybased solid-state drives (SSDs).
In 2013, Seagate introduced one such technology, shingled magnetic recording (SMR).[51]
Additionally, SMR comes with design complexities that may cause reduced write
performance.[52][53] Other new recording technologies that, as of 2015, still remain under
development include heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR),[54][55] microwave-assisted
magnetic recording (MAMR),[56] two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR),[49][57] bit-patterned
recording (BPR),[58] and "current perpendicular to plane" giant magnetoresistance (CPP/GMR)
heads.[59][60][61]
Depending upon assumptions on feasibility and timing of these technologies, the median forecast
by industry observers and analysts for 2016 and beyond for areal density growth is 20% per year
with a range of 10% to 40%.[49][62][63][64][65] The ultimate limit for the BPR technology may be the
superparamagnetic limit of a single particle that is estimated to be about two orders of magnitude
higher than the 500 Gbits/in2 density represented by 2013 production desktop HDDs.[49]
Capacity
[edit]
The capacity of a hard disk drive, as reported by an operating system to the end user, is smaller
than the amount stated by a drive or system manufacturer; this can be caused by a combination of
factors: the operating system using some space, different units used while calculating capacity, or
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data redundancy.
Calculation
[edit]
Modern hard disk drives appear to their interface as a contiguous set of logical blocks, so the
gross drive capacity may be calculated by multiplying the number of blocks by the block size. This
information is available from the manufacturer's specification and from the drive itself through use
of special utilities invoking low level commands.[66][67]
The gross capacity of older HDDs may be calculated as the product of the number of cylinders per
zone, the number of bytes per sector (most commonly 512), and the count of zones of the drive.
Some modern SATA drives also report cylinder-head-sector (CHS) values, but these are not actual
physical parameters since the reported numbers are constrained by historic operating system
interfaces. The C/H/S scheme has been replaced by logical block addressing. In some cases, to
try to "force-fit" the CHS scheme to large-capacity drives, the number of heads was given as 64,
although no modern drive has anywhere near 32 platters: the typical 2 TB hard disk as of 2013
has two 1 TB platters, and 4 TB drives use four platters.
In modern HDDs, spare capacity for defect management is not included in the published capacity;
however, in many early HDDs a certain number of sectors were reserved as spares, thereby
reducing the capacity available to end users.
For RAID subsystems, data integrity and fault-tolerance requirements also reduce the realized
capacity. For example, a RAID1 subsystem will be about half the total capacity as a result of data
mirroring. RAID5 subsystems with x drives, would lose 1/x of capacity to parity. RAID subsystems
are multiple drives that appear to be one drive or more drives to the user, but provides a great
deal of fault-tolerance. Most RAID vendors use some form of checksums to improve data integrity
at the block level. For many vendors, this involves using HDDs with sectors of 520 bytes per sector
to contain 512 bytes of user data and eight checksum bytes or using separate 512-byte sectors
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to contain 512 bytes of user data and eight checksum bytes or using separate 512-byte sectors
for the checksum data.[68]
In some systems, there may be hidden partitions used for system recovery that reduce the
capacity available to the end user.
System use
[edit]
Main article: Disk formatting

The presentation of a hard disk drive to its host is determined by the disk controller. The actual
presentation may differ substantially from the drive's native interface, particularly in mainframes or
servers. Modern HDDs, such as SAS[66] and SATA[67] drives, appear at their interfaces as a
contiguous set of logical blocks that are typically 512 bytes long, though the industry is in the
process of changing to the 4,096-byte logical blocks layout, known as the Advanced Format
(AF).[69]
The process of initializing these logical blocks on the physical disk platters is called low-level
formatting, which is usually performed at the factory and is not normally changed in the field.[70][f]
As a next step in preparing an HDD for use, high-level formatting writes partition and file system
structures into selected logical blocks to make the remaining logical blocks available to the host's
operating system and its applications.[71] The file system uses some of the disk space to structure
the HDD and organize files, recording their file names and the sequence of disk areas that
represent the file. Examples of data structures stored on disk to retrieve files include the File
Allocation Table (FAT) in the DOS file system and inodes in many UNIX file systems, as well as
other operating system data structures (also known as metadata). As a consequence, not all the
space on an HDD is available for user files, but this system overhead is usually negligible.
Units
[edit]
See also: Binary prefix Disk drives

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Decimal and binary unit prefixes interpretation [72][73]
The
total
Capacity advertised by
Capacity expected by
manufacturers[g]
consumers[h]
With
prefix
100 GB
Bytes
100,000,000,000
Bytes
Diff.
107,374,182,400 7.37%
1 TB 1,000,000,000,000 1,099,511,627,776 9.95%
Reported capacity
Windows[h]
Mac OS X
10.6+[g]
93.1 GB,
100 GB
95,367 MB
931 GB,
1,000 GB,
953,674 MB 1,000,000 MB
capacity of HDDs is given by manufacturers in SI-based units[i] such as gigabytes (1 GB =

