1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:03,000 Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 2 00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:08,959 Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 3 00:00:09,039 --> 00:00:18,040 Speaker 1: text style from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 4 00:00:18,079 --> 00:00:20,160 Speaker 1: welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poette and 5 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:22,320 Speaker 1: I am an editor at how stuff works dot com. 6 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:24,239 Speaker 1: Sitting across from me, as he always does on the 7 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:28,320 Speaker 1: occasions on which we podcast is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 8 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:34,919 Speaker 1: End of line. Thank you very much for listening. And oh, 9 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:37,800 Speaker 1: Emily is gonna write in. She hasn't written in about 10 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:39,320 Speaker 1: that in a long time. That's true, Well, we haven't 11 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:43,920 Speaker 1: done in a long time. So today's episode comes to 12 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:48,360 Speaker 1: us as a result of many, many listener males, and 13 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:51,480 Speaker 1: so I'm not gonna read them all, but to Kara, 14 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 1: Ryan and Justin in particular, and I'm sure there were more, 15 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:57,800 Speaker 1: but those were the three who popped up immediately. Um, 16 00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:00,480 Speaker 1: this podcast is for you. All of you guys want 17 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 1: to know how hard drives or hard disks work. So 18 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:05,800 Speaker 1: we're gonna talk a bit about hard drives, and not 19 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:10,160 Speaker 1: just not just the old fashioned hard drives, but the 20 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:15,000 Speaker 1: new fangled solid state devices as well, and throwing some 21 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,880 Speaker 1: some other storage media. I think oh I got, I 22 00:01:17,959 --> 00:01:20,720 Speaker 1: got a little bit on some others, notepads, and yes, 23 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:25,080 Speaker 1: exactly stone tablets, stone tablets. So let's let's talk about 24 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:28,200 Speaker 1: let's talk about the anatomy of a hard drive. Okay, 25 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:30,120 Speaker 1: I was going to start out with a little history. 26 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:36,920 Speaker 1: Oh that is even better, begin with your history, professor Palette. Um, 27 00:01:37,959 --> 00:01:39,800 Speaker 1: I'll tell you a little bit of a story. My 28 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:42,440 Speaker 1: first computer wasn't Amigo one thousand, which I got in 29 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:46,720 Speaker 1: the mid nineties, and it had no hard drive whatsoever. 30 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:49,800 Speaker 1: My Apple to eat also had no hard drive. So 31 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:53,840 Speaker 1: you might think that hard drives, which are now you know, 32 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:58,680 Speaker 1: ubiquitous there in almost anything, including you know, uh, tablets 33 00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:01,520 Speaker 1: and you know, netbooks and things that that are very small, 34 00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:03,880 Speaker 1: you might think, well, hey, you know these have been 35 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:07,240 Speaker 1: around for a very short time. Not the truth. Oh weird. 36 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:12,680 Speaker 1: I was just thinking they were amphibious. So anyway, amphibious 37 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:17,720 Speaker 1: what you said? Okay, So no, uh, hard drives actually 38 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:20,880 Speaker 1: have been with us since the nineteen fifties, except they 39 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:25,640 Speaker 1: were very very large. Um and uh it's apparently up 40 00:02:25,639 --> 00:02:29,280 Speaker 1: to in diameter and they would hold just a few megabytes, 41 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:31,240 Speaker 1: which is very much like the first hard drive I 42 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:33,680 Speaker 1: had in my second computer, the Mega three thousand had 43 00:02:34,240 --> 00:02:38,160 Speaker 1: well actually still has a hard drive that will hold uh, 44 00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:43,280 Speaker 1: you know, just forty megabytes, which is very small. But 45 00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:47,320 Speaker 1: but these original discs were called fixed disks, or if 46 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:52,200 Speaker 1: you were an IBM customer, you might know them as winchesters. Um. 47 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:55,920 Speaker 1: And basically the reason they're called hard hard disks are 48 00:02:55,960 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: hard drives is because this is in contrast to floppy disks, 49 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:02,959 Speaker 1: which are you know, made of a magnetic storage medium 50 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:06,880 Speaker 1: very much like uh, tape that you might see in 51 00:03:06,919 --> 00:03:10,519 Speaker 1: a cassette tape or an eight track tape or videotape. Um. 52 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:14,519 Speaker 1: But hard drives themselves getting into your into your anatomy 53 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:19,799 Speaker 1: uh lecture on hard disks here. Um. Yeah, they're they're 54 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:24,880 Speaker 1: actually not that dissimilar because hard drives are also magnetic media, right, 55 00:03:24,919 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: but they are glass or aluminum or some form of 56 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:32,600 Speaker 1: harder material. It's not like that filmy, flimsy stuff that 57 00:03:32,639 --> 00:03:35,080 Speaker 1: you would see in a cassette tape. Right. So that's 58 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:38,160 Speaker 1: where the hard drive or hard disk comes from. We're 59 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:41,880 Speaker 1: talking about. It's stored on a medium that is uh, 60 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:45,840 Speaker 1: that's that's not this little flimsy material. So that's another 61 00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:47,840 Speaker 1: thing we should talk about just very quickly, since we're 62 00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:50,400 Speaker 1: talking about you mentioned floppy disks, which some of our 63 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:55,840 Speaker 1: listeners may be thinking hua a floppy disk. Some of 64 00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:58,120 Speaker 1: our listeners are very young, and I have not been 65 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:00,680 Speaker 1: