There’s no definitive answer here, as every hard drive brand differs in terms of that Venn Diagram of speed, capacity, and cost. However, as our guide highlights, you really can’t go wrong ...

A hard drive stores data on a series of spinning magnetic disks called platters. This diagram shows an old PATA-style drive, but the actuator and platters are still conceptually the same.

Of all the PC components, few require more care and attention than a hard drive. We’ve all heard the admonishments to defragment drives, and clean up junk files to keep all our 1s and 0s sparkling.

The hard drive is the component used to permanently store data instead of RAM, which is erased whenever the computer is restarted. This is why the term mass storage device is sometimes used to refer ...

Grab one of the best external hard drives to increase your storage ... he's been using PCs and is always looking to add an extra drive or two to his machines. He's also lost count of the number ...

Learn more › The hard drive installed in your Windows or macOS system is where all of your apps and files live—so as computer components go, they don’t get much more important. You might ...

Justin Krajeski Kimber Streams Dave Gershgorn Share this post If you buy an external drive—such as one of our recommended portable or desktop hard drives, portable solid-state drives ...