1,000,000,000 bytes) and terabytes (1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes).[72][74][75][76][77][78] The
practice of using SI-based prefixes (denoting powers of 1,000) in the hard disk drive and computer
industries dates back to the early days of computing;[79] by the 1970s, "million", "mega" and "M"
were consistently used in the decimal sense for drive capacity.[80][81][82] However, capacities of
memory (RAM, ROM) and CDs are traditionally quoted using binary prefixes, meaning powers of
1,024.
Computers internally do not represent either hard drive or memory capacity in powers of 1,024;
reporting it in this manner is a convention.[83] Microsoft Windows family of operating systems uses
the binary convention when reporting storage capacity, so a HDD offered by its manufacturer as a
1 TB drive is reported by these operating systems as a 931 GB HDD. Mac OS X 10.6 ("Snow
Leopard") uses decimal convention when reporting HDD capacity.[83]
The difference between the decimal and binary prefix interpretation caused some consumer
confusion and led to class action suits against HDD manufacturers. The plaintiffs argued that the
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use of decimal prefixes effectively misled consumers while the defendants denied any wrongdoing
or liability, asserting that their marketing and advertising complied in all respects with the law and
that no class member sustained any damages or injuries.[84][85][86]
Form factors
[edit]
Past and present HDD form factors

Capacity
Form factor
Status
Length Width
[mm]
[mm]
Height
Largest
Platters
Per
[mm]
capacity
(max)
platter
[GB]
3.5-inch
Current
146
101.6
19 or 25.4
5,[89] 7,
2.5-inch
Current
100
69.85
9.5,[k]
12.5,
15, or 19[90]
78.5[l]
1.8-inch
Current
8-inch
Obsolete 362
5.25-inch FH
5.25-inch HH
Obsolete 203
Obsolete 203
54
5 or 8
241.3
117.5
146
146
82.6
41.4
8
TB[87](2014)
2 TB[91]
(2012)
320 GB[10]
(2009)
47 GB[94]
(1998)
19.3 GB[95]
(1998)
5 or 7[88][j] 1149[87]
667[92]
220
14
3.36
4[m]
4.83
[93]
40 GB[96]
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1.3-inch
Obsolete
43
Obsolete
42
40 GB
(2007)
1-inch
(CFII/ZIF/IDE-
20 GB
(2006)
Flex)
0.85-inch
Obsolete 32
24
8 GB[97][98]
(2004)
40
20
IBM's first hard drive, the IBM 350, used a stack of fifty 24inch platters and was of a size comparable to two large
refrigerators. In 1962, IBM introduced its model 1311 disk,
which used six 14-inch (nominal size) platters in a
removable pack and was roughly the size of a washing
machine. This became a standard platter size and drive
form-factor for many years, used also by other
manufacturers.[99] The IBM 2314 used platters of the same
size in an eleven-high pack and introduced the "drive in a
drawer" layout, although the "drawer" was not the complete
drive.
8-, 5.25-, 3.5-, 2.5-, 1.8- and 1-inch

HDDs, together with a ruler to show the
length of platters and read-write heads
Later drives were designed to fit entirely into a chassis that
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would mount in a 19-inch rack. Digital's RK05 and RL01

were early examples using single 14-inch platters in
removable packs, the entire drive fitting in a 10.5-inch-high
rack space (six rack units). In the mid-to-late 1980s the
similarly sized Fujitsu Eagle, which used (coincidentally)
10.5-inch platters, was a popular product.
Such large platters were never used with microprocessorbased systems. With increasing sales of microcomputers
having built in floppy-disk drives (FDDs), HDDs that would
fit to the FDD mountings became desirable. Thus HDD
A newer 2.5-inch (63.5 mm)

6,495 MB HDD compared to an older
5.25-inch full-height 110 MB HDD
Form factors, initially followed those of 8-inch, 5.25-inch,