around since floppy disks kind of died. But I like 66 00:04:00,760 --> 00:04:03,560 Speaker 1: to think of the tech stuff audience as being you know, 67 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:07,560 Speaker 1: fairly technology technologically savvy. You know, even our younger listeners 68 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:09,360 Speaker 1: probably know what a floppy disk. Actually, some of the 69 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:11,400 Speaker 1: very younger listeners are probably more savvy than we are. 70 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:15,320 Speaker 1: So the reason why we call them floppy disks is 71 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:18,960 Speaker 1: because the magnetic medium on pond which the data is 72 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:23,719 Speaker 1: stored is is flexible. Um. The disc itself may or 73 00:04:23,839 --> 00:04:27,320 Speaker 1: may not be semi flexible. So the old five and 74 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:29,839 Speaker 1: a quarter inch discs, for example, they had a very 75 00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:35,760 Speaker 1: uh thin protective coating, plastic coating, uh, and you could 76 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:38,680 Speaker 1: they were flexible. You weren't supposed to bend them because 77 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:43,440 Speaker 1: it would screw it up, but you could. Yeah. As 78 00:04:43,520 --> 00:04:45,719 Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, the hard disc predates the 79 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:50,839 Speaker 1: floppy disk because Alan Shugart at IBM in ninety seven, uh, 80 00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:53,720 Speaker 1: you know, came up with an eight inch floppy disk. 81 00:04:54,279 --> 00:04:57,840 Speaker 1: UM and basically it gradually moved to a smaller disc 82 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:01,159 Speaker 1: five and a quarter inches UM, and that debut in 83 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:06,160 Speaker 1: in August. Um. Problem with that particular model was that 84 00:05:06,520 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 1: it had a part of the media was exposed, so 85 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:11,000 Speaker 1: you could you could you know, poke it with your 86 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,920 Speaker 1: finger or you know, a needle, or your cat could 87 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:17,560 Speaker 1: throw up on it. Uh. And that's a problem because 88 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:20,320 Speaker 1: all of those things happened to me in the same day. 89 00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:23,320 Speaker 1: That's bad day. Well, poking it with your finger is 90 00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:28,159 Speaker 1: not such a problem necessarily as the other two. But yeah, 91 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:30,520 Speaker 1: that's the thing. If you crease it or something happens 92 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:34,440 Speaker 1: to damage that material, then it makes it very difficult 93 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:37,320 Speaker 1: to read. And when they came out with a three 94 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:40,240 Speaker 1: and a half inch floppy disk, which is in some 95 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:45,760 Speaker 1: use still in Japan, just stopped supporting it. Yeah, like 96 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:49,719 Speaker 1: this year, there's some of the supply classet here. Yeah, 97 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:51,720 Speaker 1: there's nothing I know of in the office that can 98 00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:54,640 Speaker 1: run one. No. No, I've seen a couple of older 99 00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:56,800 Speaker 1: machines with it on there. Oh my gosh, they have 100 00:05:56,880 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: dust on them. I pity those people to use those machines, 101 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:02,160 Speaker 1: but to but no, the thing is, when when those 102 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:04,560 Speaker 1: came out, they put a little metal slide, said that 103 00:06:04,560 --> 00:06:06,440 Speaker 1: the computer when you would insert it, it would the 104 00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:08,279 Speaker 1: computer would move the slide over and be able to 105 00:06:08,279 --> 00:06:12,240 Speaker 1: read and write information to that floppy disk. And they 106 00:06:12,279 --> 00:06:16,479 Speaker 1: also had a harder plastic coating so that you wouldn't 107 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:19,800 Speaker 1: fold a three and a half inch disk. Yeah, and uh, 108 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:23,039 Speaker 1: since we're into the alternative media thing, I will I 109 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:25,720 Speaker 1: will say, you know, as as time went on, uh, 110 00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:28,960 Speaker 1: and other formats came out. I Omega's zip drive and 111 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:32,719 Speaker 1: jazz drive both removable storage media like the floppy disk, 112 00:06:32,920 --> 00:06:35,520 Speaker 1: just at a higher density you can hold uh, you know, 113 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:39,640 Speaker 1: a gigabyte or two on some of the heavier uh discs. 114 00:06:40,200 --> 00:06:43,440 Speaker 1: But they're essentially the same thing, you know, removable media. Now, 115 00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:46,839 Speaker 1: I remember, you know a couple other storage media that 116 00:06:46,880 --> 00:06:49,679 Speaker 1: were like that, that were that came in a case 117 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:53,560 Speaker 1: like that, But we're optical discs. But those really fell 118 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:56,719 Speaker 1: out of favor, I think with the advent of broadband 119 00:06:56,760 --> 00:07:01,120 Speaker 1: connections and really large hard drives. So getting back to 120 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:04,000 Speaker 1: the whole hard drive issue and uh and the fact 121 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:07,400 Speaker 1: that we're talking about these other forms of storage. As 122 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:11,560 Speaker 1: we were mentioning they were all magnetic forms of storage, yes, 123 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:14,680 Speaker 1: just like cassettes. In fact, some of the early computers 124 00:07:14,840 --> 00:07:18,640 Speaker 1: used cassettes rather than discs. But and and that does 125 00:07:18,680 --> 00:07:21,240 Speaker 1: also mean that that would also be why you did 126 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:25,520 Speaker 1: not want to have your storage medium next to any 127 00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:29,040 Speaker 1: kind of magnet, because it would could screw up your 128 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:32,560 Speaker 1: your your data. I mean, it would erase essentially your 129 00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:36,040 Speaker 1: data because it would everything would align to the magnetic 130 00:07:36,040 --> 00:07:37,960 Speaker 1: field of the magnet and you would no longer have 131 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:40,840 Speaker 1: that storage. Well, I mean that's