Listed in this category are top brands of internal and external hard drives for your desktop computer or laptop. Brands include but not limited to Toshiba, Seagate, Hitachi, Buffalo, WD MyPassport and ADATA. Smaller hard drives have less than 1 TB of storage while larger ones have more like 2 TB, 3 TB even 16 TB. If you are into video editing or photography, you may need several terabytes of storage. Most external hard drives connect with USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 connections, but many are moving over to USB-C, which offers 10 Gps of transfer speed, equivalent to twice the speed on offer from USB 3.0.
Hard drives are divided into 4 major types:
Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA) - Parallel ATA (Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment or PATA) is a standard for connecting hard drives into computer systems. As its name implies, PATA is based on parallel signaling technology, unlike serial ATA (SATA) devices that use serial signaling technology.
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) - Serial ATA (also known as SATA or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) is a computer bus interface between host bus adaptors and mass storage devices. Serial ATA host adapters and devices communicate via a single high-speed seven-wire serial cable instead of a parallel bus used in previous technologies.
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) - SCSI, the Small Computer System Interface, is a set of American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard electronic interfaces that allow personal computers (PCs) to communicate with peripheral hardware such as disk drives, tape drives, CD-ROM
Solid State Drive (SSD - An SSD, or solid-state drive, is a type of storage device used in computers. This non-volatile storage media stores persistent data on solid-state flash memory. SSDs replace traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) in computers and perform the same basic functions as a hard drive.
A computer hard disk drive (HDD) is a non-volatile data storage device. Non-volatile refers to storage devices that maintain stored data when turned off. All computers need a storage device, and HDDs are just one example of a type of storage device.
HDDs are traditional storage devices with spinning platters that read and write data. SSDs use newer technology that stores data on instantly accessible memory chips. SSDs are faster, quieter, smaller, consume less energy, and more durable.
The definition of a hard drive is the primary computer storage device and is used to store files on the computer. An example of a hard drive is the location on a desktop computer where a person could save their research paper.
SATA drives are less expensive and more common than SSDs. However, SATA drives are also slower to boot up and slower in retrieving data than SSDs. If you're looking for a hard drive with tons of storage space, a SATA drive may be for you, as they commonly hold terabytes of data.
Is an SSD a hard drive? Put simply, an SSD isn't the same as a hard drive. Hard drives use magnetically sensitive platters which are moved by a motor, whereas an SSD uses flash memory without any moving parts, meaning they are faster.
The hard drive is where all your permanent computer data is stored. Whenever you save a file, photo, or software to your computer, it's stored in your hard drive. Most hard drives have storage space between 250GB and 1TB
The hard drive contains a spinning platter with a thin magnetic coating. A "head" moves over the platter, writing 0's and 1's as tiny areas of magnetic North or South on the platter. To read the data back, the head goes to the same spot, notices the North and South spots flying by, and so deduces the stored 0's and 1's.
1Tb has about 4x the storage capacity but a ssd drive is about 5x faster than a HDD (standard hard disk). It makes a huge difference to have an ssd drive. We used to recommend adding ram to speed up your computer but the SSD drive is the best way to do it now.
Laptops that come with SSD usually have just 128GB or 256GB of storage, which is enough for all your programs and a decent amount of data. However, users who have lots of demanding games or huge media collections will want to store some files in the cloud or add an external hard drive.
The two most common types of laptop and desktop storage devices are hard disk drives (HDD) and solid-state drives (SSD)
