I don't know if "no moving parts" makes it more or less impressive. Imagining a head float on a layer of air that's 0.0125 um thick, with electro magnetic heads always impresses me.
Well, it's not like the hard drive has to work to get that layer of air. It's just a consequence of physics, right?
Yes, but the fact that we can exploit that - and that we use the same physics for read heads as those we use for calculating flight - is pretty impressive, is it not?
I'm impressed we can build something mechanical to 0.5 microInches[1] in a mass-produced consumer grade product. And these are little bits of bent metal and coiled wired; not photographic etched wafers of chemically deposited semiconducting material.