The HDD or Hard Disk Drive is the part of any computer that is usually used as the main file and data storage. It uses magnetic polarisation to hold information on a coated metal plate, which is later read and written by a detector moving above these spinning platters. Laptop hard drives are the same in this manner, the only way they differ from their desktop counterparts is their size both physically and their storage capacity and speed of accessing, writing and reading data. There are often advanced power management schemes built into notebook drives, as they should be able to shut down on lack of data transfer. Also a few companies offer physical protection against falling meaning when the laptop is dropped a sensor realizes it and shuts down the drive to prevent the head hitting the delicate plate.

A typical desktop hdd spins 7200 times in a minute, while the vast majority of laptop drives spin 5400 times. Older devices may still be operating at 4200 rounds per minute. Common size for a desktop hard disk drive is 3.5” where in laptops manufacturers fit 2.5” units. There are a few often used types of interface at the time of writing it is SATA for both desktop and laptop disk storages, which stands for Serial AT Attachment as opposed to PATA (Parallel AT Attachment). SATA has been in use for 7 years but is commonly accepted since 2005-2006. It has major advantages over the old Parallel solution. Most notable is cutting the number of wires required to transfer data from 80 to seven which reduces cost of manufacture and makes hot-swap possible.

Laptop hard drives are often smaller in capacity which means that a common desktop replacement notebook is 160-320gbyte. Laptop hard drives are slowly put to the perimeter by the new technology trying to win market share. SSD uses memory chips instead of spinning disks which speeds up access of data by at least one magmitue, and any part of the memory is available in the same amount of time, however HDD’s need to position therefore the disk has parts that are read slower.
A common laptop hard disk costs anything between $90 and $130 for 160-320 gbyte.
Data recovery for these drives are in the same ballpark as desktop data recovery, due to the really similar technology, because of their mobility they are easier to damage though.

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