What to look for when choosing an external hard drive. Modern classification of hard drives

In the distant fifties of the last century, or more precisely in 1956, IBM created the great-great-great-grandfather of modern information storage. This miracle weighed a little more than a ton (!) and contained only 5 Megabytes of data. Such a “box” could only be lifted using a forklift.

As time passed, miniaturization replaced gigantomania. And now small “boxes” weighing a couple of hundred grams or even less can easily be placed in your system units, laptops, tablets and even phones, and recently in watches. It is believed that if aviation developed as rapidly as computers, today everyone could have a personal plane for no more than a car. But let's get back to the hardware.

When size matters

Miniaturization made it possible to create devices that fit in a matchbox and at the same time have fantastic capacity.

Among all the sizes of hard drives, three groups can be divided into three groups:

3.5 inches is the most common option, inhabiting almost every desktop PC;
- 2.5 inches - a brother in the information department, but for laptops;
- 1–1.5 inches – usually installed on smartphones, MP3 players and similar devices.

But even despite its size, today a 1-inch “baby” is capable of storing hundreds of tracks of your favorite music and dozens of films.

His Majesty is the controller

If, upon opening the system unit, you find connectors that are not at all what you expected, there is a reason for this. Each controller has its own characteristics.

Hard drives differ in the connection method, as well as the principle of operation:

IDE is the most common disk controller that used to be used. Nowadays it is not used so often. It allowed the disc rotation speed to reach 7.5 thousand revolutions per minute, which gave good performance.
- SATA (I, II, III) – the next generation after IDE. With the best rotation speed, up to 10 thousand revolutions per minute.
- SCSI has always stood somewhat apart, since it was not accessible to ordinary mortals. It was distinguished by its reading speed (up to 15 thousand revolutions), so it was and is still used where special performance is needed.
- SDD is a hard disk controller designed based on the principle of flash memory. Contains no moving parts, everything inside is replaced with electronic components. Thanks to this, it offers high indicators on mean time between failures (up to 1 million hours) and reading. However, today they are still expensive. As an alternative, there is a hybrid version with flash memory and a mechanical part.

Outside or inside?

You can point out one more feature of a hard drive - the way it is placed. There are internal and external models.

The internal ones are quietly placed in the system unit, smartphone, and their work is visible only by the blinking of the lights outside.

External hard drives are small boxes with cords. They connect to a USB port and work great. If you take such a box and disassemble it, then the same ordinary 2-5 or 3-5 inch HDD or SDD will appear.

What next?

Progress has one very useful property. He doesn't stand still. Methods for storing information using lasers, crystals, and holographic images are already being developed. Various materials are being tested and innovative devices are being created. Perhaps soon the hard drives we are familiar with will give way to a miracle that has come to us from the pages of books in the Sci-Fi genre.

Good day.

It is quite convenient to use for storing and transferring large amounts of information. external HDs. Many, of course, will object - after all, there are “clouds”. But not all information can be stored there (there is confidentiality and everything...), and our Internet is not always and everywhere fast.

Agree, it’s convenient when you have music, photos, movies, games on an external storage device and when you come to visit, you can quickly connect your drive to your PC and start playing a pleasant composition...

In this article I want to give a few important points (in my opinion) that you should pay attention to when choosing and purchasing an external drive. I, of course, have never been to a factory that produces such devices, and nevertheless, I have some experience (): at work I have to deal with three dozen similar media, and at home - a dozen more.

7 points when choosing an external HDD

⑴ Storage capacity

The bigger, the better!

This rule is also true for external hard drives (there is never too much space). Today, some of the most popular volumes are 1-4 TB (and the cheapest in terms of price/number of GB). Therefore, I recommend taking a closer look at disks of this particular volume.

About disks 5-8 TB and more...

These are also on sale today. But there are a couple of “buts” that I would recommend paying attention to:

• not “tested” technologies - the reliability of such disks often leaves much to be desired. And in general, I would not recommend immediately grabbing any new and large-capacity disks (until the manufacturers perfect their manufacturing technology...);
• Such drives often require additional power. If you are buying a disk for a laptop or other portable gadget (which you want to connect only to a USB port), then such disks will create unnecessary “problems” for you...

⑵ About the connection interface

The most popular interfaces on sale now are USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. I recommend that you immediately take aim and select USB 3.0 (up to 5 Gbps; you will notice the difference in speed even by eye).