that's part of erasing 132 00:07:40,840 --> 00:07:47,240 Speaker 1: the information. Magnetizing. So magnets plus computers equals bad. Right, 133 00:07:47,320 --> 00:07:51,160 Speaker 1: So you're so in all these cases, the information is 134 00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:56,920 Speaker 1: stored through a magnetic medium. So you've got you've got 135 00:07:56,960 --> 00:08:01,280 Speaker 1: the disc, and within hard disc you have we call 136 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:04,120 Speaker 1: them platters. That the discs are actually platters, and there 137 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:08,160 Speaker 1: may there's usually multiple platters per hard drive. It's not 138 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:11,000 Speaker 1: just one disk sitting inside a little metal box. If 139 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:12,480 Speaker 1: you were to ever look at a hard drive, it 140 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:14,920 Speaker 1: does tend to look like a little metal box. Usually 141 00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:17,480 Speaker 1: there are several platters within that. And so think of 142 00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:19,800 Speaker 1: the platters. It's kind of like a uh, I was 143 00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:22,160 Speaker 1: gonna say, a record player, but what who am I kidding? 144 00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:27,400 Speaker 1: Smoke gets in your eyes? A record kids? No, please, 145 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:29,800 Speaker 1: those the kids. I'm saying, the kids are not gonna 146 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:32,800 Speaker 1: know if I say a record player, Um, think of 147 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:36,080 Speaker 1: a serious player that can hold several CDs. They still 148 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:40,120 Speaker 1: make CDs, right, I haven't listened to one in ages. Okay, okay, okay. 149 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:42,880 Speaker 1: Another thing to mention. If you want to take a 150 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:45,280 Speaker 1: part of hard drive to look at this, do it 151 00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:47,880 Speaker 1: with a drive that you are no longer ever going 152 00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:50,520 Speaker 1: to use for anything. Yea, because it'll ruin it. Because 153 00:08:50,520 --> 00:08:51,959 Speaker 1: it will ruin it. But if you if you take 154 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:54,200 Speaker 1: a part a hard drive that is busted and will 155 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:56,320 Speaker 1: no longer be used for anything, you will see that 156 00:08:56,360 --> 00:09:00,600 Speaker 1: there are are silver platters in there. Uh. In some 157 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:03,400 Speaker 1: cases there are multiple pladders, right, Like that's what I 158 00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:08,760 Speaker 1: was mentioning there, yeah, yeah, And and on each deck 159 00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:12,160 Speaker 1: there's gonna be a little arm that can that will 160 00:09:12,200 --> 00:09:16,439 Speaker 1: have the device that reads and writes data to those discs. Now, 161 00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:20,040 Speaker 1: here's the difference between the the platters and say the 162 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:24,920 Speaker 1: cassette medium. Uh, the device that reads and writes data 163 00:09:25,240 --> 00:09:29,000 Speaker 1: does not actually make contact with the disk. You do 164 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:31,040 Speaker 1: not want that to happen. No, If you hear a 165 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:33,800 Speaker 1: clicking noise from your hard drive, that probably means that 166 00:09:34,160 --> 00:09:37,720 Speaker 1: the arm, the read right arm is actually making contact 167 00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:40,400 Speaker 1: with the platter, which means it's damaging the hard drive 168 00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:42,880 Speaker 1: and you should stop using it and get it repaired 169 00:09:42,920 --> 00:09:44,800 Speaker 1: as soon as you can, because otherwise what's going to 170 00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:47,839 Speaker 1: happen is it's going to corrupt the data on that 171 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:49,559 Speaker 1: disc or it's going to ruin the hard drive and 172 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:52,040 Speaker 1: you won't be able to access the information. Right. That's 173 00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:55,200 Speaker 1: called a hard drive crash. Yeah, and it's bad head 174 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:59,120 Speaker 1: crash actually. Yeah. So so anyway, each one of the 175 00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:02,480 Speaker 1: platters has of these arms, are sometimes multiple arms more 176 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:06,600 Speaker 1: than one, and the arms can move towards the center 177 00:10:06,679 --> 00:10:10,680 Speaker 1: and towards the edge of the disk, uh dozens of 178 00:10:10,720 --> 00:10:14,080 Speaker 1: times per second to try and find the data. And 179 00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:15,920 Speaker 1: the data is stored. If you were to if you 180 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:17,360 Speaker 1: were to look at a platter and you were to 181 00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:19,640 Speaker 1: be able to see the way data is stored, like 182 00:10:19,720 --> 00:10:22,280 Speaker 1: you somehow were able to dawn magic glasses and you 183 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:23,959 Speaker 1: looked at the platter and like, oh, look at that. 184 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:29,240 Speaker 1: You would see that the information is is organized within 185 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:33,800 Speaker 1: concentric circles from the edge of the platter all the 186 00:10:33,800 --> 00:10:36,240 Speaker 1: way into the center. So you just think of those 187 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:40,360 Speaker 1: concentric circles. Now, those are tracks, and they would also 188 00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:43,760 Speaker 1: be organized in wedges, so sort of like a pie 189 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:51,439 Speaker 1: pie and pie. Those wedges are sectors. So data is 190 00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:54,520 Speaker 1: is always going to be found within a track and 191 00:10:54,600 --> 00:10:58,240 Speaker 1: a sector, and the computer has to keep track of 192 00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:01,440 Speaker 1: which sectors and try x have the data ware. You know. 193 00:11:01,480 --> 00:11:03,959 Speaker 1: That's when it's when your computer is searching for stuff. 