A Deep Dive: Computer Storage
It’s not magic that your computer can show you the thousands of pictures you have of your puppy and all in the blink of an eye. This is done by none other then your computer’s hard drive.
The long and grueling path of being able to save a couple of numbers on a punch card to being able to store thousands of pictures in the palm of your hand…took an entire century. The ability to store and manipulate information is the functionality of a computer, but the way that is done is ever-changing and forever exciting; from floppy disks to tapes to flash drives. In this article you will take your floppy and volatile knowledge of computer storage to an increased capacity; and all in a flash!
It’s not magic that your computer can show you the thousands of pictures you have of your puppy and all in the blink of an eye. This is done by none other then your computer’s hard drive. That speed and reliability that you have come to count on today has not always been so. I remember the days when the Williams-Kilburn tube was used to store information on computer screens and then cameras would read that data. Who am I kidding, no I don’t, I’m only 21 years old! But I was able to find that information on the internet, information that inevitably came from yet another hard drive. Unlike the Williams-Kilburn tube, which is a name you don’t need to remember, modern computer storage can hold information for much, much longer. So, when you inevitably forget that name, you can easily bring it back up. Isn’t technology cool!
Up until recent years the goal of computer storage manufacturers has been to make components more reliable, faster, and require less work for you, the end user, to enjoy. Gone are the days of your children breaking your Walkman tapes rendering your world bleak and unenjoyable without music. Or you burning your popcorn because it took that little extra effort to rewind your VCR and you forgot it was 3 minutes in the microwave, not 3:30. Scratched disks? Those aren’t even on the table anymore, not unless you like to collect old pieces of plastic with laser etched mirrors much like myself.
Modern computer storage is lightyears ahead of laser technology. But if you are a data farm storing millions of people’s data at once, then you are likely using HDDs - hard disk drives. HDDs are universally chosen over better, faster storage, because they can achieve massive storage for very little cost. They last about 10 years and can be easily replaced. Your average computer comes with a hard disk drive as well, but it won’t be long until Solid State storage is all you see. Just a couple of years ago, the cost difference between flash storage and mechanical storage was huge, but now that gap has closed so even budget enthusiasts, or your average Joe, can get their hands on some pretty rad hardware.
There are two main forms of storage used today - Solid State also known as flash storage and Hard Disk Drives. There are many benefits to using Solid State storage over HDDs, but its important to know some of the key mechanisms behind how they work. Hard drives use spinning splatters with an actuator head that reads the data. The faster the spin of the platters the faster data can be transferred. The data is stored in rings on the disk meaning that the actuator needs to move to a physical location in order to access that song you are desiring to listen to. Flash storage on the other hand uses stationary chips called NAND flash. There is a small chip called the SSD Controller inside the Solid-State Drive (SSD) that controls data flow and manages information requests. The main benefit to this is that all a computer must do to access its information is to send the request to the SSD controller and it will retrieve all the necessary information. No physical movement, meaning all the information travels faster. If you notice your computer taking forever to open applications or to load pictures you may be due for a storage upgrade. Though with that upgrade the main difference you will see is a massive decrease in computer boot times. The moment you click that power button you are on the clock. Precious time is being wasted, so being able to wait a mere 15 seconds versus 45 seconds or longer and then even more once you sign in, is a massive increase in efficiency. Even the fastest HDDs only can transfer data at about 188 Megabytes per second. Compared to flash storage which has reached almost six times that speed. This speed increase will reduce how much you see that dreaded blue circle next to your mouse.
Just remember that the next time you go reread this article that it was downloaded from the internet, from a hard drive elsewhere. That your ability to even turn on your computer and store all your pictures, documents, music, and more is dependent on your hard drive. Computer storage, while not as advanced or complicated as some other components on your computer is perhaps more vital to your computer’s functionality than anything else. Stay tuned for our next article, where we discuss RAM, an incredibly fast and volatile specialized computer storage.
- Crimson Wheeler, Service Technician