TERM PAPER

OF
CSE-316: OPERATING SYSTEM AND
CONCEPT
Topic: How operating system manages disk
drives? How can we prevent disk
damage.

Submitted by:

AVINASH MANHAS Submitted to:

Roll.no- RE2801B46 Mr. Pushpendra Kumar Petriya

Reg.no- 10809450

Course- B Tech-M.Tech( IT)

Contents:

 Operating System Functions

 Disk Drive
• WHAT IS A HARD DISK DRIVE?
• Types of Hard Disk Drives
a. ATA Disk Drives
b. FireWire Disk Drives
c. SCSI Disk Drives
d. Using a RAID or Disk Array
e. Storage Area Networks

 Disk Management
• Accessing Disk Management
• Basic Disk Management Functions

 Hard Disk Failure and Prevention

  Future Development
 References
Operating System Functions
At the simplest level, an operating system
does two things:
1. It manages the hardware and
software resources of the system. In
a desktop computer, these resources
include such things as the processor,
memory, disk space and more (On a
cell phone, they include the keypad,
the screen, the address book, the
phone dialer, the battery and the
network connection).
2. It provides a stable, consistent way
for applications to deal with the
hardware without having to know all
the details of the hardware.
The first task, managing the hardware and
software resources, is very important, as
various programs and input methods
compete for the attention of the central
processing unit (CPU) and demand memory,
storage and input/output (I/O) bandwidth for
their own purposes.
The second task, providing a consistent
application interface, is especially important
if there is to be more than one of a particular
type of computer using the operating
system, or if the hardware making up the
computer is ever open to change
Disk storage is only one of the memory
types that must be managed by the operating
system, and it's also the slowest. Ranked in
order of speed, the types of memory in a
computer system are:
• High-speed cache -- This is fast,
relatively small amounts of memory
that are available to the CPU through
the fastest connections. Cache
controllers predict which pieces of
data the CPU will need next and pull
it from main memory into high-
speed cache to speed up system
performance.
• Main memory -- This is the RAM
that you see measured in megabytes
when you buy a computer.
• Secondary memory -- This is most
often some sort of rotating magnetic
storage that keeps applications and
data available to be used, and serves
as virtual RAM under the control of
the operating system.
DISK DRIVE
A hard disk is part of a unit, often called a
"disk drive," "hard drive," or "hard disk
drive," that stores and provides relatively
quick access to large amounts of data on an
electromagnetically charged surface or set of
surfaces. Today's computers typically come
with a hard disk that contains several billion
bytes (gigabytes) of storage.
A hard disk is really a set of stacked "disks,"
each of which, like phonograph records, has
data recorded electromagnetically in
concentric circles or "tracks" on the disk. A
"head" (something like a phonograph arm
but in a relatively fixed position) records
(writes) or reads the information on the
tracks. Two heads, one on each side of a
disk, read or write the data as the disk spins.
Each read or write operation requires that
data be located, which is an operation called
a "seek."
A hard disk/drive unit comes with a set
rotation speed varying from 4500 to 7200
rpm. Disk access time is measured in
milliseconds. Although the physical location
can be identified with cylinder, track, and
sector locations, these are actually mapped
to a logical block address (LBA) that works
with the larger address range on today's hard
disks.
WHAT IS A HARD DISK
DRIVE?
Not unlike a Floppy Diskette, a Hard Disk
Drive is a mass storage device for data held
as magnetic media flux reversals, commonly
in binary form as ones and zeros. The
essential differences between floppy and
hard drives are:
1. Speed of writing to and reading from
the drive.
2. Capacity to store data. DIFFERING
TYPES OF HARD DISK DRIVES
have appeared but the commonly
accepted types are:
i. Fixed hard drive.such as the
1OMb or 20Mb unit that is
common in the XT style of
Machine.
ii. Hard Card. This integrated
drive and controller takes the
form of a full length
peripheral card and plugs into
the XT Bus as would any
other card. It is ideally suited
to machines with limited
space for drive placements
such as the Olivetti M24.
iii. Removable Media hard drive.
Units such as Syquest,
Bernoulli and DMA have
manifested themselves in the
marketplace but with limited
success for various reasons.
The concept of having 5Mb
to 30Mb of removable
magnetic media is, in theory,
great from the aspect of
security and backup, but
reliability has hampered
some of these products.
Experience showed that in
many instances, data written
to a removable pack in one
drive, cannot be retrieved
from a different drive of the
iv.
same type.
CD ROM (Compact Disk
Read Only Memory) These
units are for high speed
management of bulk Fixed
data such as Encyclopaedia,
Dictionaries and Directories.
No data write facility exists
in this particular system, as
 CD ROMS such as Groliers'
Dictionary are purchased
"ready to run."
v. WORM (Write Once Read
Multiple) drives are the
newest technology, allowing
the user to write ONCE via a
laser beam altered Dye Line.
After this one time write has
been effected, retrieval is by
the same method as for the
CD ROM.
Types of Hard Disk Drives
Disk drive technologies have advanced quickly
over recent years, making terabytes of storage
