Western Digital – Introduction
After making its debut in 1970, Western Digital secured its place among the leading hardware manufacturers in the world. Western Digital is known for creating solutions that allow you to create and secure your digital identity across a multitude of storage mediums from internal or external HDDs to SSDs as per your feasibility. Western Digital gives you immense control and efficiency to store what’s crucial for you most in a single trusted storage unit.
SSD or HDD – Differences Explained
The USP of Solid-State Drives abbreviated as SSDs is their faster transfer speed and better longevity. Due to the absence of any mechanical components, they offer better performance than Hard Disk Drives – HDDs in terms of speed. SSDs possess NAND flash memory to contain your data but this also comes with some restraints. For instance, you can’t store overwhelming amounts of data in SSDs compared to HDDs. Apart from that, they are SSDs are budget-friendly products. Buying a single unit can’t impact the budget that much but if you are a system integrator and want to purchase multiple SSDs it can have a significant compound impact on overall investment. On the other hand, HDDs feature high storage capacity (as of February 2021, the largest HDD available in the market features 18 TB of storage capacity) and you can buy the latest one for a more affordable cost.
If less storage capacity and higher cost doesn’t bother you, it is recommended to opt for faster and durable SSDs. But when it comes to storing overwhelming amounts of data and you want to acquire multiple storage units, HDDs can be a better option.
Difference between Desktop and Laptop Hard drives
In past, the hard disk drive – HDDs in desktop computers used to be 5.25 inches in size. But thanks to Moore’s law, they became much compact with dimensions of 3.5 inches. Desktop HDDs are composed of internal platters and their number depends upon the size and storage density of the drive. Due to the clutter of more mechanical parts and platters than laptop drives, it becomes very bulky and heavy. This is what makes them unable to be used in laptops PCs.
The laptop computers possess hard drives of 2.5 inches and costume less power. Due to the thin and compact dimensions of a laptop, the laptop HDDs are made very lean and compact in size.
The bulky dimensions of desktop HDDs come amidst some additional benefits like more storage capacity than a laptop hard drive. Due to their large size, the desktop HDDs possess more platters and rotational discs which contribute to larger storage space. Latest desktop hard drives offer better storage density which means you can store more data in lesser space. Nowadays, desktop HDDs are available with storage capacity that ranges from 1TB to 18TB.
Contrastingly, laptop HDDs with 2.5-inch of size have a relatively fewer number of platters, which in turn reduces the storage capacity. Due to the laptop’s compromised space for hardware components, the storage size of the laptop hard drives cannot exceed that of desktop hard drives.
Western Digital Desktop Hard Disk Drives
The Western Digital desktop hard drive features an extensive storage capacity ranging from 2TB to 18TB. Western Digital is famous for manufacturing hard drives that are extremely durable and are compatible with a range of devices like desktops PCs, and laptops.
Western Digital expects its state-of-the-art 18TB hard drives to be used to store video recordings filmed by 4K surveillance cameras, which can produce around 28TB of data over a period of 6 months.
Western Digital’s latest hard drive offers 10,000 RPM rotational speed with decent storage density and it well suits the workloads that demand frequent read and write operations.
The technology introduced by Western Digital is reliable and affordable compared to its competitors. Nowadays, Hard drives are linked to a motherboard via the latest SATA (Serial ATA) interface without needing a special software utility to work properly.
Difference between IDE and SATA HHDs
Integrated Drive Electronics abbreviated as IDE is a connectivity interface introduced in the mid-1980s. It was used to couple storages mediums like Hard Disk Drives (HDD), Solid State Drives (SSD), and CD/DVD ROMs with the PC’s motherboard.
IDE is capable of sustaining a data transfer rate of up to 130MB/s. IDE possesses a parallel connector and being an old connectivity standard, it shows slower performance and does not have an option for hot plugging in its server modules.
On the contrary, Serial Advanced Technology Attachment abbreviated as SATA is a connectivity standard that was 1st shown up in the early 2000s. Just like an IDE, it’s an interface used to connect hard disk drives – HDDs, Solid State Drives – SSDs, and CD/DVD ROMs to the motherboard.
SATA interface is significantly faster than HDDs. It offers speeds of up to 150 MB/s (for SATA I) to 300MB/s for (SATA II). Their serial connector earns them the title of fastest connectivity standards. The server modules of SATA HDDs feature support for hot plugging.
Importance of Rotational Speed in HDDs
In Desktop hard drives, the rotational speed of discs is the primary driver of read/write operations and access time. The rotational speed is defined as the measure of the number of rotations made by a disc per unit time (in minutes). Most moderate-level HDDs feature rotational speeds from 5400 to 7200 RPM (rotations per minute) and some high-end HDDs offer speeds up to 10000 RPM.
For a desktop computer, if you want to experience instant and noiseless read/write operations, 7200RPM Hard Drives are the best option. Most laptop drives usually offer up to a maximum of 7200RPM because of their smaller size.
How does a Desktop Hard Drive work?
Due to the presence of mechanical components, HDDs work slower than their SSD counterparts. HDDs consist of rotating disks/platters and a hovering read/write head. whenever the operating system tends to load or access a certain file, the hard disk searches the respective disk and tracks to search for a required file and moves the read/write head above it.
Data write operations are performed with the help of electric-magnetic signals produced by the magnetic head. Upon completion of one write operation, the head moves to another location and repeats the same process again.
Decent Capacity and Value to Money Western Digital HDD modules
To scale up your desktop hard drive with a faster and decent capacity HDD, Western Digital offers a range of products that support the SATA interface such as WD20EARS. The said product features 2TB of storage space. WD20EARS features a 3.5-inch size, SATA interface, and rotational speed of 5400RPM. All these features make WD20EARS SATA-HDD one of the best products of Western Digital’s storage lineup.
Outro
Western Digital is one of the top tech companies that produce storage devices, both flash and disk. With one of its best-selling products WD20EARS SATA-HDD, you can experience a noteworthy boost in your storage performance and secure massive amounts of data without any second thought.