Tech Joke: Late For Work

Why was the computer late for work?
It had a hard drive!

Simply put, usually the way a computer is able to secondarily store information is through the use of drives.  A hard drive (HDD) is a mechanical data storage device that uses magnetic storage to store and retrieve data. The way this is done is through the use of rotating platters, arranged in a moving arm, coated with magnetic material. The rotating motion is what allows for data to be read or written to the platter. Data is stored in a random-access manner, which means that they can be stored or retrieved in any order.

One positive about HDD is that they can keep stored information, even when powered off.  It is worth noting that HDDs were very popular with personal computers and servers in its early years. However, with the emergence of solid-state drives (SSD’s), production of HDDs are declining.

You can consider an SSD as an electronic disk. SSD’s have many advantages to them. Some of these include running silently, higher data-transfer rates, greater storage density, more reliability and have a lower access time (lower latency). Data is stored in semiconductor cells, which is different than HDDs.

Simply put, HDD are considered legacy, mechanical and noisy. While still reliable, it is much different than SSDs. SSDs are quieter, faster, and more reliable.