available at reasonable cost. When researching
the type of hard disk storage system appropriate
for your needs, keep in mind the format and data
rate of the video you’re capturing. Depending on
whether you work as an independent video
editor or collaborate with others, the amount of
storage you require and the bit rate of data
transfer will be important factors to match up
with your storage needs. Outlining all of the
hard disk storage technologies is beyond the
scope of this documentation, but four common
choices include:
• ATA
• FireWire
• SCSI
• RAID and Fibre Channel
ATA Disk Drives
There are two kinds of ATA disks:
• Parallel (Ultra) ATA disks: These are
found in Power Mac G4 computers.
• Serial ATA disks: These come with
Power Mac G5 computers.
ATA disks do not offer as high a level of
performance as LVD or Ultra160 SCSI disks. If
you plan to use Ultra ATA disks, make sure that:
• The sustained transfer speed is
8 MB/sec. or faster
• The average seek time is below 9 ms
• The spindle speed is at least 5400 rpm,
although 7200 rpm is better
Parallel (Ultra) ATA Disks
Parallel ATA disks use 40- or 80-pin-wide
ribbon cables to transfer multiple bits of data
simultaneously (in parallel), they have a
cable length limit of 18 inches, and they
require five volts of power. Depending on
your computer, there may be one or more
parallel ATA (or IDE) controller chips on
the motherboard.
Serial ATA Disks
Serial ATA (SATA) disks are newer than
parallel ATA disk drives. The disk drive
mechanisms may be similar, but the interface is
significantly different. The serial ATA interface
has the following characteristics:
• Serial data transfer (one bit at a time)
• 150 MB/sec. theoretical data throughput
limit
• 7-pin data connection, with cable limit
of 1 meter
• Operates with 250 mV
 • Only one disk drive allowed per serial
ATA controller chip on a computer
motherboard, so disk drives do not have
to share data bandwidth
FireWire Disk Drives
Although not recommended for all systems,
FireWire disk drives can be effectively used to
capture and edit projects using low data rate
video clips, such as those captured using the DV
codec. However, most FireWire disk drives lack
the performance of internal Ultra ATA disk
drives or of internal or external SCSI disk
drives. For example, a FireWire disk drive may
not be able to support real-time playback with as
many simultaneous audio and video tracks as an
internal Ultra ATA disk drive can. This can also
affect the number of simultaneous real-time
effects that can be played back.
SCSI Disk Drives
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) disk
drives used to be among the fastest drives
available, although newer computers may no
longer provide SCSI ports. Although no longer
highly popular, SCSI technology has been
implemented in various ways over the years,
with each successive generation achieving better
performance. Two fast SCSI standards for video
capture and playback are:
• Ultra2 LVD (Low Voltage Differential)
SCSI: Ultra2 LVD SCSI disk drives
offer fast enough performance to capture
and output video at high data rates when
a single disk is formatted as a single
volume (as opposed to formatting
several disks together as a disk array).
• Ultra320 and Ultra160 SCSI: These are
faster than Ultra2 LVD SCSI disks.
Using a RAID or Disk Array
You can improve the transfer speed of
individual disks by configuring multiple disk
drives in a disk array. In a Redundant Array of
Independent Disks (RAID), multiple SCSI,
ATA, or FireWire disk drives are grouped
together via hardware or software and treated as
a single data storage unit. This allows you to
record data to multiple drives in parallel,
increasing access time significantly. You can
also partition the array into multiple volumes.
Creating a disk array is necessary only if high
performance is required to capture and play back
your video at the required data rate without
dropping frames.
If you require rock-solid data integrity, consider
purchasing a RAID. Many RAIDs record the
same data on more than one disk, so that if a
drive fails, the same data can still be retrieved
from another disk. There are many RAID
variations available, but one that offers high
performance for both digital video capture and
data redundancy is RAID level 3. Because they
use specialized hardware, RAID level 3 systems
can be more expensive, but they should be
considered
Storage Area Networks
A storage area network (SAN) such as an Apple
X san system consists of one or more disk arrays
that are made available to multiple computer
systems simultaneously. Broadcast and post-
production facilities can use an X san system to
share a single set of media files among multiple
editing systems.
X san software allows an administrator to
control SAN access privileges for each editing
system. For example, a capturing edit station
may have read-and-write access to the SAN,
while an assistant editor station may only have
read access to media files for a particular
project. An administrator may also control
permissions to make sure editors capture
material only to specific folders.
Disk Management
The hard disk is the secondary storage
device that is used in the computer system.
Usually the primary memory is used for the
booting up of the computer. But a hard disk
drive is necessary in the computer system
since it needs to store the operating system
that is used to store the information of the
devices and the management of the user
data.
The management of the IO devices that is
the Input Output devices, like the printer and
