Kids these days live in great times. Back when I was a teen I had to disassemble one of my own hard drives in order to satisfy my curiosity regarding the way it worked. Now, thanks to smart guys like Bill Hammack, you can just watch a video and learn everything.

Bill opens up a computer hard drive to show how it is engineered. He describes how the “head” reads the magnetic information on the disk; reveals how a voice coil motor and a slider controls the position of that head. He also discusses how smooth a disk must be, and briefly mentions a mathematical technique that allows engineers to pack more information on a drive.

This is probably the best video on the subject you’ll ever watch. And if you want more like it, encourage Bill to keep doing them by subscribing to his youtube channel. Youtubers love subscribers. (video after the break for performance reasons)