and 3.5-inch floppy disk drives. Because there were no
smaller floppy disk drives, smaller HDD form factors developed from product offerings or industry
standards.
8-inch
9.5 in 4.624 in 14.25 in (241.3 mm 117.5 mm 362 mm). In 1979, Shugart Associates'
SA1000 was the first form factor compatible HDD, having the same dimensions and a
compatible interface to the 8" FDD.
5.25-inch
5.75 in 3.25 in 8 in (146.1 mm 82.55 mm 203 mm). This smaller form factor, first used in
an HDD by Seagate in 1980,[100] was the same size as full-height 514-inch-diameter (130 mm)
FDD, 3.25-inches high. This is twice as high as "half height"; i.e., 1.63 in (41.4 mm). Most
desktop models of drives for optical 120 mm disks (DVD, CD) use the half height 5"
dimension, but it fell out of fashion for HDDs. The format was standardized as EIA-741 and copublished as SFF-8501 for disk drives, with other SFF-85xx series standards covering related
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5.25 inch devices (optical drives, etc.)[101] The Quantum Bigfoot HDD was the last to use it in
the late 1990s, with "low-profile" (25 mm) and "ultra-low-profile" (20 mm) high versions.
3.5-inch
4 in 1 in 5.75 in (101.6 mm 25.4 mm 146 mm) = 376.77344 cm. This smaller form
factor is similar to that used in an HDD by Rodime in 1983,[102] which was the same size as the
"half height" 3" FDD, i.e., 1.63 inches high. Today, the 1-inch high ("slimline" or "low-profile")
version of this form factor is the most popular form used in most desktops. The format was
standardized in terms of dimensions and positions of mounting holes as EIA/ECA-740, copublished as SFF-8301.[103]
2.5-inch
2.75 in 0.2750.75 in 3.945 in (69.85 mm 719 mm 100 mm) = 48.895132.715 cm3.
This smaller form factor was introduced by PrairieTek in 1988;[104] there is no corresponding
FDD. The 2.5-inch drive format is standardized in the EIA/ECA-720 co-published as SFF-8201;
when used with specific connectors, more detailed specifications are SFF-8212 for the 50-pin
(ATA laptop) connector, SFF-8223 with the SATA, or SAS connector and SFF-8222 with the
SCA-2 connector.[105]
It came to be widely used for HDDs in mobile devices (laptops, music players, etc.) and for
solid-state drives (SSDs), by 2008 replacing some 3.5 inch enterprise-class drives.[106] It is also
used in the PlayStation 3[107] and Xbox 360[citation needed] video game consoles.
Drives 9.5 mm high became an unofficial standard for all except the largest-capacity laptop
drives (usually having two platters inside); 12.5 mm-high drives, typically with three platters, are
used for maximum capacity, but will not fit most laptop computers. Enterprise-class drives can
have a height up to 15 mm.[108] Seagate released a 7 mm drive aimed at entry level laptops
and high end netbooks in December 2009.[109] Western Digital released on April 23, 2013 a
hard drive 5 mm in height specifically aimed at UltraBooks.[110]
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1.8-inch
54 mm 8 mm 78.5 mm[l] = 33.912 cm. This form factor, originally introduced by Integral
Peripherals in 1993, evolved into the ATA-7 LIF with dimensions as stated. For a time it was
increasingly used in digital audio players and subnotebooks, but its popularity decreased to the
point where this form factor is increasingly rare and only a small percentage of the overall
market.[111] There was an attempt to standardize this format as SFF-8123, but it was cancelled
in 2005.[112] SATA revision 2.6 standardized the internal Micro SATA connector and device
dimensions.
1-inch
42.8 mm 5 mm 36.4 mm. This form factor was introduced in 1999 as IBM's Microdrive to fit
inside a CF Type II slot. Samsung calls the same form factor "1.3 inch" drive in its product
literature.[113]
0.85-inch
24 mm 5 mm 32 mm. Toshiba announced this form factor in January 2004[114] for use in
mobile phones and similar applications, including SD/MMC slot compatible HDDs optimized for
video storage on 4G handsets. Toshiba manufactured a 4 GB (MK4001MTD) and an 8 GB
(MK8003MTD) version and holds the Guinness World Record for the smallest HDD.[115][116]
As of 2012, 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard disks were the most popular sizes.
By 2009 all manufacturers had discontinued the development of new products for the 1.3-inch, 1inch and 0.85-inch form factors due to falling prices of flash memory,[117][118] which has no moving
parts.
While these sizes are customarily described by an approximately correct figure in inches, actual
sizes have long been specified in millimeters.
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Performance characteristics
[edit]
Main article: Hard disk drive performance characteristics
Time to access data
[edit]
The factors that limit the time to access the data on an HDD are mostly related to the mechanical
nature of the rotating disks and moving heads. Seek time is a measure of how long it takes the
head assembly to travel to the track of the disk that contains data. Rotational latency is incurred
because the desired disk sector may not be directly under the head when data transfer is
requested. These two delays are on the order of milliseconds each. The bit rate or data transfer
rate (once the head is in the right position) creates delay which is a function of the number of
blocks transferred; typically relatively small, but can be quite long with the transfer of large
contiguous files. Delay may also occur if the drive disks are stopped to save energy.
An HDD's Average Access Time is its average seek time which technically is the time to do all
possible seeks divided by the number of all possible seeks, but in practice is determined by
statistical methods or simply approximated as the time of a seek over one-third of the number of
tracks.[119]
Defragmentation is a procedure used to minimize delay in retrieving data by moving related items
to physically proximate areas on the disk.[120] Some computer operating systems perform
defragmentation automatically. Although automatic defragmentation is intended to reduce access
delays, performance will be temporarily reduced while the procedure is in progress.[121]
Time to access data can be improved by increasing rotational speed (thus reducing latency) or by
reducing the time spent seeking. Increasing areal density increases throughput by increasing data
rate and by increasing the amount of data under a set of heads, thereby potentially reducing seek
activity for a given amount of data. The time to access data has not kept up with throughput
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increases, which themselves have not kept up with growth in bit density and storage capacity.
Seek time
[edit]
See also: Hard disk drive performance characteristics: Seek time

