What is a Hard Drive? by SCK
What is a hard drive anyway? We know they go in computers, and in CCTV systems, but what exactly does a hard drive do? SCK Answers this today!
Maybe you’re already somewhat familiar but just need a bit of a refresher, perhaps you’ve heard the term thrown around a lot and are just totally unsure, or maybe you have no clue what I’m even talking about!
So let’s get right into it then! In the simplest terms, a hard drive, or hdd, or hard disk, is a “mechanical” piece of hardware used to store all the permanent data for a computer system. The type of device category a hard drive falls into is ‘storage media’. there are multiple kinds of storage media, and they’re all built to house data. However, that mechanical part is important, because unlike other storage media which will get into a little bit later- Hard drives utilize Magnetic rotating disks and have mechanical components to them. All the information across any of our computers or tech devices is written in digital code, which means it can be broken down into extremely long series of Zeros and Ones (0’s and 1’s)- also known as ‘binary’. Each one of these 0’s or 1’s is called a ‘bit’ of data. Data is arranged into quantifiable measurements- here is a table of some of the measurement names and quantities. You may have seen or heard many of these used before
- 8 Bits = 1 Byte
- 1024 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte
- 1024 kilobyte= 1 Megabyte
- 1024 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
- 1024 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
- and so on…
The largest amounts of data in the world are stored on Hard Disks. There are as mentioned before many kinds of storage media all existing with various technologies, speeds, capacities, and purposes. As the usage purposes for our data expand globally, while at the same time programs, images, and documents become more complex and consume more data per instance, our need for varying kinds and growing quantities of storage has also had to expand.
Hard Drives, and other storage devices such as SD cards, USB Flash Drives, Solid State Drives, and more, are all used to accomplish different types of goals for various storage reasons and capacities. Take SD cards for example. These small flash memory cards are used primarily in devices that need a semi-long term form of storage that is also easily removable and usable in more than one device. USB flash drives through similar- tend to offer less storage capacity for the cost- in turn, are far easier to access, and usable with many more types of devices. Both are purposeful but find use more commonly in different areas.
While many modern PCs and Laptops still use hard drives today, there is a very obvious shift to move these types of devices to use more SSDs- or solid-state drives. Solid-state drives are extremely fast disks, which can carry storage capacities rivaling consumer hard drives. There are two common SSDs today, SATA SSDs, and NVME M.2 SSDs. Either one of those disks will offer an incredible upgrade in speed for loading and writing to the disk. This is especially useful for Office, Home, Gaming, and Media production PCs. There is a trade-off however, the cost per ‘byte’ for SSDs is substantial compared to hard disks. For this reason, many PCs today use one, smaller SSD for the operating system and core applications but also contain a larger capacity Hard Drive for storing documents, and media that doesn’t require the same read or write speeds to function properly.
There’s another important trade-off between Hard Drives (HDDs) and SSds too, and this is where the CCTV portion of our explanation comes in. While SSDs are better at reading and writing speeds when those events do occur, they are not efficient for long term constant reading and writing. Hard Drives, which are mechanical devices that write their data to magnetic plates, are built to withstand a bit more punishment than their SSD counterparts. Most modern servers still use many hard dirks in complex redundancy configurations. Though the mechanical components in a hard disk are prone to failure themselves, this would be over the course of time and natural wear and tear. This is in comparison to say, an SSD being written to and read from 24/7 and failing within a few weeks because it cannot handle this stress.
To take it further, here at Security camera king we exclusively carry the Western Digital Purple CCTV HDDs.Even more than a normal HDD, these CCTV specific disks are designed by the factory to be extra durable, and super tough. They use tougher more durable mechanical components and have a specific RPM for the rotation of the plates that allows the disk to be accessed for read and write actions virtually nonstop, without fear of the disk breaks down.
The more cameras you have, the higher quality those cameras are, and how often they record coupled with the amount of Hard disk space you have are all major factors that contribute to how much footage (or how many ‘days’) your CCTV recorder can save. Always consult with one of our Sales Pros before making a purchase as they can calculate what your needs will be based on your equipment, ensuring you have the right disk(s) for the job! Check out our HDD options below, but again I stress that you should always call in before making a final purchase!
Thanks for joining us today as we talked about the importance of your Hard Drive in your CCTV recorder. For any questions on product compatibility, availability or any other information don’t hesitate to give our Sales Pro’s a call at561-288-5258 . Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more Tutorials and CCTV info. Until Next time, Stay Safe!
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