WEBVTT - How Hard Drives Work 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.000 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.959 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:18.040 text style from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:20.160 welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poette and 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:22.320 I am an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:24.239 Sitting across from me, as he always does on the 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:28.320 occasions on which we podcast is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:34.919 End of line. Thank you very much for listening. And oh, 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:37.800 Emily is gonna write in. She hasn't written in about 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:39.320 that in a long time. That's true, Well, we haven't 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:43.920 done in a long time. So today's episode comes to 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:48.360 us as a result of many, many listener males, and 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.480 so I'm not gonna read them all, but to Kara, 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:54.800 Ryan and Justin in particular, and I'm sure there were more, 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.800 but those were the three who popped up immediately. Um, 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.480 this podcast is for you. All of you guys want 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:03.600 to know how hard drives or hard disks work. So 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:05.800 we're gonna talk a bit about hard drives, and not 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:10.160 just not just the old fashioned hard drives, but the 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:15.000 new fangled solid state devices as well, and throwing some 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.880 some other storage media. I think oh I got, I 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:20.720 got a little bit on some others, notepads, and yes, 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:25.080 exactly stone tablets, stone tablets. So let's let's talk about 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:28.200 let's talk about the anatomy of a hard drive. Okay, 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:30.120 I was going to start out with a little history. 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:36.920 Oh that is even better, begin with your history, professor Palette. Um, 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:39.800 I'll tell you a little bit of a story. My 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:42.440 first computer wasn't Amigo one thousand, which I got in 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:46.720 the mid nineties, and it had no hard drive whatsoever. 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:49.800 My Apple to eat also had no hard drive. So 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:53.840 you might think that hard drives, which are now you know, 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:58.680 ubiquitous there in almost anything, including you know, uh, tablets 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:01.520 and you know, netbooks and things that that are very small, 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:03.880 you might think, well, hey, you know these have been 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.240 around for a very short time. Not the truth. Oh weird. 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:12.680 I was just thinking they were amphibious. So anyway, amphibious 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:17.720 what you said? Okay, So no, uh, hard drives actually 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.880 have been with us since the nineteen fifties, except they 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:25.640 were very very large. Um and uh it's apparently up 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:29.280 to in diameter and they would hold just a few megabytes, 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:31.240 which is very much like the first hard drive I 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:33.680 had in my second computer, the Mega three thousand had 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:38.160 well actually still has a hard drive that will hold uh, 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:43.280 you know, just forty megabytes, which is very small. But 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:47.320 but these original discs were called fixed disks, or if 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:52.200 you were an IBM customer, you might know them as winchesters. Um. 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.920 And basically the reason they're called hard hard disks are 0:02:55.960 --> 0:03:00.280 hard drives is because this is in contrast to floppy disks, 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:02.959 which are you know, made of a magnetic storage medium 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:06.880 very much like uh, tape that you might see in 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:10.519 a cassette tape or an eight track tape or videotape. Um. 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:14.519 But hard drives themselves getting into your into your anatomy 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:19.799 uh lecture on hard disks here. Um. Yeah, they're they're 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:24.880 actually not that dissimilar because hard drives are also magnetic media, right, 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.480 but they are glass or aluminum or some form of 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:32.600 harder material. It's not like that filmy, flimsy stuff that 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:35.080 you would see in a cassette tape. Right. So that's 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.160 where the hard drive or hard disk comes from. We're 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:41.880 talking about. It's stored on a medium that is uh, 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.840 that's that's not this little flimsy material. So that's another 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:47.840 thing we should talk about just very quickly, since we're 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:50.400 talking about you mentioned floppy disks, which some of our 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:55.840 listeners may be thinking hua a floppy disk. Some of 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.120 our listeners are very young, and I have not been 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:00.680 around since floppy disks kind of died. But I like 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:03.560 to think of the tech stuff audience as being you know, 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:07.560 fairly technology technologically savvy. You know, even our younger listeners 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:09.360 probably know what a floppy disk. Actually, some of the 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:11.400 very younger listeners are probably more savvy than we are. 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:15.320 So the reason why we call them floppy disks is 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.960 because the magnetic medium on pond which the data is 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:23.719 stored is is flexible. Um. The disc itself may or 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.320 may not be semi flexible. So the old five and 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:29.839 a quarter inch discs, for example, they had a very 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:35.760 uh thin protective coating, plastic coating, uh, and you could 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:38.680 they were flexible. You weren't supposed to bend them because 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:43.440 it would screw it up, but you could. Yeah. As 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:45.719 as a matter of fact, the hard disc predates the 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:50.839 floppy disk because Alan Shugart at IBM in ninety seven, uh, 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.720 you know, came up with an eight inch floppy disk. 