Definition

magnetoresistive head technology

Magnetoresistive (MR) head technology is used in disk drives to allow higher storage densities than the older inductive-head technology. MR heads provide up to four times the storage densities possible with thin-film inductive heads. Almost all of the major storage vendors now sell drives based on this technology, which started to become popular in the late 1990s.

MR heads have separate read/write elements - with each optimized for its particular function. With inductive-head drives, one head performs both tasks, leading to some performance problems as it tries to read and write data simultaneously. MR drives also have less noise, meaning fewer corrective reads or writes.

This was last updated in April 2005
Posted by: Margaret Rouse

Email Alerts

Register now to receive SearchStorage.com-related news, tips and more, delivered to your inbox.
By submitting you agree to receive email from TechTarget and its partners. If you reside outside of the United States, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Privacy

More News and Tutorials

  • Coming in the August 2011 issue of Storage magazine

    A sneak peek at Storage magazine's August 2011 issue. Learn more about the state of backup deduplication, storage virtualization and new trends in data storage.

  • Coming in the July 2011 issue of Storage magazine

    A sneak peek at Storage magazine's July 2011 issue. Learn more about backing up virtual servers, performance tips and how to turn your data center storage into a storage cloud.

  • Storage magazine May 2011 PDF

    Download Storage magazine's all-digital issue at no cost. This month: The benefits, functions, future outlook and buying considerations for automated tiered storage technologies.

Do you have something to add to this definition? Let us know.

Send your comments to techterms@whatis.com
Back to top