194 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:06,520 Speaker 1: It's going through all the different sectors and tracks trying 195 00:11:06,559 --> 00:11:13,720 Speaker 1: to find the correct information. UM and each track within 196 00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:16,320 Speaker 1: a sector can only hold a certain amount of data. 197 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:18,880 Speaker 1: It's not like you could say, like, well, I've got 198 00:11:18,920 --> 00:11:21,160 Speaker 1: this two gigabyte file, I want it all to be 199 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:24,240 Speaker 1: stored right here on this part of this platter. That's 200 00:11:24,280 --> 00:11:27,200 Speaker 1: not the way it works, good luck. Yeah, it's going 201 00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:30,800 Speaker 1: to break that up, uh, that file up into segments 202 00:11:31,040 --> 00:11:35,160 Speaker 1: and store it on various tracks in various sectors. And 203 00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:37,480 Speaker 1: it's not even necessarily going to be on the same platter. 204 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:41,959 Speaker 1: Yeah it could be. It could be uh across several platters, 205 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:45,360 Speaker 1: depending upon how your data is stored. And UH as 206 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:47,720 Speaker 1: this happens, as as you go on filling up a 207 00:11:47,720 --> 00:11:51,600 Speaker 1: hard drive, UH, these files can get more and more 208 00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:58,319 Speaker 1: fragmented because there are fewer sectors that have an uninterrupted, 209 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:01,840 Speaker 1: you know series that you could store all the information 210 00:12:01,920 --> 00:12:05,599 Speaker 1: right there, so it's all within the same general area. 211 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:07,640 Speaker 1: That's why you want to defrag your hard drive every 212 00:12:07,640 --> 00:12:11,480 Speaker 1: now and then. Yeah, the more fragmented your your data get, uh, 213 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:14,960 Speaker 1: it makes it that much more difficult for your computer 214 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:17,760 Speaker 1: to find all the pieces of a file, and that's 215 00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:20,920 Speaker 1: going to slow down your computing time. So it's a 216 00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:25,360 Speaker 1: good idea to keep everything nicely organized so that it 217 00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:29,120 Speaker 1: speeds you up and makes it a little less frustrating 218 00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:31,360 Speaker 1: to use your computer on a day to day basis. Yeah, 219 00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:34,800 Speaker 1: I made this this comparison in a previous podcast, but 220 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:36,800 Speaker 1: so you might remember it. But think of your data. 221 00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:39,800 Speaker 1: Think of a hard drive as like a h a 222 00:12:39,920 --> 00:12:44,760 Speaker 1: multi story building, and and your data is stored in boxes. 223 00:12:45,320 --> 00:12:47,760 Speaker 1: But the boxes are not all in the same room 224 00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:49,760 Speaker 1: on the same floor. Some of your boxes are on 225 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:52,280 Speaker 1: the top floor, some of them are in several rooms 226 00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:54,560 Speaker 1: in the middle, and then you've got one in the basement. 227 00:12:54,840 --> 00:12:56,560 Speaker 1: That's kind of the way your hard drive is working. 228 00:12:56,640 --> 00:12:59,160 Speaker 1: That's the way it might store a file. The bits 229 00:12:59,160 --> 00:13:01,920 Speaker 1: of the file might be in various sections of the 230 00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:05,600 Speaker 1: different platters. Now these platters are spending really, really fast, 231 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:09,840 Speaker 1: and the arms are moving very very quickly. So even 232 00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:12,360 Speaker 1: though it sounds like this is a real mishmash way 233 00:13:12,400 --> 00:13:16,520 Speaker 1: of doing it, it doesn't take relatively that long for 234 00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:19,680 Speaker 1: a computer to find the information. Uh. It does take 235 00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:22,079 Speaker 1: longer as you use the computer. That's what we're talking 236 00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:24,920 Speaker 1: about with the whole fragment defragment thing. You may notice 237 00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:27,960 Speaker 1: as your computer ages that takes longer for you to 238 00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:31,280 Speaker 1: pull certain kinds of files and programs up and again. 239 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:35,560 Speaker 1: Defragging your hard drive can sometimes help fix that a 240 00:13:35,559 --> 00:13:38,640 Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah, it's not guaranteed to uh to increase 241 00:13:38,640 --> 00:13:42,040 Speaker 1: your computing speed a thousandfold or anything like that, but 242 00:13:42,160 --> 00:13:45,800 Speaker 1: it will perk things up a bit. Yeah, it's really Um, 243 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:48,280 Speaker 1: what we're talking about here is seek time, Right. It 244 00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:50,680 Speaker 1: will decrease the amount of time it takes to seek 245 00:13:50,760 --> 00:13:53,720 Speaker 1: out that data. It's not gonna make your processor faster, 246 00:13:53,800 --> 00:13:55,880 Speaker 1: it's just gonna make it easier for the computer to 247 00:13:55,880 --> 00:13:59,760 Speaker 1: find the information that you want. Um. There's another speed 248 00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:02,319 Speaker 1: of information transferle that we have to talk about, which 249 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:05,040 Speaker 1: is called the data rate. Now, that's the speed at 250 00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:07,800 Speaker 1: which the hard drive is able to deliver information to 251 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:12,480 Speaker 1: your computer's processor. Yep um and those speeds vary depending 252 00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:16,480 Speaker 1: upon what kind of hard drive and microprocessor you have. Yeah, 253 00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:21,040 Speaker 1: the that information is useful when you're looking for a 254 00:14:21,080 --> 00:14:23,360 Speaker 1: hard drive if you're interested in buying a new drive 255 00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:27,280 Speaker 1: for your computer. UM. Also the speed at which the 256 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:32,360 Speaker 1: platters spin. A lot of people prefer a faster speed. UM. 257 00:14:32,400 --> 00:14:35,840 Speaker 1: The trouble is that once you get into that in 258 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:40,280 Speaker 1: larger drive sizes, you're starting to talk about more money um. 259 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:45,480 Speaker 1: You know. But for things that are you know, speed oriented, 260 00:14:45,520 --> 00:14:48,200 Speaker 1: like for example, I don't know, gaming, you probably want 261 00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:51,320 Speaker 1: a faster hard drive or capturing lots and lots of video. 