Do all computers have hard drives?

Answer 1

No.

Some computers use SSD's which are similar to memory but which are non-volatile (ie. it retains information even after power has been cut off). However, they do serve the same purpose as hard drives.

In addition, very old computers (from around 20 years ago had the option of being booted and run from floppy disks, although this usually led to limited functionality.

Answer 2

Yes because otherwise there will be no OS to run and everything on a PC takes space so YES
Answer: The way operating systems are written these days, they do. In the "old days" they didn't. You could build a computer to load in one of several ways: you could burn the OS onto a read-only memory chip and install that

you could write an OS small enough to fit on a floppy disk

you could boot the machine across a network There are 4MB EPROM chips out there. If a person with lots of experience in system design--BOARD LEVEL system design--wanted to, he or she could build a handheld Linux machine with a minimalistic kernel burned onto one chip.

Answer: No.

There are very small computers who use compact flash or SD memory as their storage. There are also embedded computers in cars that don't need hard drives (they control the engine, sometimes the A/C.) There is a new kind of hard drive made from special chips called an SSD - Solid State Drive that has the capacity of older hard drives but is way faster. (just very expensive now.)

Scientists are right now making holographic memory out of live organisms, 300-gigabyte discs, and a crystal the size of a sugar cube.

Answer 3

It depends on their usage. If the computer is booted from some other medium, such as a network server, CD, or USB drive, then it does not need a hard drive to be useful. To work with large amounts of data, though, a hard drive would be more practical than most other medium.

Incidentally, many early computers did not have a hard drive.

Answer 4

In theory it could be said that a laptop doesn't need a hard drive. However, it does need some form of storage device that contains an OS (operating system) that it is able to boot up from. Without an OS, a laptop (or any other computer) would be rather useless to try and use.

Examples of Operating Systems:

Windows

iOS

Mac OS

Linux

Ubuntu

Answer 5

No, there is no reason for all computers to have a hard drive. Originally PCs did not have a hard drive, they relied entirely on the BIOS chip and other media, such as floppy disks or even tapes.

Today, the large flash drives can take the place of the movable hard drives, with no moving parts. However, hard drives are still an inexpensive way of providing large amounts of storage for all the huge applications and increasing data needs of the average consumer.

Answer 6

Laptop computers, desktop, and other computers use hard drive. It is a data storage device for computers. The hard drive is the part where you store your data, files and other things. Without it, a computer will not function.

Answer 7

Yes. To do anything useful, though, it will need some other boot medium, such as a floppy disk, CD, or perhaps even booting over a network.

Answer 8

Generally all computers need to have a hard drive. This is because the hard drive is where the operating system is stored.