Harddisk

From Grokdoc

harddisk - A data storage device which has inflexible rotating magnetic media which is typically NOT removable. A typical home computer has one internal harddisk which measures some 4 inches wide, 5.5 inches deep, and 1 inch high. Harddisks have been made with platters (the rotating magnetic media) more than a foot in diameter, and some now have platters less than an inch in diameter. There are often multiple platters in a single hard-disk, and often both sides of a platter are in use for data storage.

A harddisk stores data magnetically through a process which magnetizes miniscule spots on the rotating media. This data will remain with the power turned off. At the moment, individual harddisks can store hundreds of billions of bytes of data.

This is in contrast with the "memory" or RAM in your computer which is probably measured in hundreds of millions of bytes, and can only store information while the power is on.

I have heard of a user (who shall remain anonymous) refer to the computer (the box with all the connectors on it that your monitor, keyboard/mouse, power cords all plug into, and which contains the harddisk(s), the memory, the CPU, the motherboard, the video card, power supply, etc) as the "harddisk", but this is very inaccurate. The harddisk is only one part of the computer that is the box sitting on or under your desk.