disk drive

n. Computers A hardware device that reads data stored on a disk and writes data onto the disk for storage.

disk drive

n (Computer Science) computing the controller and mechanism for reading and writing data on computer disks. See also disk²

disk′ drive`

n. a device in or attached to a computer that enables the user to read data from or store data on a disk. [1970–75]

disk drive

Computer Science A device that reads data stored on a magnetic or optical disk and writes data onto the disk for storage.

disk drive

A machine that puts data on to, or reads it from, a floppy disk.

Thesaurus

Noun

disk drive - computer hardware that holds and spins a magnetic or optical disk and reads and writes information on itdisc drive, hard drive, Winchester drivedrive - (computer science) a device that writes data onto or reads data from a storage mediumfixed disk, hard disc, hard disk - a rigid magnetic disk mounted permanently in a drive unitcomputer science, computing - the branch of engineering science that studies (with the aid of computers) computable processes and structures

Translations

光盘驱动器磁盘驱动

disk

disc . disk drive (ˈdisk ˌdraiv) noun the part of a computer that is used to pass information onto or from a disk. 磁盘驱动

disk drive

→ 光盘驱动器zhCN

disk drive

Computing the controller and mechanism for reading and writing data on computer disks

disk drive

[′disk ‚drīv] (computer science) The physical unit that holds, spins, reads, and writes the magnetic disks. Also known as disk unit.

disk drive

(hardware, storage)(Or "hard disk drive", "hard drive","floppy disk drive", "floppy drive") A peripheral devicethat reads and writes hard disks or floppy disks. Thedrive contains a motor to rotate the disk at a constant rateand one or more read/write heads which are positioned over thedesired track by a servo mechanism. It also contains theelectronics to amplify the signals from the heads to normaldigital logic levels and vice versa.

In order for a disk drive to start to read or write a givenlocation a read/write head must be positioned radially overthe right track and rotationally over the start of the rightsector.

Radial motion is known as "seeking" and it is this whichcauses most of the intermittent noise heard during diskactivity. There is usually one head for each disk surface andall heads move together. The set of locations which areaccessible with the heads in a given radial position are knownas a "cylinder". The "seek time" is the time taken toseek to a different cylinder.

The disk is constantly rotating (except for some floppy diskdrives where the motor is switched off between accesses toreduce wear and power consumption) so positioning the headsover the right sector is simply a matter of waiting until itarrives under the head. With a single set of heads this"rotational latency" will be on average half a revolutionbut some big drives have multiple sets of heads spaced atequal angles around the disk.

If seeking and rotation are independent, access time is seektime + rotational latency. When accessing multiple trackssequentially, data is sometimes arranged so that by the timethe seek from one track to the next has finished, the disk hasrotated just enough to begin accessing the next track.

See also sector interleave.

The disks may be removable disks; floppy disks always are,removable hard disks were common on mainframes andminicomputers but less so on microcomputers until the mid1990s(?) with products like the Zip Drive.

A CD-ROM drive is not usually referred to as a disk drive.

Two common interfaces for disk drives (and other devices) areSCSI and IDE. ST-506 used to be common inmicrocomputers (in the 1980s?).

disk drive

A storage device that holds, spins, reads and writes magnetic disks or optical discs (CD, DVD, MO, UDO). In this encyclopedia, disk ("k") refers to a magnetic disk drive, and disc ("c") means an optical drive. Magnetic disk drives contain non-removable platters; however, optical drives are receptacles for removable discs or cartridges. See magnetic disk, CD, DVD, magneto-optic disk and UDO.

The Early 1990s

This RAID II prototype in 1992, which embodied the principles of high performance and fault tolerance, was built by University of Berkeley graduate students. Housing 36 320MB disk drives, its total storage was less than the single drive in the cheapest PC only six years later. (Image courtesy of The Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org) See RAID.

disk drive

disk drive

disk drive

disk′ drive`

disk drive

disk drive

disk

disk drive

disk drive

disk drive

disk drive

disk drive

disk drive

disk drive

disk drive

disk drive

Synonyms for disk drive

noun computer hardware that holds and spins a magnetic or optical disk and reads and writes information on it

Synonyms

Related Words