Activity 1: Parts of the Hard Drive

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/index.htm
Secondary storage is a type of permanent computer storage that keeps the data or its
contents regardless if the power is turned off or if the storage device is moved to
another computer. The most commonly used permanent storage is the computer hard
disk drive.
Label the major components of a hard drive:
Base Casting

Cover mounting holes

Spindle
Slider (and head)
Actuator Arm
Actuator Axis
Actuator

Case mounting holes

Platters

SCSI Interface
Connector

Ribbon Cable (attaches head to

logic board)
Jumper Pins
Jumper

Tape Seal
Power Connector

Platters http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/media.htm
What is a platter?
~A flat disk that is used to hold the data of a hard drive
What are the common sizes of platters?
~First PC used a hard disk that was 5.12 in diameter
~Now usually 3.74 as low as 1.00 in digital cameras, compact PCs, and other consumer
electronics
What is the platter size found in most laptop hard drives?
~3.74 is the most common found platter size
How many platters are found in a typical hard drive?
~1-3 platters found in a typical hard drive

What materials were platters traditionally made from?

~the most commonly used material has traditionally been aluminum alloy
What materials are known being used today to create platters?
~materials that are known being used today to create platters are glass composites
and magnesium alloys
What are some of the advantages to this material? Name one disadvantage.
Advantages: better quality, improved rigidity, thinner platters, thermal stability
Disadvantage: fragility

Hard disk platters are very smooth, right? Well, not to a scanning electron microscope!
The image on the left is of the surface of an aluminum alloy platter; the one on the right
is a glass platter.

What are tracks?

~A physical division of data in a disk drives
What are sectors?
~Sectors are subdivision of tracks
Read/Write Heads
What is the function of the read/write head?
~The heads do the work of converting bits to magnetic pulses and storing
them on the platters, and then reversing the process when the data needs to
be read back.
How many read/write heads are used with each platter?
~Most hard drive disks have 2 and eight heads but larger can have 20 heads or more
What is known as the floating height or flying height?
~Floating height or flying height is the gap between the read/write head on a disk or
platter
Head Arms http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/act.htm
What is the function of the head arm?
~it is a triangular piece of metal that the head
sliders are mounted onto

Why is the structure of the head arms moving from a solid construction to a more triangular
shaped structure as shown below?
~to reduce weight and improve performance

Head Actuator
What is the function of the head actuator?

~it is a device that is used to position the head arms to different tracks on the
surface of the platter
What are the two varieties that head actuators come in?
What is the landing zone? What is its function?
~it is a special track that is designated to be where the heads will be placed to take
off and land
Spindle(Motor) http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/spin.htm
What is the function of the spindle?
~the spindle turns the hard disk platters allowing the hard drive to operate
Power Connectorhttp://www.pcguide.com/ref/power/sup/parts_Drive.htm
What are the voltages provided by the four wires in the power connector?
~the four wires provide +5V and +12V power and two grounds

Data Interface Connector http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/jump.htm

How many pins are used with an IDE data connector?
~40 pins

Define the following terms? http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/geom/format.htm

a) Low-Level Formatting
~ Low-level formatting is the process of outlining the positions of the tracks and

sectors on the hard disk, and writing the control structures that define where the tracks
and sectors are.
b) Partitioning
~a section of storage space in a computer
c) High-Level Formatting:

After low-level formatting is complete, we have a disk with tracks and sectors--but
nothing written on them. High-level formatting is the process of writing the file
system structures on the disk that let the disk be used for storing programs and data.
What does IDE stand for? Name some IDE devices?
http://www.ecsnow.com/library/i/ide.asp
Integrated Device Electronics
CD-ROM drives, tape drives, zip drives
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/conf_Cable.htm
What is the function of the red stripe on the data cable above?
The stripe is used to line up pin 1 on the controller with pin 1 on the mother board

In many ways, the cable is the weak link in the IDE/ATA interface. Explain.
It was original y designed for very slow hard disks that transfer less than 5 MB/s
Why is cable length an issue when dealing with ribbon cable?

The longer the cable the more the chance of data corruption
What is SATA? http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/50811/sata
SATA is the standard hardware interface for connecting hard drives, solid state drives
(SSD) and CD/DVD drives to the computer
What are the advantages(differences) of SATA over IDE?
http://www.computer-hardware-explained.com/sata-vs-ide.html
SATA cables are only 7 pins wide compared to the IDE Ribbon Cable which is 40 pins
wide. SATA is also much faster. IDE only transfers 5 MB/s up to 133 MB/s. But SATA
can transfer 150 MB/s and up to 300 MB/s.

How to Add a Hard Drive to Your Computer in 8 Steps

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/adding-a-hard-drive1.htm
1. Research your machine
2. Check how much space is available
3. See what type of cable system is being used
4. Buy a new hard drive
5. Eliminate static electricity
6. Set the jumpers
7. Mount the drive and connect
8. Format the new hard drive

Shopping for a Hard Drive

Shop for 3 hard drives and complete the following table:
Brand

Place of Purchase

Size of Platters or SSD?

Capacity

Price

WD

Best Buy

3.5 inch

4TB

$189.99

Seagate

Staples

3.5 inch

3TB

$133.81

Lenovo

Tiger Direct

3.5 inch

2 TB

$354.96

Solid State Hard Drives

http://www.pctechguide.com/31HardDisk_SolidStateDrives.htm

List some of the advantages of solid state hard drives over traditional hard disk drives.
~Solid state drives are faster, they also enjoy greater stability over their counterparts
What is the major disadvantage of using solid state hard drives?
~if dust or any other object gets into the mechanism the drive wont work properly
List and briefly describe the two types of solid state hard drives.
~NAND: commonly used in USB flash drives
~SDRAM: requires a separate source if it to operate independently from a computer
There is no latency experience when data is transferred with solid state drives. Explain.
~ Because there is no relationship between spatial locality and retrieval speed, there is no
degradation of performance when data is fragmented.