Average seek time ranges from under 4 ms for high-end server drives[122] to 15 ms for mobile
drives, with the most common mobile drives at about 12 ms[123] and the most common desktop
type typically being around 9 ms. The first HDD had an average seek time of about 600 ms;[3] by
the middle of 1970s HDDs were available with seek times of about 25 ms.[124] Some early PC
drives used a stepper motor to move the heads, and as a result had seek times as slow as 80
120 ms, but this was quickly improved by voice coil type actuation in the 1980s, reducing seek
times to around 20 ms. Seek time has continued to improve slowly over time.
Some desktop and laptop computer systems allow the user to make a tradeoff between seek
performance and drive noise. Faster seek rates typically require more energy usage to quickly
move the heads across the platter, causing louder noises from the pivot bearing and greater
device vibrations as the heads are rapidly accelerated during the start of the seek motion and
decelerated at the end of the seek motion. Quiet operation reduces movement speed and
acceleration rates, but at a cost of reduced seek performance.
Latency
[edit]
Latency is the delay for the rotation of the disk to bring
Rotational speed Average latency

[rpm]
the required disk sector under the read-write

mechanism. It depends on rotational speed of a disk,
15,000
measured in revolutions per minute (rpm). Average
10,000
7,200
4.16
5,400
5.55
rotational latency is shown in the table on the right,

based on the statistical relation that the average
[ms]
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latency in milliseconds for such a drive is one-half the
5,400
5.55
rotational period.
4,800
6.25
Data transfer rate
[edit]
As of 2010, a typical 7,200-rpm desktop HDD has a sustained "disk-to-buffer" data transfer rate up
to 1,030 Mbits/sec.[125] This rate depends on the track location; the rate is higher for data on the
outer tracks (where there are more data sectors per rotation) and lower toward the inner tracks
(where there are fewer data sectors per rotation); and is generally somewhat higher for 10,000rpm drives. A current widely used standard for the "buffer-to-computer" interface is 3.0 Gbit/s
SATA, which can send about 300 megabyte/s (10-bit encoding) from the buffer to the computer,
and thus is still comfortably ahead of today's disk-to-buffer transfer rates. Data transfer rate
(read/write) can be measured by writing a large file to disk using special file generator tools, then
reading back the file. Transfer rate can be influenced by file system fragmentation and the layout
of the files.[120]
HDD data transfer rate depends upon the rotational speed of the platters and the data recording
density. Because heat and vibration limit rotational speed, advancing density becomes the main
method to improve sequential transfer rates. Higher speeds require a more powerful spindle motor,
which creates more heat. While areal density advances by increasing both the number of tracks
across the disk and the number of sectors per track, only the latter increases the data transfer
rate for a given rpm. Since data transfer rate performance only tracks one of the two components
of areal density, its performance improves at a lower rate.[citation needed]
Other considerations
[edit]
Other performance considerations include power consumption, audible noise, and shock
resistance.
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Access and interfaces
[edit]
Main article: Hard disk drive interface

HDDs are accessed over one of a number of bus types,
including as of 2011 parallel ATA (PATA, also called IDE or
EIDE; described before the introduction of SATA as ATA),
Serial ATA (SATA), SCSI, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), and
Fibre Channel. Bridge circuitry is sometimes used to
connect HDDs to buses with which they cannot
communicate natively, such as IEEE 1394, USB and SCSI.
Inner view of a 1998 Seagate HDD

that used Parallel ATA interface
Modern HDDs present a consistent interface to the rest of

the computer, no matter what data encoding scheme is
used internally. Typically a DSP in the electronics inside
the HDD takes the raw analog voltages from the read head
and uses PRML and ReedSolomon error correction[126] to
decode the sector boundaries and sector data, then sends
that data out the standard interface. That DSP also
watches the error rate detected by error detection and
correction, and performs bad sector remapping, data
collection for Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting
2.5-inch SATA drive on top of a 3.5inch SATA drive, close-up of data and
power connectors
Technology, and other internal tasks.

