At the same time, the speed of the hard disk and its interfaces have increased dramatically as well. Note the height of the drive and the 10 stacked platters. The speed at which the PC boots up and programs load is directly related to hard disk speed. The hard disk's performance is also critical when multitasking is being used or when processing large amounts of data such as graphics work, editing sound and video, or working with databases. This is kind of obvious, but a bigger hard disk lets you store more programs and data.
Newer software needs more space and faster hard disks to load it efficiently.
One way to assess the importance of an item of hardware is to consider how much grief is caused if it fails. By this standard, the hard disk is the most important component by a long shot. As I often say, hardware can be replaced, but data cannot. A good quality hard disk, combined with smart maintenance and backup habits, can help ensure that the nightmare of data loss doesn't become part of your life. This chapter takes a very detailed look at hard disks and how they work.