HDDs (hard drives):

• Offer greater capacity at a lower cost than SSDs.
• Typically have longer lifespans than SSDs.
• Can be more reliable than SSDs.

SSDs (solid state drives) are a great choice when durability, energy efficiency, and transfer speeds are priorities.

SATA hard drives:

• Cost-Effective: Generally cheaper than SAS drives.
• Compatibility: Widely adopted in consumer-grade hardware and software.
• Ideal for Most Users: Ample speeds for many personal computing tasks.

SAS hard drives:

• High Performance: Faster transfer speeds, especially in multi-drive setups like RAID. 
• Reliability: Built for 24/7 operation in enterprise environments.
• Dual Porting: Supports multiple data pathways, offering redundancy if one path fails.

The write process on an HDD involves the electromagnetic read/write head, which changes the magnetic orientation on specific parts of the platter’s surface. An actuator guides the read/write head’s arm to make sure that the drive writes data to the correct track of the spinning platter.

To read data, the hard drive’s read/write head acts as a sensor to detect magnetic fields. This head picks up the magnetic orientation from specific sections of the platter’s surface, translating it into digital information.