Modern interfaces connect an HDD to a host bus interface adapter (today typically integrated into
the "south bridge") with one data/control cable. Each drive also has an additional power cable,
usually direct to the power supply unit.
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Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), originally named SASI for Shugart Associates System
Interface, was standard on servers, workstations, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and Apple
Macintosh computers through the mid-1990s, by which time most models had been transitioned
to IDE (and later, SATA) family disks. The range limitations of the data cable allows for external
SCSI devices.
Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE), later standardized under the name AT Attachment (ATA,
with the alias P-ATA or PATA (Parallel ATA) retroactively added upon introduction of SATA)
moved the HDD controller from the interface card to the disk drive. This helped to standardize
the host/controller interface, reduce the programming complexity in the host device driver, and
reduced system cost and complexity. The 40-pin IDE/ATA connection transfers 16 bits of data
at a time on the data cable. The data cable was originally 40-conductor, but later higher speed
requirements for data transfer to and from the HDD led to an "ultra DMA" mode, known as
UDMA. Progressively swifter versions of this standard ultimately added the requirement for an
80-conductor variant of the same cable, where half of the conductors provides grounding
necessary for enhanced high-speed signal quality by reducing cross talk.
EIDE was an unofficial update (by Western Digital) to the original IDE standard, with the key
improvement being the use of direct memory access (DMA) to transfer data between the disk
and the computer without the involvement of the CPU, an improvement later adopted by the
official ATA standards. By directly transferring data between memory and disk, DMA eliminates
the need for the CPU to copy byte per byte, therefore allowing it to process other tasks while
the data transfer occurs.
Fibre Channel (FC) is a successor to parallel SCSI interface on enterprise market. It is a serial
protocol. In disk drives usually the Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) connection topology
is used. FC has much broader usage than mere disk interfaces, and it is the cornerstone of
storage area networks (SANs). Recently other protocols for this field, like iSCSI and ATA over
Ethernet have been developed as well. Confusingly, drives usually use copper twisted-pair
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cables for Fibre Channel, not fibre optics. The latter are traditionally reserved for larger
devices, such as servers or disk array controllers.
Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). The SAS is a new generation serial communication protocol for
devices designed to allow for much higher speed data transfers and is compatible with SATA.
SAS uses a mechanically identical data and power connector to standard 3.5-inch
SATA1/SATA2 HDDs, and many server-oriented SAS RAID controllers are also capable of
addressing SATA HDDs. SAS uses serial communication instead of the parallel method found
in traditional SCSI devices but still uses SCSI commands.
Serial ATA (SATA). The SATA data cable has one data pair for differential transmission of data
to the device, and one pair for differential receiving from the device, just like EIA-422. That
requires that data be transmitted serially. A similar differential signaling system is used in
RS485, LocalTalk, USB, FireWire, and differential SCSI.
Integrity and failure
[edit]
Main articles: Hard disk drive failure and Data recovery

Due to the extremely close spacing between the heads and
the disk surface, HDDs are vulnerable to being damaged
by a head crasha failure of the disk in which the head
scrapes across the platter surface, often grinding away the
thin magnetic film and causing data loss. Head crashes
can be caused by electronic failure, a sudden power
failure, physical shock, contamination of the drive's internal
enclosure, wear and tear, corrosion, or poorly
manufactured platters and heads.
Close-up of an HDD head resting

on a disk platter; its mirror reflection is
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The HDD's spindle system relies on air density inside the

disk enclosure to support the heads at their proper flying
on a disk platter; its mirror reflection is

visible on the platter surface.
height while the disk rotates. HDDs require a certain range

of air densities in order to operate properly. The connection to the external environment and
density occurs through a small hole in the enclosure (about 0.5 mm in breadth), usually with a filter
on the inside (the breather filter).[127] If the air density is too low, then there is not enough lift for
the flying head, so the head gets too close to the disk, and there is a risk of head crashes and
data loss. Specially manufactured sealed and pressurized disks are needed for reliable highaltitude operation, above about 3,000 m (9,800 ft).[128] Modern disks include temperature sensors
and adjust their operation to the operating environment. Breather holes can be seen on all disk
drivesthey usually have a sticker next to them, warning the user not to cover the holes. The air
inside the operating drive is constantly moving too, being swept in motion by friction with the
spinning platters. This air passes through an internal recirculation (or "recirc") filter to remove any
leftover contaminants from manufacture, any particles or chemicals that may have somehow
entered the enclosure, and any particles or outgassing generated internally in normal operation.
Very high humidity present for extended periods of time can corrode the heads and platters.
For giant magnetoresistive (GMR) heads in particular, a minor head crash from contamination
(that does not remove the magnetic surface of the disk) still results in the head temporarily
overheating, due to friction with the disk surface, and can render the data unreadable for a short
period until the head temperature stabilizes (so called "thermal asperity", a problem which can
partially be dealt with by proper electronic filtering of the read signal).
When the logic board of a hard disk fails, the drive can often be restored to functioning order and
the data recovered by replacing the circuit board of one of an identical hard disk. In the case of
read-write head faults, they can be replaced using specialized tools in a dust-free environment. If
the disk platters are undamaged, they can be transferred into an identical enclosure and the data
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can be copied or cloned onto a new drive. In the event of disk-platter failures, disassembly and
imaging of the disk platters may be required.[129] For logical damage to file systems, a variety of
tools, including fsck on UNIX-like systems and CHKDSK on Windows, can be used for data
recovery. Recovery from logical damage can require file carving.
A common expectation is that hard disk drives designed and marketed for server use will fail less
frequently than consumer-grade drives usually used in desktop computers. However, two
independent studies by Carnegie Mellon University[130] and Google[131] found that the "grade" of a
drive does not relate to the drive's failure rate.
A 2011 summary of research into SSD and magnetic disk failure patterns by Tom's Hardware
summarized research findings as follows:[132]
MTBF does not indicate reliability; the annualized failure rate is higher and usually more
relevant.
Magnetic disks do not have a specific tendency to fail during early use, and temperature only
has a minor effect; instead, failure rates steadily increase with age.
S.M.A.R.T. warns of mechanical issues but not other issues affecting reliability, and is therefore
not a reliable indicator of condition.
Failure rates of drives sold as "enterprise" and "consumer" are "very much similar", although
customized for their different environments.
In drive arrays, one drive's failure significantly increases the short-term chance of a second
drive failing.
Market segments
[edit]
Desktop HDDs
They typically store between 60 GB and 4 TB and rotate at 5,400 to 10,000 rpm, and have a
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media transfer rate of 0.5 Gbit/s or higher (1 GB = 109 bytes; 1 Gbit/s = 109 bit/s). As of August
2014, the highest-capacity desktop HDDs store 8 TB.[87][133]
Mobile (laptop) HDDs
Smaller than their desktop and enterprise counterparts,
they tend to be slower and have lower capacity. Mobile
HDDs spin at 4,200 rpm, 5,200 rpm, 5,400 rpm, or
7,200 rpm, with 5,400 rpm being typical. 7,200 rpm
drives tend to be more expensive and have smaller
capacities, while 4,200 rpm models usually have very
high storage capacities. Because of smaller platter(s),
mobile HDDs generally have lower capacity than their
greater desktop counterparts.
There are also 2.5-inch drives spinning at 10,000 rpm,
which belong to the enterprise segment with no
Two enterprise-grade SATA 2.5-inch

