Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

Return to Glossary

A Hard Disk Drive (HDD) is a non-volatile memory hardware device that controls the positioning, reading and writing of the hard disk, which furnishes data storage. Hard disk drives are commonly used as the main storage device in a computer. HDDs often store operating system, software programs and other files, and can be found in desktop computers, mobile devices, consumer electronics and enterprise storage arrays in data centers.

A hard disk drive -- often shortened to hard drive -- and hard disk are not the same things, but they are packaged as a unit and either term can refer to the whole unit.

In a computer, an HDD is commonly found in the drive bay and is connected to the motherboard via an ATA, SATA or SCSI cable. The HDD is also connected to a power supply unit and can keep stored data while powered down.

Source: https://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/hard-disk-drive