<hardware> A peripheral device that reads and writes floppy disks or hard disks. The drive contains a motor to rotate the disk at a constant rate and one or more read/write heads which are positioned over the desired track by a servo mechanism. It also contains the electronics to amplify the signals from the heads to normal digital logic levels and vice versa.
The disks may be removable; floppy disks always are, removable hard disks were common on mainframes and minicomputers but less so on microcomputers.
A CD-ROM drive is not usually referred to as a disk drive.
See also Integrated Drive Electronics.
(14 Mar 1995)