HARD DRIVES

CT 122

Hard Drive
a non-volatile storage device for digital data. The primary computer storage device, which spins, reads and writes one or more fixed disk platters.

Geometry
Electronic division of the hard drive. Number of heads, cylinders and sectors per track. Track - a circular path on the surface of a disk or
diskette on which information is recorded and read. Head - Disk read/write heads are the small parts of a disk drive, that move above the disk platter and transform platter's magnetic field into electrical current (read the disk) or vice versa transform electrical current into magnetic field (write the disk).

Geometry
Cylinders - On a hard disk that has multiple
platters, a cylinder consists of the track on each surface that is beneath the read/write head at a given position of the read/write arms. Cluster - A cluster is fixed number of adjacent sectors
that are treated as a unit of storage by the operating system; it consists of two to eight sectors, depending on the operating system.

Sectors - Each track is divided into sectors that hold a

fixed number of bytes. Data on the track is accessed by referring to the surface number, track number, and sector number where the data is stored.

Partitions and File systems

Partitions a discrete electronic portion of the
hard drive used as the underlying structure for the organization of data on the drive.

File System - is a method of storing

and organizing computer files and their data. Essentially, it organizes these files into a database for the storage, organization, manipulation, and retrieval by the computer's operating system.

Partition
2 common types:
Primary Partition Bootable Contains the operating system Extended Partition

Master Boot Record (MBR)

Tiny bit of code that contains the partition table, which helps the operating system load the correct partition.

Benefits of multiple partitions:

Separation of the operating system and program files, from user files. This allows image backups (or clones) to be made of only the operating system and installed software. Having an area for operating system virtual memory swapping/paging. Keeping frequently used programs and data near each other. Having cache and log files separate from other files. These can change size dynamically and rapidly, potentially making a file system full.

Benefits of multiple partitions:

Use of multi booting setups, which allow users to have more than one operating system on a single computer. Protecting or isolating files, to make it easier to recover a corrupted file system or operating system installation. If one partition is corrupted, none of the other file systems are affected, and the drive's data may still be salvageable Raising overall computer performance on systems where smaller file systems are more efficient. "Short Stroking", which aims to minimize performanceeating head repositioning delays by reducing the number of tracks used per hard drive.

File System
File Allocation Table (FAT)
Organizing system for partitions on a hard drive that keeps track of the locations of all files on a given partition. FAT12 - Designed as a file system for floppy disks, it limited cluster addresses to 12-bit values FAT16 16-bit values to store the address of each sector. FAT32 uses 32-bit values to store the address of each sector. NTFS New Technology File System
Standard file system of Windows NT, including its later versions Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Uses super-FAT called Master File Table (MFT)
MFT - The master file table (MFT) is a database in which information about every file and directory on an NT File System (NTFS) volume is stored.

Hard Drive Terminologies

ATA Advanced Technology Attachment
It is a type of disk drive that integrates the drive controller directly on the drive itself. ATA uses IDE Technology

ATAPI Advanced Technology Attachment Packet Interface

ATA 2 An extension to IDE that enables the interface to support CD-ROM players and tape drives.

EIDE Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics

An extension to the IDE interface that supports the ATA-2 and ATAPI standards. Made it possible to address a hard disk larger than 528 Mbytes. provides faster access to the hard drive, support for Direct Memory Access (DMA), and support for additional drives, including CD-ROM and tape devices through the AT Attachment Packet Interface.

Hard Drive Terminologies

IDE Integrated Drive Electronics
Predecessor of EIDE Uses the same cable but much slower.

PIO Programmable Input/Output

Original method for transferring data between the hard drive and RAM in early version of ATA

UDMA Ultra Direct Memory Access

Current method of transferring data between the hard drive and RAM

MASTER / SLAVE
Master/slave is a model of communication where one device or process has unidirectional control over one or more other devices. Master device that is doing the controlling

Slave device that is not in control

Hard Drive Maintenance

2 distinct functions:
Checking the disk occasionally for failed cluster Keeping data organized on the disk on the drive

Hard Drive Maintenance

ScanDisk
A Windows utility used to check your hard disk for errors and to correct problems that are found. Finds bad sectors and label them so that no data can be put there.

Defragmentation
File clusters are rearrange to minimize file fragmentation.

Hard Drive Maintenance

Disk Cleanup a computer maintenance utility included in Microsoft Windows designed to free up disk space on a computer's hard drive. The utility first searches and analyzes the hard drive for files that are no longer of any use, and then removes the unnecessary files. There are a number of different file categories that Disk Cleanup targets when performing the initial disk analysis:
Compression of old files Temporary Internet files Temporary Windows file Downloaded Program files Recycle Bin Removal of unused applications or optional Windows components Setup Log files