People contemplate hard disk upgrades for one main reason: to boost their storage capacity.

But before you opt for a new hard disk drive (or, in modern parlance, a hard drive), it’s best to refresh yourself about exactly what they do in the scheme of things and what you get when you upgrade. Also, you need to consider the fact that as cloud computing becomes more important, the need for ever larger hard drives might decrease; although, they might be a bit like the paperless office dream that was touted a few decades ago.

The hard disk is basically where most things are stored on your computer. And it follows, the bigger your hard drive, the bigger your storage capacity. As everything has moved digital and multimedia over the last few years, so the need for storage capacity has increased. If one just considers the amount of digital files that now require storing (think about pictures, videos and Microsoft application files for example), then you can see why, as they say, size is important.

But what exactly is a hard disk drive. It was first introduced in 1956 by IBM and, to give it it’s correct title, is a data storage device which is non-volatile and randomly accessed. You can often hear them working inside your computer box and if not, a red flashing light will inform you that they are busily going about their business. They are made up of rigid platters which rotate on a spindle which is motor driven. The plates are of course enclosed in a protective enclose which keeps out the dust and knocks. Don’t be ever be tempted to open one of these babies up; you’ll lose your data unless unsealed in a dust free room.

The data (in the form of files) is transferred to the disk, and read again, magnetically. This is achieved by heads that can read, or write, and float above the platters on a film of air.

As technology has progressed, so have hard drives and their storage capacity has rapidly increased over the years. And it’s not just the capacity that has increased; their speed (the rate at which they access files and store them), has also improved dramatically.

You could of course argue nowadays that we have reached the optimum capacity of hard drives, because cloud computing will ultimately do away with the need for absolute storage capacity.

The theory is that desk top computers (should they survive the ever growing popularity of the pads and convenience of the laptops) will become in fact smaller as they rely on cloud based technology. This effectively means that everything digital is stored in a remote location which can be accessed via the internet. This includes the massive applications such as Microsoft Office. In future, so the IT experts say, only a few MS Office files will be stored on the computer (just the key building blocks so to speak) and all the application’s components will be accessed from the cloud provider. This means that a desk top computer can be stripped right down to the bare bones and it also avoids many of the more costly parts.

This is why desk tops might become also the same price as printers, because soon, they will just be work stations on which the internet can be accessed and applications delivered.
It’s a nice theory and we are definitely marching in that direction now, but we still have a fair way to go. Broadband networks in the West are still flaky, delivering unreliable speeds and regular drops. Should the internet cease and a user is unable to access their applications, or files, then the whole Cloud Computing concept will be called into question.

When the West’s Broadband networks are eventually all upgraded to fibre optics, then Cloud computing will have its day. Until that time, hard disk upgrades is arguably the best way to ensure you have adequate storage capacity.