10,000 rpm HDDs, factory-mounted in
3.5-inch adapter frames
intention to be used in laptops.

Enterprise HDDs
Typically used with multiple-user computers running enterprise software. Examples are:
transaction processing databases, internet infrastructure (email, webserver, e-commerce),
scientific computing software, and nearline storage management software. Enterprise drives
commonly operate continuously ("24/7") in demanding environments while delivering the
highest possible performance without sacrificing reliability. Maximum capacity is not the primary
goal, and as a result the drives are often offered in capacities that are relatively low in relation
to their cost.[134]
The fastest enterprise HDDs spin at 10,000 or 15,000 rpm, and can achieve sequential media
transfer speeds above 1.6 Gbit/s[135] and a sustained transfer rate up to 1 Gbit/s.[135] Drives
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running at 10,000 or 15,000 rpm use smaller platters to mitigate increased power requirements
(as they have less air drag) and therefore generally have lower capacity than the highest
capacity desktop drives. Enterprise HDDs are commonly connected through Serial Attached
SCSI (SAS) or Fibre Channel (FC). Some support multiple ports, so they can be connected to a
redundant host bus adapter.
Enterprise HDDs can have sector sizes larger than 512 bytes (often 520, 524, 528 or 536
bytes). The additional per-sector space can be used by hardware RAID controllers or
applications for storing Data Integrity Field (DIF) or Data Integrity Extensions (DIX) data,
resulting in higher reliability and prevention of silent data corruption.[136]
Consumer electronics HDDs
They include drives embedded into digital video recorders and automotive vehicles. The former
are configured to provide a guaranteed streaming capacity, even in the face of read and write
errors, while the latter are built to resist larger amounts of shock.
Manufacturers and sales
[edit]
See also: History of hard disk drives and List of defunct

hard disk manufacturers
More than 200 companies have manufactured HDDs over
time. But consolidations have concentrated production into
just three manufacturers today: Western Digital, Seagate,
and Toshiba.
Worldwide revenues for disk storage were $32 billion in
2013, down about 3% from 2012.[4] This corresponds to
shipments of 552 million units in 2013 compared to 578
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million in 2012 and 622 million in 2011.[4] The estimated

2013 market shares are about 4045% each for Seagate
and Western Digital and 1316% for Toshiba.
External hard disk drives
Diagram of HDD manufacturer

consolidation
[edit]
See also: USB mass storage / USB drive and Disk enclosure
External hard disk drives[n] typically connect via USB;
variants using USB 2.0 interface generally have
slower data transfer rates when compared to
internally mounted hard drives connected through
SATA. Plug and play drive functionality offers system
compatibility and features large storage options and
portable design. As of January 2015, available
capacities for external hard disk drives range from
500 GB to 6 TB.
External hard disk drives are usually available as pre-
Toshiba 1 TB 2.5" external USB 2.0 hard disk

drive
assembled integrated products, but may be also

assembled by combining an external enclosure (with
USB or other interface) with a separately purchased
drive. They are available in 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch
sizes; 2.5-inch variants are typically called portable
external drives, while 3.5-inch variants are referred to
as desktop external drives. "Portable" drives are
packaged in smaller and lighter enclosures than the
"desktop" drives; additionally, "portable" drives use
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"desktop" drives; additionally, "portable" drives use

power provided by the USB connection, while
"desktop" drives require external power bricks.
Features such as biometric security or multiple
interfaces (for example, Firewire) are available at a
3.0 TB 3.5" Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex plug

and play external USB 3.0-compatible drive
(left), 750 GB 3.5" Seagate Technology pushbutton external USB 2.0 drive (right), and a
500 GB 2.5" generic brand plug and play
external USB 2.0 drive (front).
higher cost.[137] There are pre-assembled external

hard disk drives that, when taken out from their enclosures, cannot be used internally in a laptop
or desktop computer due to embedded USB interface on their printed circuit boards, and lack of
SATA (or Parallel ATA) interfaces.[138][139]
Visual representation
[edit]
Hard disk drives are traditionally symbolized as a stylized stack of platters or as a cylinder, and are
as such found in various diagrams; sometimes, they are depicted with small lights to indicate data
access. In most modern graphical user environments (GUIs), hard disk drives are represented by
an illustration or photograph of the drive enclosure.
In GUIs, hard disk drives are commonly
Two cylinders in a RAID diagram, symbolizing
symbolized with a drive icon
an array of disks
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See also
[edit]
Automatic acoustic management