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:57.840 UM and basically it gradually moved to a smaller disc 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.159 five and a quarter inches UM, and that debut in 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:06.160 in August. Um. Problem with that particular model was that 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:09.440 it had a part of the media was exposed, so 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:11.000 you could you could you know, poke it with your 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:13.920 finger or you know, a needle, or your cat could 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.560 throw up on it. Uh. And that's a problem because 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:20.320 all of those things happened to me in the same day. 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.320 That's bad day. Well, poking it with your finger is 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:28.159 not such a problem necessarily as the other two. But yeah, 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:30.520 that's the thing. If you crease it or something happens 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:34.440 to damage that material, then it makes it very difficult 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:37.320 to read. And when they came out with a three 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.240 and a half inch floppy disk, which is in some 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:45.760 use still in Japan, just stopped supporting it. Yeah, like 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.719 this year, there's some of the supply classet here. Yeah, 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:51.720 there's nothing I know of in the office that can 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:54.640 run one. No. No, I've seen a couple of older 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:56.800 machines with it on there. Oh my gosh, they have 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.520 dust on them. I pity those people to use those machines, 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:02.160 but to but no, the thing is, when when those 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:04.560 came out, they put a little metal slide, said that 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:06.440 the computer when you would insert it, it would the 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:08.279 computer would move the slide over and be able to 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:12.240 read and write information to that floppy disk. And they 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:16.479 also had a harder plastic coating so that you wouldn't 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.800 fold a three and a half inch disk. Yeah, and uh, 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:23.039 since we're into the alternative media thing, I will I 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:25.720 will say, you know, as as time went on, uh, 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:28.960 and other formats came out. I Omega's zip drive and 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.719 jazz drive both removable storage media like the floppy disk, 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:35.520 just at a higher density you can hold uh, you know, 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:39.640 a gigabyte or two on some of the heavier uh discs. 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:43.440 But they're essentially the same thing, you know, removable media. Now, 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.839 I remember, you know a couple other storage media that 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:49.679 were like that, that were that came in a case 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:53.560 like that, But we're optical discs. But those really fell 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.719 out of favor, I think with the advent of broadband 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:01.120 connections and really large hard drives. So getting back to 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.000 the whole hard drive issue and uh and the fact 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.400 that we're talking about these other forms of storage. As 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:11.560 we were mentioning they were all magnetic forms of storage, yes, 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.680 just like cassettes. In fact, some of the early computers 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:18.640 used cassettes rather than discs. But and and that does 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:21.240 also mean that that would also be why you did 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:25.520 not want to have your storage medium next to any 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.040 kind of magnet, because it would could screw up your 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:32.560 your your data. I mean, it would erase essentially your 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:36.040 data because it would everything would align to the magnetic 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:37.960 field of the magnet and you would no longer have 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:40.840 that storage. Well, I mean that's that's part of erasing 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:47.240 the information. Magnetizing. So magnets plus computers equals bad. Right, 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:51.160 So you're so in all these cases, the information is 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:56.920 stored through a magnetic medium. So you've got you've got 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:01.280 the disc, and within hard disc you have we call 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.120 them platters. That the discs are actually platters, and there 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:08.160 may there's usually multiple platters per hard drive. It's not 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:11.000 just one disk sitting inside a little metal box. If 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:12.480 you were to ever look at a hard drive, it 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:14.920 does tend to look like a little metal box. Usually 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:17.480 there are several platters within that. And so think of 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:19.800 the platters. It's kind of like a uh, I was 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:22.160 gonna say, a record player, but what who am I kidding? 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:27.400 Smoke gets in your eyes? A record kids? No, please, 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:29.800 those the kids. I'm saying, the kids are not gonna 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.800 know if I say a record player, Um, think of 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.080 a serious player that can hold several CDs. They still 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:40.120 make CDs, right, I haven't listened to one in ages. Okay, okay, okay. 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:42.880 Another thing to mention. If you want to take a 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.280 part of hard drive to look at this, do it 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:47.880 with a drive that you are no longer ever going 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.520 to use for anything. Yea, because it'll ruin it. Because 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:51.959 it will ruin it. But if you if you take 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.200 a part a hard drive that is busted and will 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:56.320 no longer be used for anything, you will see that 0:08:56.360 --> 0:09:00.600 there are are silver platters in there. Uh. In some 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:03.400 cases there are multiple pladders, right, Like that's what I 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:08.760 was mentioning there, yeah, yeah, And and on each deck 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:12.160 there's gonna be a little arm that can that will 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:16.439 have the device that reads and writes data to those discs. Now, 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:20.040 here's the difference between the the platters and say the 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:24.920 