In practice, usually, the speed of copying/reading from an external drive via USB 2.0 reaches 30-40 MB/s, and via USB 3.0 - up to 80-120 MB/s. Those. there is a difference, especially since a USB 3.0 drive is universal and can be connected even to devices that only support USB 2.0.

By the way, to distinguish a USB 2.0 port from a USB 3.0 port, pay attention to the color. Most manufacturers now mark USB 3.0 ports in blue.

How to distinguish a USB 3.0 port from a USB 2.0 port (USB 3.0 port is marked in blue)

By the way, if you have a new USB Type-C port on your laptop (computer) (speed up to 10 Gbps), then disks with a similar interface are now starting to appear on sale, and it makes sense to take a closer look at such models. I also note that there are all kinds of adapters for connecting drives with USB 3.0 (for example) to the new USB Type-C port.

Addition: there are also other standards SATA, eSATA, FireWire, Thunderbolt. They are much less common than USB and I don’t see any point in dwelling on them, because... The vast majority of users will be satisfied with the USB interface.

⑶ About a separate power supply

There are drives with or without an additional power source (powered by a USB port). As a rule, disks that operate only from a USB port do not exceed 4-5 TB (this is the maximum that I have seen on sale).

I note that disks with an additional adapter work faster and more stable. But, nevertheless, extra wires create inconvenience, and it is not always possible to connect the drive to an outlet - for example, when using the drive while working on a laptop.

There is another issue worth noting: not always and not all drive models have enough power from the USB port (for example, in cases where the device is powered by a small netbook or not only a drive is connected to USB - there may not be enough power for the HDD!). In cases of power shortage, the disk may simply become “invisible”. I mentioned this in this article:

From practice...

Disks that needed power from a USB port: Seagate Expansion 1-2 TB (not to be confused with the Portable Slim line), WD Passport Ultra 1-2 TB, Toshiba Canvio 1-2 TB.

Disks with which there were problems (and from time to time they became invisible in Windows): Samsung 1-2 TB, Seagate Portable Slim 1-2 TB, A-DATA 1-2 TB, Transcend StoreJet 1-2 TB.

Basically, if you encounter a power shortage, you can try using a USB splitter with a power supply. Such a device will allow you to connect several disks to one USB port at once, and all of them will have enough power (even when connected to a “weak” netbook).

USB splitter with power supply

⑷ About form factor // size

Form factor - specifies the size of the disk. About 10-15 years ago there was no special class as “External hard drives”, and many used regular HDDs placed in a special box (box) - i.e. We assembled such a portable disk ourselves. From there came the two most popular form factors of external HDDs - 2.5 and 3.5 inches.

Large, heavy and bulky discs. The most capacious to date (the capacity of one HDD reaches 8 TB or more!). Most suitable for a desktop PC (or a laptop that is rarely carried). Typically provide higher data transfer rates (compared to 2.5").

Such disks are rarely produced in shock-resistant cases, so they are extremely susceptible to shaking or vibration. Another feature: they cannot work without a power supply (at all!). Extra wires do not add convenience to them...

Stationary external hard drive 3.5" (pay attention to the dimensions) - connects to a 220V network via a power supply

The most popular and in demand type of disk. Their dimensions are comparable to a regular smartphone (a little larger). Most drives have enough power from the USB port for full operation. Convenient both on the road and at home, for connecting to both a PC and laptop (and in general, to any equipment with a USB port).

Often, when such disks are placed in special. shock-resistant casing, allowing them to extend their “survival” (relevant for disks that are often on the road and subject to vibrations).

Of the minuses: their capacity is slightly lower than that of 3.5" drives (today it reaches 5 TB). Also, some drive models do not always have enough power from the USB port, and they “fall off” during operation (i.e. they become invisible to Windows OS).

⑸Disk speed

Your disk processing speed depends on several components:

1. from the interface: today the best option in terms of price/speed ratio is the USB 3.1 standard (USB Type-C is also gaining popularity);
2. on spindle speed: in external drives there are 5400 rpm, 7200 rpm and 4200 rpm. The higher the speed, the higher the speed of reading information (and the louder the disk makes noise and heats up). Typically, 2.5" discs run at 4200 and 5400 rpm, 3.5" discs - 7200 rpm;
3. on cache size (temporary memory, allowing quick access to the most frequently used information) : Now the most popular disks with a cache of 8-64 MB. Naturally, the higher the cache, the more expensive the disk...

