Read the passage and answer the following question. What is the meaning of the term "hard disk?" (3 points) Getting rid of your old computer? Documents stored on a computer’s hard drive often hold personal and financial information, such as passwords, account numbers, addresses and phone numbers, and files created automatically by browsers and operating systems. You can ensure its hard-disk drive doesn’t become a treasure chest for identity thieves. Use a program that overwrites or wipes the hard drive many times. Or remove the hard drive and physically destroy it. Nearly every computer in use today contains one or more hard-disk drives. Hard disks use magnetic material to store changing digital information. A typical desktop machine will have a hard disk with a capacity of between 10 and 40 gigabytes. When you save a file, especially a large one, the bytes that make up the file are scattered around the hard drive in bits and pieces. When you open a file the hard drive fathers the bytes and reconstructs them. When you delete a file the links to reconstruct the file disappear. But the bits and pieces of the deleted file stay on your computer until they’re overwritten, and they can be retrieved with a data recovery program. To remove data from a hard drive permanently, the hard drive needs to be wiped clean. Before you clean a hard drive, backup the files you want to keep. When the hard drive wipe is complete, there will be no way to get anything on the drive back. Using destruction software is the easiest way to completely erase a hard drive and still allows the hard drive to be used again. Download a free data destruction program from the Internet. Burn the ISO file to a disc or complete whatever steps are necessary to install the downloaded software onto your computer. Wipe the hard drive according to the program’s instructions. (3 points) Responses difficult part of the computer difficult part of the computer compact disc or CD compact disc or CD data storage device data storage device software file

1 answer

The term "hard disk" refers to a data storage device used in computers that employs magnetic material to store digital information. Hard disks allow for the saving and retrieval of files, including personal and financial information. Therefore, the most suitable response to the question about the meaning of "hard disk" from the provided options is:

data storage device