cassette medium. Uh, the device that reads and writes data 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:29.000 does not actually make contact with the disk. You do 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:31.040 not want that to happen. No, If you hear a 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:33.800 clicking noise from your hard drive, that probably means that 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:37.720 the arm, the read right arm is actually making contact 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.400 with the platter, which means it's damaging the hard drive 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:42.880 and you should stop using it and get it repaired 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:44.800 as soon as you can, because otherwise what's going to 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:47.839 happen is it's going to corrupt the data on that 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:49.559 disc or it's going to ruin the hard drive and 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.040 you won't be able to access the information. Right. That's 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.200 called a hard drive crash. Yeah, and it's bad head 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:59.120 crash actually. Yeah. So so anyway, each one of the 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.480 platters has of these arms, are sometimes multiple arms more 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:06.600 than one, and the arms can move towards the center 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:10.680 and towards the edge of the disk, uh dozens of 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:14.080 times per second to try and find the data. And 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:15.920 the data is stored. If you were to if you 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:17.360 were to look at a platter and you were to 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:19.640 be able to see the way data is stored, like 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.280 you somehow were able to dawn magic glasses and you 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:23.959 looked at the platter and like, oh, look at that. 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:29.240 You would see that the information is is organized within 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:33.800 concentric circles from the edge of the platter all the 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:36.240 way into the center. So you just think of those 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:40.360 concentric circles. Now, those are tracks, and they would also 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.760 be organized in wedges, so sort of like a pie 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:51.439 pie and pie. Those wedges are sectors. So data is 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:54.520 is always going to be found within a track and 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:58.240 a sector, and the computer has to keep track of 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.440 which sectors and try x have the data ware. You know. 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:03.959 That's when it's when your computer is searching for stuff. 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:06.520 It's going through all the different sectors and tracks trying 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:13.720 to find the correct information. UM and each track within 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:16.320 a sector can only hold a certain amount of data. 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:18.880 It's not like you could say, like, well, I've got 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.160 this two gigabyte file, I want it all to be 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.240 stored right here on this part of this platter. That's 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.200 not the way it works, good luck. Yeah, it's going 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.800 to break that up, uh, that file up into segments 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:35.160 and store it on various tracks in various sectors. And 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.480 it's not even necessarily going to be on the same platter. 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:41.959 Yeah it could be. It could be uh across several platters, 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:45.360 depending upon how your data is stored. And UH as 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:47.720 this happens, as as you go on filling up a 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:51.600 hard drive, UH, these files can get more and more 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:58.319 fragmented because there are fewer sectors that have an uninterrupted, 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:01.840 you know series that you could store all the information 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:05.599 right there, so it's all within the same general area. 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:07.640 That's why you want to defrag your hard drive every 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:11.480 now and then. Yeah, the more fragmented your your data get, uh, 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.960 it makes it that much more difficult for your computer 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:17.760 to find all the pieces of a file, and that's 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.920 going to slow down your computing time. So it's a 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:25.360 good idea to keep everything nicely organized so that it 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:29.120 speeds you up and makes it a little less frustrating 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:31.360 to use your computer on a day to day basis. Yeah, 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.800 I made this this comparison in a previous podcast, but 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:36.800 so you might remember it. But think of your data. 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:39.800 Think of a hard drive as like a h a 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:44.760 multi story building, and and your data is stored in boxes. 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.760 But the boxes are not all in the same room 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:49.760 on the same floor. Some of your boxes are on 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.280 the top floor, some of them are in several rooms 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:54.560 in the middle, and then you've got one in the basement. 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:56.560 That's kind of the way your hard drive is working. 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:59.160 That's the way it might store a file. The bits 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.920 of the file might be in various sections of the 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:05.600 different platters. Now these platters are spending really, really fast, 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:09.840 and the arms are moving very very quickly. So even 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:12.360 though it sounds like this is a real mishmash way 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:16.520 of doing it, it doesn't take relatively that long for 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.680 a computer to find the information. Uh. It does take 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.079 longer as you use the computer. That's what we're talking 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:24.920 about with the whole fragment defragment thing. You may notice 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:27.960 as your computer ages that takes longer for you to 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:31.280 pull certain kinds of files and programs up and again. 