INSIDE A HARD DISK DRIVE

Learn the basics of what's inside that mysterious metal box in your computer.

- MANDY J WATSON

This is the view inside a hard disk drive, something we do not often get to see because the units are sealed to keep dust out.

Once they're opened they're ruined unless it is done in a clean room.

That's because the mechanisms that read and write data, the read/ write heads, are positioned tens of nanometres away from the platters.