Hard drives are a familiar and budget-friendly storage option that’s perfect for backing up files, storing media and a variety of other uses. Designed with a spinning disk and magnetic platters, HDDs store digital data in concentric circles that can be divided into sectors. A read/compose head is suspended on an actuator arm that moves across the surface of each platter to access and write data.
Digital information comes in the form of binary code – ones and zeros – which is inputted by the drive’s read/write head into the magnetic platters via changing the magnetism of small portions of the platter (a process called bit shifting). By reading this data, a HDD can determine what file you need and send it back to your computer.
HDDs are a great choice for desktop PCs as they support applications that require lots of storage space, including gaming and video editing. We recommend a 2 TB model or higher for storing all your media, applications and backups.
While HDDs have been a familiar and affordable storage solution, solid-state memory is slowly taking over as a more efficient and reliable alternative. However, there are still many use cases where HDDs can offer a good balance of price and performance.
When purchasing a new hard drive, keep an eye on the capacity, workload rating and power consumption. We test for idle, active and sustained workloads to get a feel for a drive’s performance in different scenarios. We also look at power consumption and temperature as these can impact on performance. Hard drives