Why do hard disks/CD’s have to spin fast

Question

Can we write the data as a single track, that way they could spin very slowly, like a vinly record.

Thanks.

In: 1

Answer 1

The language of a hard disk is binary. It’s only 0’s and 1’s. Every single process your computer goes through ultimately comes down to a 0 or a 1. You need a bajillion 0’s and 1’s to make whatever you’re doing, so it needs to run super fast to get through all of that data in a timely manner. You could make one that spins really slow, but you wouldn’t be able to put much data on it.