the other peripherals like the keyboard and
the etc; all require the usage of the operating
system. Hence the information of the all
such devices and the management of the
system is done by the operating system. The
operating system works as an interpreter
between the machine and the user.
The operating system is a must for the
proper functioning of the computer. The
computer is a device that needs to be fed
with the instructions that are to be carried
out and executed. Hence there needs to be
an interpreter who is going to carry out the
conversions from the high level language of
the user to the low level language of the
computer machine.
The hard disk drive as secondary memory is
therefore needed for the purpose of
installing the operating system. If there is no
operating system then the question arises
where to install the operating system. The
operating system obviously cannot be
installed in the primary memory however
large that may be. The primary memory is
also a volatile memory that cannot be used
for the permanent storage of the system files
of the operating system. The operating
system requires the permanent file storage
media like the hard disk.
More over the hard disk management is an
important part of maintaining the computer,
since it requires an efficient management of
the data or the user information. The
information regarding the Master Boot
Record is stored in the hard disk drive. This
is the information that is required during the
start up of the computer. The computer
system needs this information for loading
the operating system.
The file management and the resources
management is also a part of the hard disk
management. The hard disk management
requires an efficient knowledge of the
operating system and its resources and the
methods of how these resources can be
employed in order to achieve maximum
benefit. The operating system contains the
resources and the tools that are used to
manage the files in the operating system.
The partitioning and the installation of the
operating system itself may be considered as
the hard disk management.
The hard disk management also involves the
formatting of the hard disk drive and to
check the integrity of the file system. The
data redundancy check can also be carried
out for the consistency of the hard disk
drive. The hard disk drive management is
also important in the case of the network
where there are many hard disk drives to be
managed.
Managing a single hard disk in a single user
operating system is quite easy in comparison
with the management of the hard disk drives
in a multi user operating system where there
is more than one user. It is not that much
easy since the users are also required to be
managed.
Accessing Disk Management
There are a few different ways to access
Disk Management. I'll list three different
methods so choose whichever is more
convenient.
• Method 1 - Start > Control Panel >
Performance and Maintenance >
Administrative Tools. Double click
Computer Management and then
click Disk Management in the left
hand column.
• Method 2 - By default,
Administrative Tools is not shown
on the Start Menu but if you have
modified the Start Menu (by right
clicking the Start button and
selecting Properties > Customize) so
it is shown then just select Start >
Administrative Tools > Computer
Management and then click Disk
Management in the left hand column.
• Method 3 - Click Start > Run and
type diskmgmt.msc in the Open: line
and click OK. The Disk Management
snap-in will open.
Three Basic Areas of Disk
Management
The basic Disk Management console is
divided into three main areas and just about
as straightforward as one can get. In Fig. 01
the areas are defined by green, red, and blue
rectangles. The Console Tree is the tall
vertical column on the left that's defined by
the green colour. If Method 3 above is used
to open Disk Management it will open
without the Console Tree being displayed. I
suggest you get rid of the Console Tree as it
really serves no purpose once Disk
Management is open. Even if you used one
of the other methods, the Console Tree can
be eliminated by clicking the Show/Hide
Console Tree icon (fourth from left) on the
standard toolbar.
The red and blue areas are referred to as Top
and Bottom and are both user definable via
the View menu option. By default, the Top
area displays the Volume List and the
Bottom area displays the Graphical View. A
third view called Disk List can be
substituted in either pane if it's more to your
liking, or the Bottom pane can be hidden
completely. The View menu option also
contains a [Settings...] option that allows
adjustment of the colour schemes, size of the
drive displays and a few other options so the
console can be tailored to individual taste.
Basic Disk Management
Functions
All too often the help documentation that's
supplied with programs falls short of the
mark, but in the case of Disk Management I
think Microsoft did an above average job. I
suggest giving it a thorough read through as
it contains detailed instructions for
performing many tasks that it's not
immediately apparent Disk Management can
handle. I'll list a few of the more common
tasks that interest a wide cross section of
users.
• Create partitions, logical drives, and
volumes.
• Delete partitions, logical drives, and
volumes.
• Format partitions and volumes.
• Mark partitions as active.
• Assign or modify drive letters for
hard disk volumes, removable disk
drives, and CD-ROM drives.
• Obtain a quick visual overview of
the properties of all disks and
volumes in the system.
