An abbreviation for Hard Disk Drive.

The computer screen glows to life with a task bar at the bottom of the desktop and a dialog message.  I must have left the computer on all day again.  You can’t tell because it’s just as quiet on as it is off.  As the monitor comes to full brightness, I can make out the message better.  It reads something to the effect of that I should immediately back up all of my data because the hard drive is going bad.

I turn the computer off, wait a few seconds and power it back on.  After the computer POSTs with a solid single beep, a text message is displayed.  The white text tells me that my hard drive is going bad and that I should turn the computer off.  I press enter to load the operating system and everything looks fine.

Shutdown and restart.  The same warning message appears.

When I purchased this particular hard disk drive, the half the customers complained that their hard drives went bad in about 3 – 6 months.  Do you know what?  They were right.