The physical, rigid magnetic platter inside a mechanical storage drive where data is actually recorded. While technically referring only to the spinning disk itself, technicians frequently use the term interchangeably with the entire drive assembly. The disks are typically made of aluminum or glass and coated with a thin magnetic layer.
Heard on the job
The read-write head crashed directly into the hard disk, so the data recovery is going to be expensive.
Do not mix it up with
- Hard drive: A hard disk is the physical magnetic platter, while a hard drive is the entire mechanical assembly containing the disks, motor, and electronics.