Meaning – A disk drive, is the technology or hardware, that enabled the reading, writing, deleting or modifying of the data on a computer disk. Initially, the disk drive term was used to describe the hardware device wherein users could insert disk drives, and then that disk would be read by the computer, and the content could be accessed and modified as required.
The disk drive is either a built-in or external component of a disk that manages the disk’s various input/output (I/O) operations.
Over time, the term ‘disk drive’, has become more generalised and is now used to refer to the partitions in the hard drive of the computer.
Example of usage – “Since his Mac did not have a disk drive, he had purchase one that he could connect to the computer via the USB slot, and then use like a normal disk drive.”