They’re all sending digital information, but only data cables like USB/Thunderbolt can be used (as far as I know) for devices like external drives. I am not aware of any external drive that can be connected by HDMI or DisplayPort.
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If you speak to me in Russian, that’s still speech, but I’m not going to understand it. I’d have to learn Russian first.
If you teach me the language of some isolated tribe that’s never seen a car, then want to use that language to discuss the details of how to rebuild your car engine, it’s not going to work. That language just doesn’t have the vocabulary to describe the concepts. (You could try to add extra words, but then you’re speaking a new language, and you’d have to teach both people involved that new language).
USB, Thunderbolt, HDMI and DisplayPort are all languages. Only USB and Thunderbolt have the vocabulary to allow a hard disk to communicate with the PC. HDMI and DisplayPort are specialised languages designed to let a source of video data talk to a display.
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