262 00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:54,280 Speaker 1: If you're capturing let's say you want to capture high 263 00:14:54,280 --> 00:14:58,760 Speaker 1: definition video you've shot You've shot a film, an HD film, right, 264 00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:01,800 Speaker 1: and you want to be able to capture that video 265 00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:04,560 Speaker 1: onto your computer. You're gonna want a hard drive that 266 00:15:04,640 --> 00:15:08,320 Speaker 1: spends very quickly, that has a very big capacity because 267 00:15:08,800 --> 00:15:11,800 Speaker 1: HD footage takes up a huge amount of data space, 268 00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:14,560 Speaker 1: and you want to be able to transfer the information 269 00:15:14,560 --> 00:15:18,280 Speaker 1: as quickly as possible. So uh to to just to 270 00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:21,920 Speaker 1: speed up the whole capturing UM sequence because that takes 271 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:24,560 Speaker 1: a really long time depending on the speed of your 272 00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:27,760 Speaker 1: computer and the connection you're using, like if you were 273 00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:31,360 Speaker 1: using FireWire, that's that's pretty fast. If you're using USB 274 00:15:31,480 --> 00:15:34,080 Speaker 1: two point oh, it's not as fast. It depends on 275 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:37,360 Speaker 1: the FireWire, that's true. I'm talking about like I'm thinking 276 00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:40,600 Speaker 1: of like the most recent USB three, assuming that that 277 00:15:40,720 --> 00:15:45,240 Speaker 1: ever actually gets to us in a real widespread way, 278 00:15:45,240 --> 00:15:49,920 Speaker 1: should put USB right back up there with FireWire. Um, 279 00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:52,720 Speaker 1: someone's going to think about that. Well, the thing is 280 00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:56,640 Speaker 1: they keep one upping each other. Is kind of an 281 00:15:56,640 --> 00:15:58,800 Speaker 1: also ran at this point. I mean, I mean, Apple 282 00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:03,080 Speaker 1: still really supports it, but that's about it, not even 283 00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:05,760 Speaker 1: as much as they used to. Yeah, but to the 284 00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:08,720 Speaker 1: most recent IMAX, that's a totally different subject. I should't 285 00:16:08,720 --> 00:16:10,640 Speaker 1: even get into it. To the best of my knowledge, 286 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:13,680 Speaker 1: the more recent machines do actually that. That's that's relevant though, 287 00:16:13,760 --> 00:16:16,440 Speaker 1: because if you're talking about hooking up another drive to 288 00:16:16,520 --> 00:16:19,720 Speaker 1: your computer, like an external drive, you're gonna this is 289 00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:21,760 Speaker 1: again something to consider. You're gonna want a nice fast 290 00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:24,920 Speaker 1: data rate, and you're gonna see on professional computers, top 291 00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:28,200 Speaker 1: of the line PCs and MAX both are going to 292 00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:31,000 Speaker 1: have you know, you're you'll have more options like the 293 00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:35,440 Speaker 1: faster FireWire and the faster USB connections, you know versus 294 00:16:35,480 --> 00:16:37,640 Speaker 1: you know, something you might see on your consumer level 295 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:40,360 Speaker 1: or you know, for example, a netbook or something you're 296 00:16:40,360 --> 00:16:42,800 Speaker 1: probably not it's not going to be because they're not 297 00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:47,960 Speaker 1: designed for you know, high end applications computing on the go. 298 00:16:49,040 --> 00:16:51,840 Speaker 1: Um So I mean it is it? Yeah, it is relevant. 299 00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:54,800 Speaker 1: But yeah, as far as I know, the Apple still 300 00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:58,800 Speaker 1: includes the higher higher speed one port I think on 301 00:16:58,920 --> 00:17:02,880 Speaker 1: the the the iMac and probably a couple on the 302 00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:07,600 Speaker 1: power Max. But um, anyway, that's what they call them now, 303 00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:11,119 Speaker 1: the Mac pros. There we go. Anyway, someone wanted inbout 304 00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:14,280 Speaker 1: that I wouldn't know I've got an anti Mac bias. Yes, yes, 305 00:17:14,359 --> 00:17:18,639 Speaker 1: we've been told. Um so, actually, uh, it might be 306 00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:20,960 Speaker 1: a good time to talk about some of the drawbacks 307 00:17:21,080 --> 00:17:24,600 Speaker 1: of hard drives because you know, over time they've become smaller, 308 00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:27,600 Speaker 1: they've become more efficient. They there, they can be running 309 00:17:27,600 --> 00:17:31,440 Speaker 1: faster speeds. Um you say smaller, you mean smaller physically 310 00:17:31,720 --> 00:17:36,000 Speaker 1: so you can run. Well, yes, they can't hold more data. Yeah, 311 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:38,400 Speaker 1: but I just want to make sure we clarified smaller. 312 00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:44,440 Speaker 1: But well, let's take another Apple product into a two perspective. 313 00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:47,280 Speaker 1: I have a four G black and white iPod which 314 00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:49,520 Speaker 1: has a hard drive in it and you can hear it. 315 00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:52,199 Speaker 1: When you play a song, it spins up and starts 316 00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:54,480 Speaker 1: accessing the information on there, so they can tell me 317 00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:56,680 Speaker 1: what tracks are available, and I can I can listen 318 00:17:56,680 --> 00:18:01,080 Speaker 1: to a song. But Apple has moved away from physical 319 00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:04,440 Speaker 1: hard drives because of their limitations, like, for example, if 320 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:07,199 Speaker 1: you drop one on the ground and it is still spinning, 321 00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:10,399 Speaker 1: it will likely start to click because it is a 322 00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:13,879 Speaker 1: very easy way to cause a head crash. Um, you know, 323 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:16,720 Speaker 1: and they're they're not the most durable things in the world. Yeah, 324 00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:18,959 Speaker 1: they're not necessarily the kind of device you would want 325 00:18:18,960 --> 00:18:22,120 Speaker 1: to use if you were like, for example, the iPods 326 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:25,080 Speaker 1: a good a good choice. Let's say you want to 327 00:18:25,119 --> 00:18:28,120 Speaker 1: do lots of exercise and stuff. Um, well, if you've 328 00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:30,520 Speaker 1: got a device that has moving parts in it, then 329 00:18:31,280 --> 00:18:35,240 Speaker 1: the jitter that it suffers as you run up and 330 00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:39,640 Speaker 1: down your street or whatever. Um or being chased by vagabonds, 331 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:42,679 Speaker 1: as is often the case with me. Um, I have 332 00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:45,320 Speaker 1: a I live in a vagabond heavy part of town. 