External Hard Drives
- M Seemab
- Feb 15, 2024
- 3 min read
Personal computers on desktops first appeared in the late 1970s. Simultaneously, IBM was developing the first disks called floppy disks. The first disk was released in 1971. the floppy disk was considered to be the first magnetic disk that was portable and easily transportable. It was the first ssd internal hard drive that was externally connected. Disk floppy disks became the preferred method for storage on disks until the era of writable CDs and USB flash drives became popular in the middle century. The first write/read hard disk designed for personal computers was made available on the 22nd of July, 1972. Memorex.

In 1980, several big companies joined in on the HDD game. Shugart Technology's ST-506 disk became the smallest HDD available, with a size of 5.25 inches and a capacity of 5MB. IBM also released the IBM 3380 1980, the first drive with 1GB of storage.
In 1983, Rodime presented the RO352, one of the initial 3.5-inch HDDs with two platters and a capacity of 10MB. 3.5-inch HDDs were soon to become the norm for computers on desktops and have been used until today (with laptop HDDs weighing 2.5 inches).
In the early '80s, when the first external hard drives we are familiar with today started to form, and as time passed, and as the physical dimensions of wd external hard drive diminished, the capacity of hard drives grew.
What exactly does a hard drive perform?
It works because a drive is a storage device for the data. In the case of a computer, it is all your pictures and videos, music applications, and documents. In addition, the source code of your computer's operating framework, internal hard drive, and system are also saved on hard drives. The storage capacity of a drive is determined by megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB) and Terabytes (TB).
It is distinct in RAM (Random Access Memory) RAM, a temporarily stored computer memory that requires electricity to store data—creating a volatile memory. It only keeps data only when the computer is switched on. RAM cannot be used to store private data. It is only used for information from computers. Computers require memory for smooth operation and allow users to move from one task to another or program to program without losing their place. RAM is referred to as primary storage. HDDs, as well as SSDs, are classified as secondary storage.
An internal hard drives can be described as a device for storage that helps preserve your documents and data for the duration. If you save a file onto your computer, it's copying it onto your computer's hard drive. Hard drives are like a filing cabinet that stores your digital files.
What exactly is an external drive?
An western digital external hard drive needs to be integrated into computers. They are portable devices connected to any device to access files it stores. Although internal drives connect directly to your computer's motherboard and keep the operating system's data frameworks, drivers, and the files you have, external hard drives are used mainly for storing personal files.
A hard drive in a computer's system is typically removed and updated, but it is a difficult job, so many choose to use external drives once their computers run out of space.
Nowadays, wd hard drive can store up to 20 TB of data. That's more than one million times what the initial hard drive could offer in 1956. The capacity of these drives, combined with the portability and cost of external drives, make them an ideal choice to increase the storage capacity of computers up to the advent of cloud-based storage.
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