How does your CPU control a HDD, does the HDD have its own tiny processor to tell the arm where to move?

Question

How does your CPU control a HDD, does the HDD have its own tiny processor to tell the arm where to move?

In: Technology

Answer 1

Yes.

The HDD has a little “controller” that knows how to move its arms, and knows where different data addresses are physically located on the disk platters. Your computer communicates with the controller and the controller handles actually fetching or storing the data.

That’s why it’s possible to replace an old iPod or computer’s HDD with an SSD and the iPod/computer won’t even know the difference. The iPod or computer is talking to a little controller and just telling it what data addresses to read/write, same as ever. It’s completely oblivious to whether that data is being stored on a magnetic platter or in floating-gate transistors.