this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2024
224 points (97.9% liked)

PC Master Race

14984 readers
569 users here now

A community for PC Master Race.

Rules:

  1. No bigotry: Including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
  2. Be respectful. Everyone should feel welcome here.
  3. No NSFW content.
  4. No Ads / Spamming.
  5. Be thoughtful and helpful: even with ‘stupid’ questions. The world won’t be made better or worse by snarky comments schooling naive newcomers on Lemmy.

Notes:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Cooler didn't arrive until after dinner. If I were twenty years younger I'd have stayed up all night. 😆

As I suspect a lot of people are doing, I'm going to keep using my existing graphics card until RTX 5000 series drops in January. Everything else is new, though. First build in seven years.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Nah, just call an SSD an SSD (or solid-state drive if you got lots of time and like being overly verbose) or just storage device or similar synonym.

A hard disk drive is called that because it contains hard disks as opposed to earlier storage mediums which often had soft (or floppy) disks. Hard drive is just a shorter and easier way to say hard disk drive.

Hard doesn't refer to the fact that the outer shell is hard, because of course it is.

So since SSDs don't contain any disks, it doesn't make a lot of sense to call them hard when they are in fact nonexistent.

[–] Dagnet 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Never said anything bout shells. The definition of hard drives predates SSDs, back then you had soft media like a floppy disk and tapes, so by it's original definition, an SSD is a hard drive. Ofc nowadays we had to accommodate for the changes and there is little reason to say just hard drive since soft media is not widely used anymore

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Why are you just repeating what I said? Of course the definition of hard disk drives (and thus hard drives) predats SSDs. That's why SSDs aren't referred to as hard drives. Hard disk drives are called that because their disks are hard.

Please show me your "original definition" because I don't come to the same conclusion.

"Hard drive" is just a quicker and easier way to say "hard disk drive". I honestly don't think I have ever heard someone actually say "hard disk drive" everyone shortens it to "hard drive". "Hard drive" = "hard disk drive" "Hard drive" != Any non soft storage media.

You could call SSDs, "solid drives" if you like, but they for sure aren't hard drives even if people often confuse the two.

Also I'm just curious, do you call CDs or vinyls hard disks? I mean they store data and they are technically hard disks (or discs, whichever spelling you prefer).

Merriam webster defines it in the same way and according to them that was how it was defined in 1982 when the word first came into use: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hard%20drive#h1

a data-storage device consisting of a drive and one or more hard disks

The only definition I could find where hard drive means anything else is from the Cambridge dictionary "learners dictionary" https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/learner-english/hard-drive

the part inside a computer that is not removed and stores very large amounts of information

Their normal dictionary has the same definition as everybody else: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/hard-drive

a part of a computer that reads information on a hard disk, or a separate device that can be connected to a computer in order to do this

[–] Dagnet 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

I guess you didn't search hard enough?

https://www.britannica.com/technology/hard-disk
"In addition to referring to the disks themselves, the term hard disk is also used to refer to the whole of a computer’s internal data storage. Beginning in the early 21st century, some personal computers and laptops were produced that used solid-state drives (SSDs) that relied on flash memory chips instead of hard disks to store information."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Drive
"Hard Drive may also refer to:

Solid-state drive, a computer storage device that has no moving parts"

https://experience.dropbox.com/resources/what-is-a-hard-drive
"What is an SSD?
SSDs (solid state drives) are the newer of the type of hard drive. They have become the preferred format for high-end laptops’ internal hard drives, and all smartphones and tablets also use a form of SSD."

Back when hard drive was first used, it meant any non-volatile type of storage that was 'hard', I was literally there. When people talked about HD, they meant computer storage since HD tvs werent even a thing. Now go relax man, no need to get all fussed about this simple discussion, you started this just because I said that calling an SSD a hard drive isnt wrong, which it isnt, but calling if HDD is because that implies a disk, thats all.