333 00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:49,879 Speaker 1: I moved from thug Central to Vagabond Bill and it's 334 00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:53,400 Speaker 1: actually been an improvement in my lifestyle. But that's neither 335 00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:56,680 Speaker 1: here nor there, Jonathan. Yeah, you know, I do live 336 00:18:56,760 --> 00:19:00,359 Speaker 1: right across the street from train tracks, so that's true. 337 00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:03,920 Speaker 1: I'm hoping is listening to this Hobo love. That's gonna 338 00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:06,320 Speaker 1: be the name of my first record album. So at 339 00:19:06,359 --> 00:19:09,879 Speaker 1: any rate you've got this, If you have moving parts 340 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:12,760 Speaker 1: and the device as you're jogging around, then clearly then 341 00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:15,560 Speaker 1: those those moving parts could suffer as a result, and 342 00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:18,280 Speaker 1: then you could end up shortening the life of your device. 343 00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:21,320 Speaker 1: To get away from that, you would want to choose 344 00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:24,640 Speaker 1: some sort of memory format that did not have moving parts. 345 00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:26,720 Speaker 1: And we'll get into that in just a minute, because 346 00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:28,720 Speaker 1: you know, we want to dedicate a good amount of 347 00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:30,679 Speaker 1: time to solid state. But let's keep talking about the 348 00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:33,440 Speaker 1: I was afraid I was segway too early. Yeah, well, 349 00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:35,400 Speaker 1: well I was just gonna say that. We already brought 350 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:38,119 Speaker 1: up the magnet thing, right right. But also just the 351 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:41,200 Speaker 1: fact that it has moving parts. You know, it has 352 00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:44,760 Speaker 1: a motor. There's a motor that turns those platters and 353 00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:49,680 Speaker 1: the arm as well. Um, motors can break down, motors 354 00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:53,200 Speaker 1: can overheat. Uh, whenever you have the moving parts, there 355 00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:56,200 Speaker 1: are certain dangers that are going to come with that. 356 00:19:56,280 --> 00:19:58,920 Speaker 1: And for most hard drives, those dangers are going to 357 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:01,800 Speaker 1: be something that you'd see to prolonged use, right, Like, 358 00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:05,680 Speaker 1: so older computers are more prone to hardware failure than 359 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:08,560 Speaker 1: than computers that are fresh off the line, assuming that 360 00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:12,280 Speaker 1: you're not buying a limon, yes, and and hard drives 361 00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:16,120 Speaker 1: are you know, I'm sure a computer engineer will tell you. Um, 362 00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:19,800 Speaker 1: someone had told me once that hard drive often fails 363 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:23,200 Speaker 1: either very early in its life cycle, and we would 364 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:26,040 Speaker 1: assume at that point that it's a lemon or you know, 365 00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:29,040 Speaker 1: a couple of years down the road, probably a couple 366 00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:32,719 Speaker 1: is oversimplification here, but I mean it's it's it's not 367 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:36,520 Speaker 1: like it's immune from failure, you know, something where you 368 00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:39,800 Speaker 1: really need to back up your hard drive often because 369 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:42,320 Speaker 1: there is a possibility that something will fail. A mechanical 370 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:44,040 Speaker 1: engineer will tell you, as my father, who is a 371 00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:46,880 Speaker 1: mechanical engineer, often told me, the more moving parts you have, 372 00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:51,560 Speaker 1: the increased likelihood that something eventually will break, right, because 373 00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:54,320 Speaker 1: you have more points of failure exactly. So yeah, so 374 00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:57,920 Speaker 1: that's that's logical. So that kind of explains sort of 375 00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:01,639 Speaker 1: the move to the solid state drives. Yes, now, which 376 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:05,000 Speaker 1: you know again iPods and zoons and I think just 377 00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:08,520 Speaker 1: about everybody who has something like that now all use 378 00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:11,400 Speaker 1: flash memory of some sort and lots of netbooks are 379 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:14,080 Speaker 1: using it, not all, but lots of them, as of them, 380 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:16,000 Speaker 1: and and you're starting to see it in other things 381 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:20,600 Speaker 1: like laptops as well. UM, solid state is has got 382 00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:24,800 Speaker 1: a few advantages. Uh, it's it doesn't It doesn't store 383 00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:30,359 Speaker 1: data magnetically. For one thing. It's all about controlling the 384 00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:34,800 Speaker 1: flow of electrons, whether gates are opened or closed. Um. Yeah. 385 00:21:34,840 --> 00:21:39,520 Speaker 1: That's the electronically erasable programmable read only memory aspect of it, 386 00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:45,840 Speaker 1: or e PROM Yes. I was like what, um, yeah, 387 00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:49,000 Speaker 1: And it has two different kinds of gates. It's the 388 00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:52,240 Speaker 1: information is laid out. Think of the information on a 389 00:21:52,359 --> 00:21:54,760 Speaker 1: flash drive. So we're talking about like the USB drives, 390 00:21:55,119 --> 00:21:58,640 Speaker 1: or say the chips that you put into a video 391 00:21:58,680 --> 00:22:04,560 Speaker 1: game controller to store ave games, a camera, yeah, cameras, 392 00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:09,000 Speaker 1: the SD cards, things like that. Um, you have a 393 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:11,200 Speaker 1: series of transistors and they're laid out on a grid, 394 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:16,159 Speaker 1: and you've got uh floating gates and control gates, and 395 00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:20,240 Speaker 1: these essentially control whether or not electrons passed through that grid, 396 