Personal opinion: in most cases, external drives are purchased to store various multimedia data - music, movies, photos, etc. And with such tasks, the difference in the speed of a disk with 7200 rpm and 5400 rpm is not significant and does not play a big role. The only point (in terms of speed) when choosing, I would focus on the presence of a USB 3.1 interface (otherwise there are still quite a lot of drives with a USB 2.0 interface on sale).

⑹Protection from moisture and fur. damage. Passwords and hacking protection

Some disk models have additional protection from shock, dust, moisture, etc. Naturally, such disks are more expensive than regular ones, sometimes the cost is several times higher!

In my opinion, all these bells and whistles, if they help, are only for very minor incidents. If the disk is expecting a strong blow, then the case, although it will soften it, will not help the matter much. Based on my experience of “sad” cases, I will say that the shock-resistant case of models whose cost does not exceed $350 did not prevent damage to the disk. I haven’t used more expensive discs, and I can’t criticize them in absentia.

In my opinion, if you buy such disks, it will cost no more than 10-20% of the cost of other disks (and certainly such protection does not cost as much as 2-3 ordinary disks).

I will add that disks often fail without any shocks or shocks. I would recommend paying more attention to the reliability of the line (HDD model range) and reviews about it.

As for all kinds of password protection for the drive, the disk can also be protected using free utilities (and it is not known which will be more reliable).

⑺ About manufacturers, which is more reliable

It is clear that everything written below is conditional and not very representative data. Because to make real statistics on the most reliable disks, you need to test thousands of disks (not a few dozen, like I did). Nevertheless, I will express my point of view...

1. WD My Passport is one of the most reliable; not a single drive from this line has failed. And there are no particular complaints about the work: they do not make noise, do not get hot, and are always “visible”. The price tag for them is 10-15% higher than for other similar discs, but they are worth it. I will add that their dimensions are also slightly larger than those of the same Seagate Portable Slim (but in my opinion this is not significant) ...
2. WD My Cloud - in principle, everything that was said above is also relevant for this line;
3. Toshiba Canvio - despite the fact that the drives appeared on the market not so long ago, there are no particular complaints about them. So far there have been no problems with any of the 4 disks;
4. Seagate Expansion - average in quality (5 out of 7 drives work, 2 were delivered under warranty, but did not work for even a year...). There are no problems with “visibility”, but I would note that many disks from this line are “noisy” during operation;
5. Seagate Portable Slim - in my opinion, the worst line (anywhere you see "Seagate Slim" - better beware!). It’s possible that I was just unlucky, but 5 out of 5 disks became unusable within 1.5 years after purchase;
6. A-DATA - generally work (4 out of 5 drives have worked for more than a year), but drives from this manufacturer do not always have enough power from USB when used on laptops;
7. Transcend StoreJet is an interesting option because... their disks are specially protected. body from light shocks. There were no questions regarding reliability (although I only have 2 of them), there is a problem with “noise” during operation and “visibility” without additional ones. nutrition;
8. Silicon Power (Armor) - negative review because... 3 out of 3 drives did not live up to even initial expectations: the data transfer speed is low (even when connected to USB 3.0), they often “fall off” and become invisible. It's not a job, it's a nightmare...

What do you use?

Additions on the topic are welcome...

Good luck to everyone and good choice!

Hard disk drive (HDD)- is one of the most important components of a computer! And it is the hard drive that most often fails. The result is sometimes the loss of vital information. Therefore, to choose HDD need to be treated with maximum seriousness! In this article, we will look at what there are hard drives, How select hard disk (HDD) for your computer, like avoid problems with information loss and with the help what programs can restore it.

Hard drive size.

Hard drive size (its width is suitable for standard mounts in desktop computers and laptops) is calculated in inches.

Usually for home (stationary) system units use hard drives 3.5 inches (3,5" ).

For laptops- 2.5 inch, respectively - 2,5" .

Connector Type.

HDD connector interface there are two types - IDE And SATA.

IDE- still found in old computers and differs in the number of veins on the train ( 40 And 80 cores, they are interchangeable, differ in throughput speed ).

IDE connector

SATA- newer, modern interface. Of course higher throughput compared to IDE.

SATA there are three types. SATA(up to 1.5 Gbit/sec), SATA 2 (before 3 Gbit/sec) and SATA 3 (before 6 Gbps) . They differ in data transfer speed.

