Alternatively called the read/write head arm, head arm, or actuator arm, the access arm is in every mechanical hard drive with a similar to the arm of a record player. As the platter spins, the access arm adjusts along the axis point to move the read/write heads to read, write, or delete information. The image shows the inside of a hard drive with the actuator and actuator arm.

Hard drive terms, Voice coil

The actuator and actuator arm are only found in mechanical hard drives. SSDs and NVMes don’t have any mechanical parts.

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