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:35.560 Defragging your hard drive can sometimes help fix that a 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.640 little bit. Yeah, it's not guaranteed to uh to increase 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:42.040 your computing speed a thousandfold or anything like that, but 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:45.800 it will perk things up a bit. Yeah, it's really Um, 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:48.280 what we're talking about here is seek time, Right. It 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:50.680 will decrease the amount of time it takes to seek 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:53.720 out that data. It's not gonna make your processor faster, 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:55.880 it's just gonna make it easier for the computer to 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:59.760 find the information that you want. Um. There's another speed 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.319 of information transferle that we have to talk about, which 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:05.040 is called the data rate. Now, that's the speed at 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:07.800 which the hard drive is able to deliver information to 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:12.480 your computer's processor. Yep um and those speeds vary depending 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:16.480 upon what kind of hard drive and microprocessor you have. Yeah, 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:21.040 the that information is useful when you're looking for a 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.360 hard drive if you're interested in buying a new drive 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:27.280 for your computer. UM. Also the speed at which the 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:32.360 platters spin. A lot of people prefer a faster speed. UM. 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:35.840 The trouble is that once you get into that in 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:40.280 larger drive sizes, you're starting to talk about more money um. 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:45.480 You know. But for things that are you know, speed oriented, 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:48.200 like for example, I don't know, gaming, you probably want 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.320 a faster hard drive or capturing lots and lots of video. 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:54.280 If you're capturing let's say you want to capture high 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:58.760 definition video you've shot You've shot a film, an HD film, right, 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.800 and you want to be able to capture that video 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:04.560 onto your computer. You're gonna want a hard drive that 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:08.320 spends very quickly, that has a very big capacity because 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:11.800 HD footage takes up a huge amount of data space, 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.560 and you want to be able to transfer the information 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:18.280 as quickly as possible. So uh to to just to 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.920 speed up the whole capturing UM sequence because that takes 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.560 a really long time depending on the speed of your 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:27.760 computer and the connection you're using, like if you were 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:31.360 using FireWire, that's that's pretty fast. If you're using USB 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:34.080 two point oh, it's not as fast. It depends on 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:37.360 the FireWire, that's true. I'm talking about like I'm thinking 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:40.600 of like the most recent USB three, assuming that that 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:45.240 ever actually gets to us in a real widespread way, 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:49.920 should put USB right back up there with FireWire. Um, 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:52.720 someone's going to think about that. Well, the thing is 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.640 they keep one upping each other. Is kind of an 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:58.800 also ran at this point. I mean, I mean, Apple 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:03.080 still really supports it, but that's about it, not even 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:05.760 as much as they used to. Yeah, but to the 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:08.720 most recent IMAX, that's a totally different subject. I should't 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:10.640 even get into it. To the best of my knowledge, 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:13.680 the more recent machines do actually that. That's that's relevant though, 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:16.440 because if you're talking about hooking up another drive to 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:19.720 your computer, like an external drive, you're gonna this is 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:21.760 again something to consider. You're gonna want a nice fast 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:24.920 data rate, and you're gonna see on professional computers, top 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.200 of the line PCs and MAX both are going to 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:31.000 have you know, you're you'll have more options like the 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:35.440 faster FireWire and the faster USB connections, you know versus 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:37.640 you know, something you might see on your consumer level 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:40.360 or you know, for example, a netbook or something you're 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:42.800 probably not it's not going to be because they're not 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:47.960 designed for you know, high end applications computing on the go. 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:51.840 Um So I mean it is it? Yeah, it is relevant. 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:54.800 But yeah, as far as I know, the Apple still 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:58.800 includes the higher higher speed one port I think on 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:02.880 the the the iMac and probably a couple on the 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:07.600 power Max. But um, anyway, that's what they call them now, 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:11.119 the Mac pros. There we go. Anyway, someone wanted inbout 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:14.280 that I wouldn't know I've got an anti Mac bias. Yes, yes, 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:18.639 we've been told. Um so, actually, uh, it might be 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:20.960 a good time to talk about some of the drawbacks 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:24.600 of hard drives because you know, over time they've become smaller, 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:27.600 they've become more efficient. They there, they can be running 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:31.440 faster speeds. Um you say smaller, you mean smaller physically 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:36.000 so you can run. Well, yes, they can't hold more data. Yeah, 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.400 but I just want to make sure we clarified smaller. 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:44.440 But well, let's take another Apple product into a two perspective. 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:47.280 I have a four G black and white iPod which 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:49.520 has a hard drive in it and you can hear it. 