00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:25,040 Speaker 1: and that's what determines whether the data on that UH 397 00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:27,320 Speaker 1: in that section of the drive is a one or 398 00:22:27,359 --> 00:22:31,720 Speaker 1: a zero, right, And because again all information and computers 399 00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:35,320 Speaker 1: ultimately is stored as a series of ones and zeros, 400 00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:41,200 Speaker 1: that would be yes, um, and then uh, you've got 401 00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:43,639 Speaker 1: so the see I what if I can remember how 402 00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:46,520 Speaker 1: the rows and columns go. I know that the the 403 00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:49,000 Speaker 1: row is the word line, and I think the column 404 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:52,560 Speaker 1: is the bitline. Is that right? Um, you don't know, 405 00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:56,840 Speaker 1: I don't know, okay, so um uh yeah, anyway, see 406 00:22:56,840 --> 00:22:58,159 Speaker 1: if I have that in my home. It's been a 407 00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:01,680 Speaker 1: long time since I've actually written about solid state drives, 408 00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:04,800 Speaker 1: and unfortunately I've been concentrating on other things. But in 409 00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:08,520 Speaker 1: any of the floating gates, link to the row. The 410 00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:11,000 Speaker 1: row is the wordline. Just do the control gate. Oh 411 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:16,560 Speaker 1: got you? Got you okay, so uh again controlling the 412 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:19,480 Speaker 1: flow of electrons for for bits. Now, the nice thing 413 00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:22,480 Speaker 1: about solid state electronics is that they can be even 414 00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:25,720 Speaker 1: smaller than the smallest um physical hard drives, so you 415 00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:28,080 Speaker 1: don't have to have a motor, so that takes up 416 00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:31,960 Speaker 1: less space right there. Um, they're very very portable, uh, 417 00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:35,639 Speaker 1: and they can hold a surprisingly large amount of information. 418 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:38,000 Speaker 1: And you know, I remember back when you would get 419 00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:42,320 Speaker 1: a USB drive and it might or a little thumb drive, 420 00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:44,639 Speaker 1: a little flash drive and it would be maybe a 421 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:50,280 Speaker 1: Meg's And now you know it's no big deal. Like 422 00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:52,760 Speaker 1: if when I go to conferences, a lot of these 423 00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:56,440 Speaker 1: companies will put their press material onto a USB drive 424 00:23:56,480 --> 00:24:02,320 Speaker 1: as opposed to giving you a six pounds of of paper. Right. 425 00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:05,880 Speaker 1: And in these cases I get for gigabyte or larger 426 00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:10,320 Speaker 1: USB drives on occasion. Most are around two. But you 427 00:24:10,359 --> 00:24:14,719 Speaker 1: know they get bigger than that easily. Um, so it's 428 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:18,320 Speaker 1: actually really really impressive. And they don't since they don't 429 00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:19,960 Speaker 1: have the moving parts, so you don't have the same 430 00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:23,800 Speaker 1: risk of failure as you do with a a physical 431 00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:27,359 Speaker 1: hard drive like the platter hard drive. Um, they're both physical. 432 00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:29,200 Speaker 1: I don't know why I used that word, so please 433 00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:33,679 Speaker 1: don't write in I know they're both physical. Uh mechanical, 434 00:24:33,720 --> 00:24:35,879 Speaker 1: I guess I should say, because it has a quitter function. 435 00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:39,600 Speaker 1: The downside is that solid state electronics tend to be 436 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:46,159 Speaker 1: much more expensive, so as you get to the higher 437 00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:51,760 Speaker 1: capacity drives, you start reaching, um a price point that 438 00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:54,080 Speaker 1: is much greater than if you were to get a 439 00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:59,679 Speaker 1: comparative platter system. M Um, that's the biggest drawback. I 440 00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:03,480 Speaker 1: think with the solid state versus platter. Another drawback that 441 00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:06,919 Speaker 1: I've read about is that flash memory can only be 442 00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:12,080 Speaker 1: written to a finite number of times. Eventually it will 443 00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:15,920 Speaker 1: wear out. UM so they're not immune from failure either. 444 00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:19,600 Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I I think I would avoid 445 00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:24,439 Speaker 1: exposing them to you know, fire water magnets. You know, 446 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:26,400 Speaker 1: I know they're not magnetic, but I don't think it's 447 00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:28,960 Speaker 1: probably a good idea to stick a you know, twelve 448 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:31,000 Speaker 1: pound test magnet next to it. Of course, I have 449 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:33,399 Speaker 1: an aversion to twelve pound test magnets because I had 450 00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:37,000 Speaker 1: a bad experience with one as a child. Yeah, we're 451 00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:43,399 Speaker 1: vagabonds involved. But there was a bear. Oh wow, a 452 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:46,280 Speaker 1: bear and a wow, that's the story I need to hear. 453 00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:48,399 Speaker 1: It was a it was a grizzly encounter. Let's just 454 00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:52,040 Speaker 1: say that nice. Um. I also just just to go 455 00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:54,520 Speaker 1: back just a touch, I was right about the bitline. 