Is the hard drive a disk drive?

Answer 1

Yes, a hard drive is more properly called a hard disk drive. They are not the same thing, but a hard disk drive is a type of disk drive, just like a floppy disk drive is another type, and just like a soft armor and hard armor are both types of armor. You can pretty much use "disk drive" and "drive" interchangeably in computer contexts.

The most confusing thing about hard drives is that they contain fixed (non-removable) disks. You don't SEE the disk(s), because they're locked inside, and so you could easily wonder if it's actually a disk drive.

Some people use hard drive and hard disk interchangeably, probably because they're not really sure what the difference is. Most of the time it really doesn't much matter much, but it's important to understand that there are other kinds of disk drives: floppy disk drives, tape drives, optical drives (CDs, Blu-ray discs, DVDs, etc.), magneto-optical disk drives (M-O drives) too. All of these tend to have removeable disks, which you can change. The drive stays, but the disks in it can be swapped around at will.

They're called hard disk drives because the type of physical disk that spins around inside (the disks their motors DRIVE around) are hard, like an old style vinyl record (metal or ceramic coated with a magnetic material), rather than soft like a floppy disk (plastic with a similar material).

Note that flash drives (aka USB drives, aka Pen Drives, etc., more properly called solid state drives) are another of the few drive types that have non-removable disks. They're subject to the same confusion that hard drives are subject to. In other words, a USB pen drive also has a USB disk within it. Generally they have four main parts if you open them up: the drive chip, the memory chip (disk), the USB connector itself, and the circuit board that links them all together. Might help to look inside an old one some time, just to be extra clear about how separate these things really are.

Answer 2

The Hard Disk Drive, or HDD, is typically the main storage device for most computers.

The operating system (such as Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux), games, programs and applications, music, movies, etc. are all typically stored on the Hard Drive.

Usually, the HDD is the largest storage device attached to a computer.

HDDs may be singular or plural- a PC can have many HDDs, but most only have 1. They can also be internal (inside the PC) or external (attached by USB, eSATA, or Firewire). Some may not be attached at all, as wireless HDDs do exist.

Answer 3

i think here or there never any soft disk is away-able.

but hard-copy or soft-copy is away-able every where.