SATA, SATA2 , SATA3 - interchangeable. But, before you buy a more expensive hard drive with SATA3 , make sure your motherboard supports SATA3, otherwise you will receive an inappropriate expenditure of funds, because... SATA3 HDD connected to interface SATA on an old motherboard, will run at a limited speed up to 1,5 Gbit\sec, without using all your capabilities.

SATA connector

Hard disk capacity.

Quite often computer users confuse the concepts - memory And volume.:) Please remember, the hard drive only has cache memory(we'll talk about it below...).

Volume is the same - capacity! Namely - amount of digital information, which one or another can accommodate HDD. Currently, the hard drive capacity is calculated in Gigabytes (GB) And Terabytes (TB).

For reference: 1 TB = 1024 GB

1 GB= 1024 MB

Disc rotation speed.

A fairly common indicator of HDD speed is disk rotation speed(rpm). Of course, the higher the rotation speed, the louder the hard drive will make noise and its power consumption will increase (this affects its service life). If you are going to purchase a HDD just to store information (an additional disk), in this case, you should not chase speed. I advise you to choose a faster hard drive if you install the Operating System on it. At the moment, 7200 rpm is the most the best option.

Cache size.

Cache memory(buffer) - this intermediate memory. It is designed to increase the speed of the hard drive while accessing its data. IN "cache" are storedresponses to the most frequent system and application requests.And of course, there is no need to constantly read information from the disk itself. this increases the efficiency of the HDD and the system as a whole. The size of the "cache" in modern hard drives usually varies from 8 before 64 Mb.

Company manufacturer.

At the moment, the main manufacturers of hard drives are - Western Digital, Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate Technology, Toshiba. You can argue to your heart's content :) which company is better... But let's look at the facts. Let's type in an intelligent search engine Nigma.ru "hard drive problem....."(instead of dots we write the company):

hard drive problemHitachi- requests 5 400 000.

hard drive problem Seagate- requests 5 500 000.

hard drive problemWestern Digital - requests 7,400,000 .

hard drive problemSamsung - requests 17 000 000.

As you can see, the first place in reliability goes to Hitachi, second Seagate. Although, based on my own experience, I would put it in second placeWestern Digital (WD).

W.D. come with stickers of different colors - Black(black), Blue(blue), Green(green). Considered the most reliable Black, In second place Blue and at the last Green.

So, when choosing a hard drive:

1. Important! You need to find out - what connector on your old hard drive. If IDE, then I advise you to look at the connectors on the motherboard. In the presence of SATA- connections, it's better to buy SATA hard drive. With absence SATA buy IDE.

2. Important! Find out whether your old power supply will handle the new one (perhaps more voluminous and speedy) HDD.

You can find out how to do this by watching the video tutorial.How to choose the right Power Supply!

3. Decide on Volume(number of GB), Speed(rpm) and "Keshem"(8-64MB) hard drive.

4. Choose manufacturing company.

How to avoid problems with information loss.

1. Keep a backup copy of data on removable media.

The different types of hardware produced today depend primarily on the type of computers for which they are intended.

The main factors that determine the physical and technical characteristics of a hard drive are the amount of physically available space on the computer, the speed required for data transfer and the amount of disk space required. The types of hard drives PATA, SATA, SCSI and SSD are most commonly used in modern computers.

This is a type of parallel hard drive. These types of drives are also known as Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) and Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE). The labels refer to the type of interface that is used to connect the drive to the CPU board. These drives use either a 40 or 80 conductor cable with a wide 40-pin connector. 40 conductor cables are used for older, slower hard drives, while 80 conductor cables are used for newer, faster drives.

Currently, PATA hard drives have been almost completely replaced by SATA hard drives.

This is a type of serial hard drive. These drives use a completely different connector than their PATA counterparts. They also use a different power adapter than IDE, although adapters are readily available. The main difference between SATA and PATA is that the former is thinner and supposedly has a faster data transfer interface than the latter. However, the speed of the PATA and SATA drives themselves are indistinguishable, and have the same RPM rating. But SATA drives are more efficient and consume less power.

Translated as "Small Computer System Interface". These hard drives are similar to IDE drives. They also spin at a higher speed compared to IDE, SATA, etc. IDE and SATA drives spin at 7200 rpm, while SCSI drives spin at 10,000 to 15,000 rpm. Today, SATA drives with a rotation speed of 10,000 rpm are also produced. The higher the rotation speed, the faster data is accessed, but this can also lead to rapid failure. SCSI hard drives require a controller that manages the interface between the drives and the computer's motherboard.

