noun
hard drive, hard disk
B1
Festplatte means 'hard drive' or 'hard disk', the physical storage device in computers. It's a feminine noun (die Festplatte) with plural Festplatten. Declensions: Nom/Acc die Festplatte, Gen/Dat der Festplatte. Common technical term; no special preposition. Used for internal and external drives; appears in phrases like 'Festplatte formatieren'.
Examples
Die externe Festplatte hat eine Speicherkapazität von einem Terabyte.
The external hard drive has a storage capacity of one terabyte.
Der Techniker ersetzte die Festplatte, weil die alte ständig ausfiel.
The technician replaced the hard drive because the old one kept failing.
Die Fotos wurden von der defekten Festplatte wiederhergestellt.
The photos were recovered from the faulty hard disk.
Details
Mnemonics
Picture a solid metal plate inside a computer labeled 'Festplatte'.
Think 'Fest' = fixed, 'platte' = plate/disk — a fixed disk: hard drive.
Die Festplatte: feminine 'die' — imagine a female technician labeling the drive with a sticker 'DIE Festplatte' to remember 'die'.
Notes
Compound noun (Fest + Platte). Feminine: die Festplatte. Common in computing contexts; plural Festplatten.