It would not be very much of a stretch to say that computers have become incorporated into nearly every aspect of our lives. There is little that we say and do that has not been effected in one form or another by these incredible machines. That being said, there is one piece of the computer that stands out particularly as a model of just how far we’ve come. The HDD, or hard drive, has a host of interesting and unique features.
As foreign as it might seem, when computers first emerged and became popular among the general public, HDDs were not readily available. This was due, in part, because they were very, very expensive and only the very wealthy businesses or the government had any use for them. Luckily, these storage devices didn’t stay expensive for too long.
Actually, it is something quite incredible to consider just how much the prices have dropped over the years. At its inception, the price was ridiculously high, something like 15,000 dollars for a single megabyte. Today you can get a terabyte for as cheap as one hundred dollars.
Just as dramatic as the drop in price has been the growth in memory capacity. When they were first invented, they could only hold three or four megabytes at most. With a much more sophisticated architecture, it is now possible to encounter an HDD that holds a couple of terabytes.
The size of these devices is also much smaller than it used to be. The very first HDDs took up as much space as a double wide fridge. Over the years that size has been whittled down from toaster size, to the size of a textbook and now in some of the smaller laptops, the device is no bigger than a stack of playing cards.
You may be interested to know the history behind how these devices finally found themselves inside the computers. After all, the first computers didn’t include them, nor could they, due to size constraints. In fact, the first devices were completely external, and almost as big as the computers themselves. That being said, there still exist many HDDs that are external.
But it was only a matter of time until they were integrated into the computers themselves, rubbing shoulders with the motherboard, central processor and other computer components. And as the computers grew smaller and smaller, so, too, did the storage devices.
Another important feature to have emerged in recent years is an increased sense of protection for the data stored in such devices. As the data is encoded magnetically, strong electrical surges or electromagnetic fields could completely ruin the data but recent innovations have mitigated such effects.
These devices have also become much more sophisticated at encoding the data that is sent to them. This means that they can store more information while using less space. Data is also recorded at a much faster pace.
The hard drive has been and continues to be a testament to the lengths that we as a people will go to improve our understanding and our ability. When one considers the improvements that have made the price, size, and storage capacity so much better, it is hard to feel anything but impressed.
Have a look at our site for interesting information about hard drive units, now. You can also get the latest external hard drive at a fantastic price in our online store.