Cleanroom
Click of death
Electronics portal
Information Technology portal
Data erasure
Drive mapping
Error recovery control
Hybrid drive
Microdrive
RAID
S.M.A.R.T.
Solid-state drive
Write precompensation
Notes
[edit]
a. ^ This is the original filing date of the application which led to US Patent 3,503,060, generally
accepted as the definitive disk drive patent.[1]
b. ^ Further inequivalent terms used to describe various hard disk drives include disk drive, disk file,
direct access storage device (DASD), CKD disk, and Winchester disk drive (after the IBM 3340).
The term "DASD" includes other devices beside disks.
c. ^ Comparable in size to a large side-by-side refrigerator.
d. ^ Initially gamma iron oxide particles in an epoxy binder, the recording layer in a modern HDD
typically is domains of a granular Cobalt-Chrome-Platinum-based alloy physically isolated by an
oxide to enable perpendicular recording.[18]
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e. ^ Historically a variety of run-length limited codes have been used in magnetic recording including for
example, codes named FM, MFM and GCR which are no longer used in modern HDDs.
f. ^ However, some enterprise SAS drives have other block sizes such as 520, 524 and 528 bytes,
which can be changed in the field.
g. ^ a
Expressed using decimal multiples.
h. ^ a
Expressed using binary multiples.
i. ^ The International System of Units (SI), formerly known as the "metric system", does not define
units for digital information but notes that the SI-defined prefixes (such as kilo, mega, etc.) may be
applied outside the contexts where SI-defined base units or derived units would be used.
j. ^ Five platters for a conventional hard disk drive, and seven platters for a hard disk drive filled with
Helium.
k. ^ Most common.
l. ^ a
This dimension includes a 0.5 mm protrusion of the Micro SATA connector from the device
body.
m. ^ The Quantum Bigfoot TS used a maximum of three platters, other earlier and lower capacity
product used up to four platters in a 5.25-inch HH form factor, e.g., Microscience HH1090 circa
1989.
n. ^ These differ from removable disk media, e.g., disk packs or data modules, in that they include, for
example, actuators, drive electronics, motors.
References
[edit]
1. ^ Kean, David W., "IBM San Jose, A quarter century of innovation", 1977.
2. ^ Arpaci-Dusseau, Remzi H.; Arpaci-Dusseau, Andrea C. (2014). "Operating Systems: Three Easy
Pieces [Chapter: Hard Disk Drives]"
3. ^ a
^a
bc de f
(PDF) . Arpaci-Dusseau Books.
"IBM Archives: IBM 350 disk storage unit"
. Retrieved 2012-10-19.
bc
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4. ^ a
bc
IDC report: Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Quarterly Tracker (2014-06-19). "Any Future for
Worldwide Storage Industry?"
. StorageNewsletter.com (Press release). IDC. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
"Worldwide global disk storage systems revenue 2012 = $32,564 million; 2013 = $31,688 million"
5. ^ Fullerton, Eric (March 2014). "5th Non-Volatile Memories Workshop (NVMW 2014)"
(PDF) .
IEEE. Retrieved April 23, 2014.

6. ^ Handy, James (July 31, 2012). "For the Lack of a Fab..."
. Objective Analysis. Retrieved
November 25, 2012.

7. ^ Hutchinson, Lee. (2012-06-25) How SSDs conquered mobile devices and modern OSes
. Ars
Technica. Retrieved on 2013-01-07.

8. ^ Santo Domingo, Joel (May 10, 2012). "SSD vs HDD: What's the Difference?"
. PC Magazine.
Retrieved November 24, 2012.

9. ^ a
"Time Capsule, 1956 Hard Disk"
. Oracle Magazine. Oracle. July 2014. Retrieved
September 19, 2014. "IBM 350 disk drive held 3.75 MB"
10. ^ a
bc
"Toshiba Storage Solutions MK3233GSG"
11. ^ Ballistic Research Laboratories "A THIRD SURVEY OF DOMESTIC ELECTRONIC DIGITAL
COMPUTING SYSTEMS," March 1961, section on IBM 305 RAMAC
(p. 314-331) states a
$34,500 purchase price which calculates to $9,200/MB.

