What is the meaning of RPM in relation to hard drives?

The term RPM stands for Revolutions Per Minute, which is a measurement used to indicate how many times the hard drive's platters complete one full rotation in a minute. This metric is crucial in understanding the performance of traditional hard disk drives (HDDs). A higher RPM generally means faster data access times because the read/write heads have quicker access to the data located on the spinning platters. For instance, common RPM values for consumer HDDs are 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM, with the latter providing better performance due to its increased rotational speed.

Understanding RPM helps users evaluate the speed and efficiency of storage devices, especially when comparing HDDs to solid-state drives (SSDs), which do not rely on rotational speeds for data access.