What is a hard drive? A hard drive is one of the key components of a modern computer. The hard drive is where all of your programs and files are stored. How does a hard drive work? A traditional hard drive uses similar technology to cassette and VHS to store your data. Inside the hard drive there are several delicate metallic platters. Just as a head inside of a cassette or VHS player reads the data on a tape there is a head inside of the hard drive that moves over the platters reading and writing data. When you turn on your computer the platters immediately begin to spin up to speed. The platters in a modern hard drive will spin between 5400rpm and 7200rpm, you may be able to hear a slight hum from your PC when your fan is not running and this will be the sound of your hard drive. When your computer is on but you are not accessing the drive the platters will continue to spin. The arm with the heads on it (called...