Many people among us still don’t know what is a fixed disk. All electronic devices are made up of different components which help the device perform tasks smoothly. In today’s post, I will discuss everything about what is a fixed disk. There are certain primary elements that help to process data more conveniently. This guide will help you understand the term fixed disk and its working. Here, I will also compare fixed disks with SSDs in short. Make sure you even check out the examples of fixed disks. Without wasting much time, you can keep on reading to learn what is a fixed disk.
What Is A Fixed Disk?
A fixed disk is a hard drive found inside the computer that’s not easily removed. In other words, it is also called a hard drive or a hard disk drive. It’s a high-capacity magnetic storage device. A fixed disk is also permanently installed inside a smartphone or music player. Following are the different types of fixed disks you can find in your electronic devices.
- Serial ATA (SATA)
- Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA)
- Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)
You can find these disks in a variety of shapes and sizes but most of them work in the same basic way. These disks are mostly used for maintaining work files and permanent memory loads. Basically, it serves as an anchor for the device’s operations and applications.
Keep on reading further to learn more about what is a fixed hard disk.
The term fixed disk was first introduced in the 1950s and then became less popular as the years passed. However, the term still has some relevance and is simply called a hard drive. Earlier, there were several ways to store information outside of a computer but there were only a few ways to store info internally. The term hard disk is the opposite of a floppy disk which is a removable storage media.
Fixed disks were widely used to store data that outstripped the storage media of the time. Many people complained to be very slow and expensive. Later, their storage capacity was increased and became a regular part of consumer electronics. In the beginning, hard disks were installed only in large corporate computers and industrial machines. Slowly, the capacity of the drives increased and their physical size decreased. Now, they can be easily found in MP3 players, smartphones, and tablet computers.
Remember that fixed disks work best when they are not outwardly moving. They are more prone to damage due to increasing mobility. Fixed drives in devices like tablet computers, smartphones, and portable music players move a lot by design. Well, a traditional disk in computers won’t move outwardly. However, there is always a risk that either the read or write arms can fall off track.
Do you know what is a fixed-size disk? A fixed-size disk is VHD that takes up the entire space that is allotted during VM creation. This size doesn’t change whether you create or delete data. Now, you must be thinking about what is a fixed MBR disk. A fixed MBR disk is a drive stored inside your computer in MBR format.
You can keep on reading to learn more about what is a fixed disk.
Working Of Hard Disk
Knowing what is a fixed disk isn’t enough if you don’t know how it works. You will find an internal motor inside of a fixed drive which causes very thin magnetic platters to begin spinning. However, the several disks in fixed disks are called platters. These platters are set up on top of each other and they spin as necessary. Each platter has a directional charge and when they spin that charge gains traction. Its signals can be converted by the computer’s circuitry and motherboard into meaningful data and direction.
There is also another internal motor that runs one or more arms around the platters. Here, the read arm reads the directional charge and sends this information out of the drive. And the write arm changes the directional charges, saves and stores new information on the platter. However, the inside of one disk may look different from another on a different device.
You can keep on reading further to learn more about what is a fixed hard disk and SSD.
Fixed Hard Disk vs SSD
I hope now you’ve understood what is a fixed disk. Many people among us get confused between a fixed hard disk and a solid state drive (SSD). Here, I’ve compared both these types of storage to their similarities and differences.
- Capacity: SSD uses flash memory to store data while fixed disks use magnetic platters to store data.
- Performance: The speed at which an SSD accesses data is higher than a hard disk. Most SSDs can process at 7000 MB/s while a hard disk can process at 500 MB/s.
- Durability: SSDs are less reliable for long-term storage as data leaks after a year of being unpowered. On the other hand, a fixed disk is a long-term storage device.
- Portability: When it comes to portability, SSDs, and fixed disks are similar.
Fixed Disk Examples
After understanding what is a fixed disk, let us check examples of this type of storage. One of the most common examples of fixed drives is hard drives in computers. These days every modern computer has one or more fixed drives that store all of the computer’s saved information. In fact, any electronic devices with high-capacity storage also have these devices. In an MP3 player, the fixed disk is smaller compared to the fixed disk on a computer.
You can even find fixed disks in digital video recorders, gaming consoles, home media centers, and modern smartphones.
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FAQ
Is SSD A Fixed Disk?
A “Fixed Hard Drive” is NOT an SSD (Solid State) drive.
What Is An Example Of A Fixed Disc?
The hard disk or fixed disks are permanently mounted inside the computer cabinet. The platter inside the hard disk can be called a “Fixed Disk”. The USB hard disk or external hard disk that can be easily unplugged and removed from a computer system is also known “fixed disk”.
What Is Fixed And Removable Disks?
Fixed drive are drives like hard disks, which use media that are not removable. Forexample, solid state drive (SSD) wile removeable disk drives are drives that usemedia that are removable.
What Device Is Known As Fixed Disk?
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk, is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnetic material.
Conclusion
In the above post, I’ve explained what is a fixed disk in detail. The term fixed disk implies that the disk is fixed in place inside the computer and cannot be taken out like other forms of storage. Several experts consider hard disks to be one of the most cost-effective means of data storage. You can easily spot fixed disks in many hand-held devices like MP3 players, smartphones, and tablet computers. These hard disks have protective casings and extra strengthening around their drives to prevent disk slippage. Once you know what is a fixed disk, you can easily understand the device’s operation.
What is a fixed disk drive