Ever run out of space on a floppy disk or filled the time it takes a slow drive to save and load files with expletives? A hard disk could make your life a lot easier.

YOU'VE PROBABLY READ or heard enough references to hard disk storage to start wondering what it is and whether or not you would benefit from investing in one for your computer. If you're using your computer on a regular basis and regularly save a lot of sampled sounds, sequences, and/or documents, then the answer is likely to be a resounding yes. A hard disk is the one piece of hardware which seems to be an unnecessary convenience until you pluck up the courage to buy one - then it becomes a necessity you can't imagine being without.

What is a hard disk? In short, it's another storage device for computer data and also referred to as a Winchester disk, fixed disk, or hard drive. A hard disk has two primary advantages over the more common floppy disks: greater storage capacity and easier file access. For regular computer users, the flexibility that a hard drive affords really is a necessity. Aside from shorter disk access times (the amount of time required to retrieve data from a disk), a hard disk offers you the opportunity to get yourself organised in a way that a floppy disk simply cannot.

To get an idea of how much easier it is to work with hard disk storage, consider the following analogy: imagine that you live in a small flat (the flat represents your computer) which has no cupboard or storage space (no hard drive). The flat is so tiny that you have to keep all your personal belongings in packing cases (a file is one of your precious belongings, a packing case is a floppy disk). You are so incredibly cramped that you can only open one packing case at a time and have one of your possessions out at any given time (if you don't believe people live like this drop in on Hong Kong sometime). Now, let's try to get through some everyday job: you decide to take a shower. First you must find the box that contains your soap (locate the right floppy disk with the right files). Then you must remove the soap from it in readiness for the big hose down. Now, you can take a shower.

You enter the shower and wash off the caked-on mud and chicken feathers you collected during the course of last night's "entertainment". After the shower, you step out and you want to dry yourself, but first you need to find the packing case to put the soap away again (remember, you can only have one item out of a case at any given time - your mother/wife/husband comes to the apartment every day and tidies up after you, so don't even think about leaving anything on the floor). Once the soap is safely stashed away, you need to find the case that has your towel in it. After that, you might want to put on some deodorant - but not before you've put away the towel (don t ask me when it dries out, there's limited mileage in this analogy).

But do you start to get the drift? While my girlfriend considers that my observing the above lifestyle would suit her down to the ground, it's bad news when it comes down to managing your computer files. It's incredibly time consuming, tiresome, and a slip-up in the procedure inevitably leads to lost or destroyed - overwritten - files.

Enter the hard disk to a synthesised fanfare of trumpets. Offering anywhere from 10 to 300 Megabytes of memory, a hard disk gives you plenty of computer "cupboard", space for your files. That means no more swapping floppy disks in and out of disk drives. A hard drive with DOS (Disk Operating System), your programs, and your samples/sequences installed on it lets you get on with the job without ever having to touch a floppy disk.

Having a hard disk also means that you have less to worry about when managing large files, such as sample data. With a floppy disk you have constantly to keep your eye on available disk space for fear of running out - and may even have to delete old files to accommodate your new ones. Granted, you can run out of space on a hard disk as well, but it takes considerably longer. And speaking of samples, one other important use for hard disks is as a mass storage device for samplers. By connecting the SCSI ports that are to be found on many popular samplers to a hard disk, you can quickly load and store samples.

Hard disks are also a safer storage medium than their flexible friends. They either live inside the computer itself or are housed in a separate box that usually sits alongside the machine (or somewhere nearby). They tend not to get tossed around in the way most floppy disks do and, consequently, are unlikely to meet the fate of many a floppy - death by Coca Cola, by Marmite or by weighty behind of human being.

"Hard disks are also a safer storage medium than their flexible friends and are consequently unlikely to meet the fate of many a floppy - death by Coca Cola."

Of course, no technology is perfect and so hard disks have their vulnerabilities too. One of the main fears of the hard disk owner, for example, is the disk crash in which the disk stubbornly refuses to give you read or write access to your information. In less technical terms, it dies. Another problem is the accidental "format" in which you mistakenly reformat the disk, removing all of your data from the disk - get out of that.

As terrible as these problems sound they're certainly no more oft occurring than those that befall floppies, and you can minimise them by backing up your data onto floppies and having recovery utilities (such as Mace for the IBM) on the hard disk drive. Tape backup is another, albeit more expensive and less speedy, possibility. And none of the potential hazards reduce the convenience of hard disk storage.

So, before you rush out and buy a hard disk unit without reading the rest of my story, let's take a more specific look at what hard disk options are available to you, their advantages and disadvantages, and the associated costs.

- Internal Drives: An internal drive is a hard disk that is built into a computer and you wouldn't even know was there if it wasn't for that small light on the front panel which blinks when the drive is engaged. Internal hard drives make life easier if you're constantly moving the machine around or if you have limited desk space. Note: not all machine types have the capacity for an internal hard drive.

- The Hard Card: IBM (and compatible) users also have an option known as a hard card. Just like other peripheral cards, a hard card fits into an expansion slot inside the computer and works just like any other hard disk drive. A 20Mbyte hard card costs around £300, but another £50 will get you 32Mbyte, depending on the manufacturer.

- External Hard Drives: As I mentioned earlier, most hard disks are "add-on" components, sitting outside the machine. These vary in both storage capacity and price but for example, a Macintosh 20Mbyte external hard disk unit can be picked up for £995.

Which to buy?

FIRST OF ALL you're going to need a disk that will handle the quantity of data you're working with. Do a little calculating with your floppy files to see how much disk space your programs and sounds consume - and then try to estimate how much more storage space you think you're likely to need. If you're looking at a particular drive, be sure to check the cost of the next largest drive: the difference may not be much, and it could save you some heartache later on, to have additional disk space.

While no technology stays around forever, you won't have to worry about hard drives becoming obsolete for a while. They're still the industry accepted storage medium - as demonstrated by their presence in the new generation IBM PS series of machines and the monster Mac II - so don't concern yourself unduly with thoughts of impending obsolescence (that at least should make a pleasant change). If you work (or want to work) with a lot of programs and files, and you want to increase your productivity, take my advice, look over a hard disk system for your computer.