How does the hard disk store data?

Answer 1

This is a very complicated question and you probably would want to go to the wikipedia link that guy above just posted. Hard drives store data magnetically utilizing read/write heads that hover just above platers that spin at very high speeds (5400rpm - 10,000 rpm). The heads are controlled by actuater coils (voice coils) which are controlled by the controller board on the dirve itself. There is a lot of mathematics involved on how drives record and retreive information. Mainly based on probability. The platter spins at very high speeds and a file for instance is not recorded on one particlar area but multiple areas. Data retreval algorithms must calculate probability (hit/miss). I could go on forever on FAT tables and physics and such.

Answer 2

First, consider a floppy disk(stiffy) it is organised in "Cylinders" (like the growth rings on a tree) and "Sectors" like an orange. The data on the disk uses a combination of this info to know where the info is, the same amount of data is stored in each sector/cylinder area, no matter where it is, on the edge or towards the middle. The translation of What to where is done by the "File Allocation Tables" (FAT). Now, a hard drive consists of many such disks (Platters) and the "Heads" which do the reading/writing float microns above the platter which is rotating at high speed. The heads are controlled to move radially across the disc, from cylinder to cylinder to read/write date.

Answer 3

A hard disk drive (HDD), also formerly known as a fixed disk drive) is a digitally encoded non-volatile storage device which stores data on the magnetic surfaces of hard disk platters.
Hard drives record information by magnetizing a magnetic material in a pattern that represents the data. They read the data back by detecting the magnetization of the material. A typical hard disk drive design consists of a spindle which holds one or more flat circular disks called platters, onto which the data is recorded. The platters are made from a non-magnetic material, usually glass or aluminum, and are coated with a thin layer of magnetic material. Older drives used iron(III) oxide as the magnetic material, but current drives use a cobalt-based alloy.

Answer 4

HDD's have heads(which move)and platters. The heads are used to magnetize bits of the platters' surface to store data "bits". :-)=

Answer 5

magnetically stores 0's and 1's.

Answer 6

It uses magnetics to read from/write to the disk:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk