An Alternative Definition for IQR. In some texts, the interquartile range is defined differently. It is defined as the difference between the largest and smallest values in the middle 50% of a set of data. To compute an interquartile range using this definition, first remove observations from the lower quartile.
A hard drive is a device used to store data in a semipermanent state on your computer. Computer memory is a series of small packets of data called bits. Each bit is a 1 or a 0, and each bit is stored as a small magnetic charge on the hard drive. A read/write head moves over the hard drive to retrieve or rewrite the bits as needed.
Hard drive components. As can be seen in the above picture, the desktop hard drive consists of the following components: the head actuator, read/write actuator arm, read/write head, spindle, and platter. On the back of a hard drive is a circuit board called the disk controller. Tip: New users often confuse memory (RAM) with disk drive space. See our memory definition for a comparison between memory and storage.