12. ^ "Farming hard drives: 2 years and $1M later"
. Backblaze Blog - The Life of a Cloud Backup
Company.
13. ^ "Magnetic head development"
. IBM Archives. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
14. ^ "Seagate ST5000DM000 Desktop HDD Product Manual"
(PDF) . Seagate. Retrieved August 11,
2014.
15. ^ Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Resource Guide 1995, Chapter 17 Disk and File System
Basics
16. ^ Computer Organization and Design, 2nd Ed., P. Pal Chaudhuri, 2006, p. 635
17. ^ "Farming hard drives: how Backblaze weathered the Thailand drive crisis"
. blaze.com. 2013.
Retrieved 2014-05-23.
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18. ^ New Paradigms in Magnetic Recording

19. ^ "Hard Drives"
. escotal.com. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
20. ^ "What is a "head-crash" & how can it result in permanent loss of my hard drive data?"
. data-
master.com. Retrieved 16 July 2011.

21. ^ "Hard Drive Help"
. hardrivehelp.com. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
22. ^ Elert, Glenn. "Thickness of a Piece of Paper"

23. ^ CMOS-MagView
. hypertextbook.com. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
is an instrument that visualizes magnetic field structures and strengths.
24. ^ Blount, Walker C. (November 2007). "Why 7,200 RPM Mobile Hard Disk Drives?"
Archived from the original
(PDF) .
(PDF) on 2012-04-19. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
25. ^ "Ref Hard Disk Spindle Motor"
. PC Guide. Retrieved 2013-01-07.
26. ^ Hayes, Brian. "Terabyte Territory"
. Vol 90 (No 3 (MayJune 2002)). American Scientist. p. 212.
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Further reading
[edit]
Mueller, Scott (2011). Upgrading and Repairing PCs (20th ed.). Que. ISBN 0-7897-4710-3.
Messmer, Hans-Peter (2001). The Indispensable PC Hardware Book (4th ed.). AddisonWesley. ISBN 0-201-59616-4.
External links
[edit]
Computer History Museum's HDD Working Group

Website
Hard Disk Drives Encyclopedia
Video showing an opened HD working
Average seek time of a computer disk
Timeline: 50 Years of Hard Drives
HDD from inside: Tracks and Zones. How hard it can
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be?
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Textbooks from Wikibooks
firmware modifications, in eight
Learning resources from

Wikiversity
parts, going as far as booting a Linux kernel on an

ordinary HDD controller board
Hiding Data in Hard Drives Service Areas
, February 14, 2013, by Ariel Berkman
Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward (RAFF) Information Sheet
, Western Digital, January 2013
PowerChoice Technology for Hard Disk Drive Power Savings and Flexibility
, Seagate
Technology, March 2010

Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) , HGST, Inc., 2015
The Road to Helium , HGST, Inc., 2015
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Hard disk drive

is a data storage device used for storing

and retrieving digital information using one or more

rigid ("hard") rapidly rotating disks (platters) coated

with magnetic material. The platters are paired with

magnetic heads arranged on a moving actuator arm,

which read and write data to the platter surfaces.[2]

Data is accessed in a random-access manner,

meaning that individual blocks of data can be stored

Hard disk drive

or retrieved in any order rather than sequentially. An

A 2.5-inch SATA hard drive

HDD retains its data even when powered off.

Date invented 24 December 1954[a]

Introduced by IBM in 1956,[3] HDDs became the

dominant secondary storage device for general-

purpose computers by the early 1960s. Continuously

improved, HDDs have maintained this position into the

modern era of servers and personal computers. More than

Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API

IBM team led by Rey Johnson

200 companies have produced HDD units, though most

The primary characteristics of an HDD are its capacity and

performance. Capacity is specified in unit prefixes

corresponding to powers of 1000: a 1-terabyte (TB) drive

has a capacity of 1,000 gigabytes (GB; where 1 gigabyte =

1 billion bytes). Typically, some of an HDD's capacity is

unavailable to the user because it is used by the file

system and the computer operating system, and possibly

inbuilt redundancy for error correction and recovery.

heads to a track or cylinder (average access time) plus the

A disassembled and labeled 1997

An overview of how HDDs work

as SATA (Serial ATA), USB or SAS (Serial attached SCSI) cables.

open in browser PRO version

speed, power consumption and durability are more important considerations.[7][8]

speed, power consumption and durability are more important considerations.[7][8]

2.1 Magnetic recording

2.3 Error rates and handling

2.4 Future development

5.1 Time to access data

5.2 Seek time

5.4 Data transfer rate

5.5 Other considerations

6 Access and interfaces

10 External hard disk drives

open in browser PRO version

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Main article: History of hard disk drives

developed for use with general-purpose mainframe and

minicomputers. The first IBM drive, the 350 RAMAC, was

approximately the size of two refrigerators and stored five

million six-bit characters (3.75 megabytes)[9] on a stack of

In 1962 IBM introduced the model 1311 disk drive, which

was about the size of a washing machine and stored two

million characters on a removable

68 cubic feet (1.9 m3)[c][3]

2.1 cubic inches (34 cc)[10]

2,000 pounds (910 kg)[3]

2.2 ounces (62 g)[10]

about 600 milliseconds[3]