• Create mounted drives on systems
using the NTFS file system.
• Convert basic disks to dynamic
disks.
• Convert dynamic to basic disks,
although this is a destructive
operation.
• On dynamic disks, create a number
of specialty volumes including
spanned, striped, mirrored, and
RAID-5 volumes.
Disk Management makes extensive use of
context menus. Right clicking on a drive or
partition will normally present a menu that
contains the options and procedures
available for the particular device. The
Action menu item is an alternate method for
determining the same information. An
advantage of using Disk Management is the
majority of changes you can make don't
require rebooting the system so you can
continue working while the procedures
complete.
At first glance it may appear there isn't
much substance to Disk Management, but in
truth it can be quite useful for many tasks.
That's not to say it's without limitations
because it does have some. One of the major
limitations is the inability to resize a
partition to make it smaller in a non-
destructive manner. That limitation, and
others, can be overcome by a number of
third party utilities to fill in the gaps where
Disk Management is lacking, but a full
understanding of what Disk Management
can and cannot do relative to your individual
situation and needs will help you determine
if a third party disk management utility is
necessary.
Hard Disk Failure and
Prevention
Broadly speaking a hard disk can fail in four
ways that will lead to a potential loss of
data:
1. Firmware Corruption / Damage to
the firmware zone
2. Electronic Failure
3. Mechanical Failure
4. Logical Corruption
Combinations of these four types of failure
are also possible. Whether the data on the
hard disk is recoverable or not depends on
exactly what has happened to the disk and
how bad the damage is. Please note that over
time, all hard disks will develop bad sectors
which can lead to data loss and drive
inaccessibility.
1. Firmware Corruption / Damage to the
firmware zone
Explanation: Hard disk firmware is the
software code that controls, and is
embedded in, the physical hard drive
hardware. If the firmware of a hard disk
becomes corrupted or unreadable the
computer is often unable to correctly interact
with the hard disk. Frequently the data on
the disk is fully recoverable once the drive
has been repaired and reprogrammed.
Firmware failures - How to diagnose:
Common Symptoms
• The hard disk will spin up when
powered on, but be incorrectly
recognised / not recognised at all by
the computer
• The hard disk will spin up & be
recognised correctly by the computer
but the system will then hang during
the boot process
Actions to take
• Recovering data from hard drives
with firmware failure requires low
level reprogramming / manipulation
of the hard drive. It is not possible
for a PC repair shop to do this. Data
Clinic have our own specialist
equipment that allows us to
successfully recover data from hard
drives with firmware faults.
2. Electronic Failure
Explanation: Electronic failure usually
relates to problems on the controller board
of the actual hard disk. The computer may
suffer a power spike or electrical surge that
knocks out the controller board on the hard
disk making it undetectable to the BIOS.
Electrical failures - How to diagnose:
Common Symptom
• The hard disk will not spin up when
the drive is powered on - it will
appear dead & not be recognised by
the computer
Actions to take
• Data Clinic can recover data from all
types of electrical hard drive failure.
3. Mechanical Failure
Mechanical hard disk failures are those
which develop on components internal to the
hard disk itself. Often as soon as an internal
component goes faulty the data on the hard
disk will become inaccessible.
Mechanical failures - How to diagnose:
Common Symptoms
• When powered on, the hard drive
will immediately begin to make a
regular ticking or clicking sound
Actions to take
• Recovering data from hard drives
with mechanical failure requires the
drive to be worked on in a clean
room as the drive has to be taken
apart and investigated in lab
conditions. Data Clinic have a fully
equiped Class 100 clean room which
we use to recover drives with
mechanical problems.
4. Logical Errors
Often the easiest and the most difficult
problems to deal with, logical errors can
range from simple things such as an invalid
entry in a file allocation table to truly
horrific problems such as the corruption and
loss of the file system on a severely
fragmented drive. Logical errors are
different to the electrical and mechanical
problems above as there is usually nothing
'physically' wrong with the disk, just the
information on it.
Logical errors can also be tackled with
various software tools you can buy off the
net, but be warned - if you are intending to
run a fix utility on your disk you can very
easily make recoverable data unrecoverable.
This is especially true when running
ScanDisk and Chkdsk on a damaged hard
drive.

Future development

Because of bit-flipping errors and other

issues, perpendicular recording densities
may be supplanted by other magnetic
recording technologies. Toshiba is
promoting bit-patterned recording (BPR),
while Xyratex is developing heat-assisted
magnetic recording (HAMR).

References:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_dis
k_drive

• www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/disk_dr
ive.html

• Operating System concepts by galvin

• www.acronis.com/homecomputing/.../di
skdirector/index.html

• Accelerate Your Hard Drive By Short

Stroking