Guide to Disk Drives

A disk drive reads and writes data on a permanent or removable disk. It can be installed in one of the drive bays on the computer case, or housed in a separate box than plugs through the USB or FireWire port.  It stores data such as documents, images, videos, audio files, and software for later retrieval. 

Hard disk drive

A hard drive is the standard disk drive found in all computers including desktops and laptops. It is the primary form on permanent computer storage. It can store data from 40 GB up to 400 GB, and is often designed for high-speed transfers.

CD drive

A CD drive reads and writes data on compact discs. Some models called CD-RW drives can both read and write data on blank CDs. It is an essential part of a standard computer configuration as most software programs for installation are stored in CDs.

DVD drive

A DVD drive reads data stored in DVD/DVD-R/DVD-RW media. It is usually backward-compatible, which means that it can read older media such as CDs. It also has a DVD-writer or burner model that can write and rewrite on DVDs and CDs.

Floppy drive

The floppy drive reads 3.5-inch floppy disks (diskettes) used in older computers. All models are capable of reading and writing data onto the disk.

Zip drive

The Zip drive is designed to provide the convenience of floppy disks with the capacity and reliability of the hard disk. It reads and writes onto Zip disks, which resembles a thicker floppy disk and has a capacity ranging from 100 to 750 MB.

Transfer rate: Choose a disk drive with a fast file transfer rate (measured in megabytes per second) to if you have a large amount of multimedia files, such as photos, videos, and music. 

Portability: If you need to transfer data between two or more computers, consider an external disk drive. Look for one that connects via FireWire instead of USB because it has a faster transfer rate.