456 00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:57,160 Speaker 1: I had to go through my notes and I found 457 00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:01,280 Speaker 1: it so wordline, wordlines, the rose and bitlines are the um. 458 00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:04,879 Speaker 1: So that's the grid on on the flash memory. Uh 459 00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:08,439 Speaker 1: so yeah, I mean, and the data there's is not 460 00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:12,000 Speaker 1: stored in the same way. Again, since we're talking about 461 00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:15,240 Speaker 1: electron gates as opposed to magnetic, so it's not like 462 00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:18,159 Speaker 1: it's spread out throughout the drive the same way that 463 00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:22,439 Speaker 1: it is on hard disks. Um, it's uh, it's an 464 00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:24,719 Speaker 1: interesting and that that's all. Might also be why when 465 00:26:24,800 --> 00:26:28,359 Speaker 1: you're accessing stuff from like a flash based memory system 466 00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:31,760 Speaker 1: it seems to pop up much faster. It's because it's 467 00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:35,119 Speaker 1: not having to search multiple locations within the drive to 468 00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:38,880 Speaker 1: find all the bits of that file. Well, um, yeah, 469 00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:41,400 Speaker 1: it's just it's it's nice to see it coming down 470 00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:43,560 Speaker 1: in price because I think it will become more common 471 00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:47,200 Speaker 1: in computers. But like I said, don't assume that your 472 00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:50,520 Speaker 1: information is completely safe. It's always a good idea to 473 00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:54,119 Speaker 1: back everything up. Yeah, yeah, whether you're using another platter 474 00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:57,000 Speaker 1: system hard drive to do it, or a flash based system, 475 00:26:57,080 --> 00:26:59,399 Speaker 1: or you're storing to the cloud. If you're storing to 476 00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:02,960 Speaker 1: the cloud, then you don't know what kind of system 477 00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:05,480 Speaker 1: ultimately is going to be holding that data, nor do 478 00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:07,800 Speaker 1: you know exactly where it is as you control the 479 00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:09,840 Speaker 1: other end of that. But there is a physical system 480 00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:12,760 Speaker 1: somewhere holding it. It's not like it's not like it's 481 00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:16,280 Speaker 1: literally floating in the web and is just kind of 482 00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:18,840 Speaker 1: free roaming until you access it. It's not quite true. 483 00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:23,439 Speaker 1: It actually is sitting on someone's machine somewhere that's right 484 00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:29,080 Speaker 1: blinking ominously in the night. Yeah. Well that wraps up 485 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:32,800 Speaker 1: this discussion about hard drives. I thought perhaps we should 486 00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:36,280 Speaker 1: address something that came to us from a little listener 487 00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:39,720 Speaker 1: mail and Chris, I think you have this, Yes, yes, um, 488 00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:42,439 Speaker 1: this happened. Well, Jonathan was out on a vacation. We 489 00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:47,600 Speaker 1: just record the iPhone for podcast that everybody had been 490 00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:51,359 Speaker 1: emailing us about, and I made a misstatement and Stephen 491 00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:54,280 Speaker 1: wrote in to correct me. Thank you very much, Stephen, because, 492 00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:57,680 Speaker 1: as he wrote, the Nexus one is only G s 493 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:00,240 Speaker 1: M with different three G frequencies for eight T and 494 00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:03,320 Speaker 1: T and T Mobile, please correct. And the name of 495 00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:06,080 Speaker 1: his subject line was angry yelling, so I'm assuming he 496 00:28:06,119 --> 00:28:09,160 Speaker 1: was speaking to me an angry voice of doing voice 497 00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:11,240 Speaker 1: to text. And it's amazing it didn't all come out 498 00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:15,040 Speaker 1: in all caps. Well, as it turns out, he was 499 00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:17,720 Speaker 1: absolutely right. The last time I had looked at Google's 500 00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:21,199 Speaker 1: Nexus one page, they were still planning a version for 501 00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:25,560 Speaker 1: Verizon but launch yes, Spring two thousand. Yes, and uh, 502 00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:27,840 Speaker 1: you know what, I hadn't been back to the page 503 00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:30,080 Speaker 1: in quite some time, and he's absolutely right. They have 504 00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:33,920 Speaker 1: shelve those plans. Yeah, because the Droid came out and 505 00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:37,520 Speaker 1: that ended up, Verizon decided that they would just back 506 00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:40,840 Speaker 1: the Droid line and various other Android phones and they 507 00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:43,600 Speaker 1: would not carry the Nexus one line. Yes, so thank 508 00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:46,160 Speaker 1: you very much Stephen for calling me out on that 509 00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:49,720 Speaker 1: because I was absolutely incorrect and clearly I was not 510 00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:52,960 Speaker 1: paying attention being the Android fan boy on this podcast. Yes, 511 00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:54,440 Speaker 1: he would have thrown something at me if he had 512 00:28:54,440 --> 00:28:56,760 Speaker 1: been watching I was. I was probably looking at my 513 00:28:56,800 --> 00:29:02,640 Speaker 1: notes trying to find wordline. At any rate, Thanks again. 514 00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:07,640 Speaker 1: If any of you have any comments, criticisms, corrections, requests, 515 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:10,600 Speaker 1: you just want to tell us that we're doing awesome job, 516 00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:14,120 Speaker 1: you can write us. Our email address is tex Stuff 517 00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:16,360 Speaker 1: at how stuff Worse dot com and Chris and I 518 00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:22,560 Speaker 1: will talk to you again really soon. If you're a 519 00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:24,520 Speaker 1: tech stuff and be sure to check us out on 520 00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:28,480 Speaker 1: Twitter Text Stuff hs wsr handle, and you can also 521 00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:31,600 Speaker 1: find us on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash tech 522 00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:35,680 Speaker 1: Stuff h s W. 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