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.199 When you play a song, it spins up and starts 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:54.480 accessing the information on there, so they can tell me 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:56.680 what tracks are available, and I can I can listen 0:17:56.680 --> 0:18:01.080 to a song. But Apple has moved away from physical 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:04.440 hard drives because of their limitations, like, for example, if 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.199 you drop one on the ground and it is still spinning, 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:10.399 it will likely start to click because it is a 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.879 very easy way to cause a head crash. Um, you know, 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.720 and they're they're not the most durable things in the world. Yeah, 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:18.959 they're not necessarily the kind of device you would want 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:22.120 to use if you were like, for example, the iPods 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:25.080 a good a good choice. Let's say you want to 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:28.120 do lots of exercise and stuff. Um, well, if you've 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.520 got a device that has moving parts in it, then 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:35.240 the jitter that it suffers as you run up and 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:39.640 down your street or whatever. Um or being chased by vagabonds, 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.679 as is often the case with me. Um, I have 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:45.320 a I live in a vagabond heavy part of town. 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:49.879 I moved from thug Central to Vagabond Bill and it's 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:53.400 actually been an improvement in my lifestyle. But that's neither 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:56.680 here nor there, Jonathan. Yeah, you know, I do live 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.359 right across the street from train tracks, so that's true. 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:03.920 I'm hoping is listening to this Hobo love. That's gonna 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:06.320 be the name of my first record album. So at 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:09.879 any rate you've got this, If you have moving parts 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:12.760 and the device as you're jogging around, then clearly then 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:15.560 those those moving parts could suffer as a result, and 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.280 then you could end up shortening the life of your device. 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:21.320 To get away from that, you would want to choose 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:24.640 some sort of memory format that did not have moving parts. 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:26.720 And we'll get into that in just a minute, because 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:28.720 you know, we want to dedicate a good amount of 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:30.679 time to solid state. But let's keep talking about the 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:33.440 I was afraid I was segway too early. Yeah, well, 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:35.400 well I was just gonna say that. We already brought 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:38.119 up the magnet thing, right right. But also just the 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:41.200 fact that it has moving parts. You know, it has 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:44.760 a motor. There's a motor that turns those platters and 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:49.680 the arm as well. Um, motors can break down, motors 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:53.200 can overheat. Uh, whenever you have the moving parts, there 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.200 are certain dangers that are going to come with that. 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:58.920 And for most hard drives, those dangers are going to 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:01.800 be something that you'd see to prolonged use, right, Like, 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:05.680 so older computers are more prone to hardware failure than 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.560 than computers that are fresh off the line, assuming that 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:12.280 you're not buying a limon, yes, and and hard drives 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:16.120 are you know, I'm sure a computer engineer will tell you. Um, 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.800 someone had told me once that hard drive often fails 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:23.200 either very early in its life cycle, and we would 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:26.040 assume at that point that it's a lemon or you know, 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:29.040 a couple of years down the road, probably a couple 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:32.719 is oversimplification here, but I mean it's it's it's not 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:36.520 like it's immune from failure, you know, something where you 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:39.800 really need to back up your hard drive often because 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:42.320 there is a possibility that something will fail. A mechanical 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:44.040 engineer will tell you, as my father, who is a 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.880 mechanical engineer, often told me, the more moving parts you have, 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:51.560 the increased likelihood that something eventually will break, right, because 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:54.320 you have more points of failure exactly. So yeah, so 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.920 that's that's logical. So that kind of explains sort of 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:01.639 the move to the solid state drives. Yes, now, which 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:05.000 you know again iPods and zoons and I think just 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:08.520 about everybody who has something like that now all use 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:11.400 flash memory of some sort and lots of netbooks are 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:14.080 using it, not all, but lots of them, as of them, 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:16.000 and and you're starting to see it in other things 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:20.600 like laptops as well. UM, solid state is has got 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:24.800 a few advantages. Uh, it's it doesn't It doesn't store 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:30.359 data magnetically. For one thing. It's all about controlling the 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:34.800 flow of electrons, whether gates are opened or closed. Um. Yeah. 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:39.520 That's the electronically erasable programmable read only memory aspect of it, 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:45.840 or e PROM Yes. I was like what, um, yeah, 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:49.000 And it has two different kinds of gates. It's the 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:52.240 information is laid out. Think of the information on a 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:54.760 flash drive. So we're talking about like the USB drives, 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:58.640 or say the chips that you put into a video 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:04.560 game controller to store ave games, a camera, yeah, cameras, 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:09.000 the SD cards, things like that. Um, you have a 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:11.200 series of transistors and they're laid out on a grid, 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:16.159 and you've got uh floating gates and control gates, and 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:20.240 these essentially control whether or not electrons passed through that grid, 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:25.040 and that's what determines whether the data on that UH 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:27.320 in that section of the drive is a one or 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:31.720 a zero, right, And because again all information and computers 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:35.320 ultimately is stored as a series of ones and zeros, 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:41.200 that would be yes, um, and then uh, you've got 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:43.639