These hard drives, unlike other types, do not have moving components. Typical hard drives consist of a spinning magnetic disk that serves as data storage, while SSDs use semiconductors for this purpose. Because there are no moving components, these hard drives are much faster and less likely to break down than other drives. However, their price is slightly higher than other hard drives.

These were some types of hard drives that are commonly included in desktop computers and laptops. I hope you found this article helpful.

Hard drives are divided into classes based on several criteria. Firstly, by interface type - SCSI, ATA and Serial AT. SCSI interface designed for organizing complex multi-component disk subsystems; it allows you to connect up to 32 devices per channel, it is technically more complex, more expensive to implement and more “intelligent” than ATA. Interface ATA designed for organizing simple disk subsystems (up to two devices per channel), much simpler and cheaper to implement and less “intelligent”. Today, SCSI drives are used in servers and powerful workstations, ATA drives are used in ordinary desktop PCs, laptop computers, and, more recently, in digital consumer electronics (for example, digital video recorders or CD/MP3 players). Interface Serial AT is a further development of the ATA interface and is intended for the same application sector. The main difference from the ATA interface is the transition to serial data transmission (ATA interface ─ parallel) and support for hot plugging/unplugging of devices, i.e. without de-energizing the system. The data transfer speed has also been increased, up to 150 MB/s and higher for Serial AT, versus 133 MB/s for ATA.

Secondly, according to the standard size of drives - 3.5_ or 2.5_inch. 3.5-inch SCSI drives and ATA drives are used in desktop PCs and other stationary devices, 2.5-inch - in laptops and other portable systems.

Third, by spindle rotation speed. SCSI drives spin the fastest - 15 thousand, 10 thousand and 7200 rpm, followed by 3.5-inch ATA drives - 10 thousand, 7200 and 5400 rpm, and finally 2 .5-inch ATA drives - 7200, 5400 and 4200 rpm.

Basic characteristics of hard drives.

Hard drive capacity. (GB.)

Interface.

Plate rotation speed. (rpm)

Buffer volume. (MB)

Recording density. (GB/Wafer)

Average/Maximum search time. (ms)

Track change time, read/write. (ms)

Internal data transfer rate. (MB/s)

Power consumption. (W)

Typical noise level.

Impact resistance in working and non-working condition.

Leading manufacturers and their model ranges

More recently, quite a few companies produced hard drives for desktop computers: Fujitsu, IBM, Maxtor, Quantum, Samsung, Seagate and Western Digital. But after two protracted industry crises and increased competition, the number of desktop drive manufacturers has been reduced to five: Hitachi, Maxtor, Samsung, Seagate and Western Digital. Here are some examples of hard drives from leading manufacturers (Table 1):

Table 1.

Modern models of hard drives from major manufacturers.

CD drives.

In a CD, data is recorded on a very narrow (100 times thinner than a human hair) spiral track that runs from the outer diameter of the disk to the inner diameter (the total length, if unrolled, would be 5 km). Any disk has a transparent polycarbonate backing, which gives it rigidity (in addition, thanks to its presence, scratches on the surface of the disk are outside the focal plane of the reading laser), a reflective metal layer and a protective layer of acrylic plastic. When a CD-ROM drive reads from a disc, it actually reads a sequence of microscopic indentations on a metal plate located inside the plastic cover of the CD. The dimples and flat areas act similarly to the magnetic charges on a floppy disk. Instead of a read-write head, a laser beam is directed onto the surface. When the beam hits a flat area, it is reflected, which is recorded as zero. If the beam hits the recess, it is scattered, which is recorded as a unit.

The main standard defining the logical and file format for recording CDs is the international specification ISO 9660. Data access time for different models ranges from 150 to 400 ms. The capacity of CDs is about 650 MB.

The data transfer speed of a drive is determined by the rotation speed of the disk and the density of the data recorded on it. It is usually indicated in comparison with the Audio CD (CD-DA) standard, for which the data reading speed is about 150 KB/s, which is taken as a 1x speed. At the same time, the designation of the number of speeds began to mean the maximum reading speed on the external tracks of the disk. Recording information on a CD begins with the internal tracks, so the maximum speed is not achieved on disks that are not completely full. So, for a 34-speed drive, the read speed can vary from 2.8 MB/s on internal tracks to 5.3 MB/s on external tracks. The pursuit of excessively high speed CD-ROM drives often results in poor readability of low-quality discs due to problems with their balancing.