UNIT 3 SECONDARY STORAGE

TECHNIQCTES
Structure Page No.
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Objectives
3.2 Secondary Storage Systems
3.3 Hard Drives
3.3.1 Characteristics: Drive Speed, Access Time, Rotatlon Speed
3.3.2 Partitioning & Formatting: FAT, [node
3,3.3 Drilc cache
3.3.4 Hard Drive Interface: IPB, SC81, B[DE, Ultra DMA & AT4166
3.4 Removable Drives
3,4.1 Floppy Drives
3.4.2 CD-ROM & DVR-RBM
3.5 Removable Storage Options
3.5.1 Zlp, Jaz & Other Cartridge Drives
3.9.2 Recordable CDs & DVRs
3.5,3 CR-RV6CD-RW
3.5.4 Tape Backup
3.6 Summary 78
3.7 Solutions /Answers 78

INTRODUCTION
In the previous units of this block, we have dluoussed tho primary memory system,
high speed memories, the memory systgm ~fmlcrocornp~ltsr,and the inputloutput
interfaces and techniques for a computer. In this unit we will discuss the secondary
storage devices such as magnetic tapes, magnetic disk8 and- o ptical disks, also known
as backing storage devices.- he main purpose of such a device is that it provides a
means of retaining inform;ltion on a permanent basis. The main discussion provides
the characteristics of hard-drives, formatting, drive cache, interfaces, etc. The detailed
discussion on storage devices is being presented in the Unit. The storage technologies
have moved a dimension from very small stopage devices to Huge Giga byte
memories. Let us also discuss some of the technological achievements that made such
a technology possible.

3.1 OBJECTIVES
Storage is the collection of places where long-term information is kept. At the end of
the unit you will be able to:

, describe the characteristics of the different secondary storage drives, i.e., their
drive speed, access time, rotation speed, d~nsityetc.;
c describe the low-level and high level fowa#ing p f a blank disk and also the use
of disk partitioning;
distinguish among the various types of drives, j.e., hard drives , optical drives
removable drives and cartridge drive; and
define different type of disk formats.
 Secondary Storage
SECONDARY STORAGE SYSTEMS Techt~lques

As discussed in Block 2 Unit 1, there are several limitations of'primary memory such
as limited capacity, that is, it is not sufficient to store a very large volume of data; and
volatility, that is, when the power is turned off the data stored is lost. Thus, the
secondary storage system must offer large storage capacities, low cost per bit and
medium access times. Magnetic media have been used for such purposes for a long
time. Current magnetic data storage devices take the form of floppy disks and hard
disks and are used as secondary storage devices. But audio and video media, either in
compressed form or uncompressed form, require higher storage capacity than the
other media forms and the storage cost for such media is significantly higher.

r Optical storage devices offer a higher storage density at a lower cost. CD-ROM can
be used as an optical storage device. Many software companies offer both operating
system and application software on CD-ROM today. This technology has been the
main catalyst for the development of multimedia in computing because it is used in
the multimedia external devices such as video recorders and digital recorders (Digital
Audio Tape) which can be used for the multimedia systems.

Removable disk, tape cartridges are other forms of secondary storag~devi~esare used
for back-up purposes having higher storage density and higher transfer rate.

3.3 HARDDRIVES
The Disks are normally mounted on a disk drive that consists of an arm ,nd a shaft
along with the electronic circuitry for read-write of data. The disk rotates along with
the shaft. A non-removable disk is permanently mounted on the disk drive. One of the
most important examples of a non-removable disk is the hard disk of the PC. The disk
is a platter coated with magnetic particles. Early drives were large. Later on, smaller
hard (rigid) disk drivers were developed with fixed and removable pack. Each pack
held about 30MB of data and became known as the Winchester drive. The storage
capacity of today's Winchester disks is usually of the order of a few tens of
Megabytes to a few Gigabytes. Most Winchester drives have the follovring common
features:

-
i

the disk and readwrite heads are enclosed in a sealed airtight,unit;

the disk(s) spin at a high speed, one such speed may be 7200 revolutions per
r
minute;
the readwrite head do not actually touch the disk surface;
the disk surface contains a magnetic coating;
the data on disk surface (platter) are arranged in the series of concentric rings.
Each ring is called a track, is subdivided into a number of sectors, each sector
holding a specific number of data elements called bytes or characters.
' The smallest unit that can be written to or read from the disk is a sector. The
storage capacity of the disk can be determined as the number of tracks, number
of sectors, byte per sector and number of readlwrite heads.

65
 (a) An Open Disk Casing (b) Tracks and Cylinders

Figure 1: The Hard Dislc

3.3.1 Characteristics: Drive Speed, Access Time, ~ b t a t i o nSpeed

Tracks and Sectors: The disk is divided into concentric rings called tracks. A track is
thus one complete rotation of the disk underneath the readlwrite head. Each track is
subdiyided into a number of sectors. Each sector contains a specific number of bytes
or characters. Typical sector capacities are 128, 256, 5 12, 1024 and 4095 bytes.

Bad Blocks: The drive maintains an internal table which holds the sectc.rs or tracks
which cannot be read or written to because of surface imperfections. Th's table is
called the bad block table and is created when the disk surface is initially scanned
during a low-level format.

Sector Interleave: This refers to the numbering of the sectors located in a track. A
one to one interleave has sectors numbered sequentially 0,1.2,3,4 etc. The disk drive
rotates at a fixed speed 7200 RPM, which means that there is a fi,xed time i.lterval
between sectors. A slow computer can issue a command to read sector 0, storing it in
an internal buffer. While it is doing this, the drive makes ,available sector 1 but the
computer is still busy storing sector 0. Thus the computer will now have to wait one
full revolution till sector I becomes available again. Renumbering the sectors like
0,8,1,9,2,10,3,1 1 etc., gives a 2: 1 interleave. This means that the sectors are
alternated, giving the computer slightly more time to store sectors internally than
previous1y.

Drive Speed: The amount of information that can be transferred in or out of the
memory in a second is termed as disk drive speed or data transfer rate. The speed of
the disk drive depends on two aspects, bandwidth andlatency.

Bandwidth: The bandwidth can be measured in bytes per second. The sustained
bandwidth is the average data rate during a large transfer, i.e., the numb.er of
bytes divided by the transfer time. The effective bandwidth is the overall data -
rate provided by the drive. The disk drive bandwidth ranges from less than 0.25
megabytes per second to more than 30 megabytes per second.
 Access latency: A disk access simply moves the arm to the selected cylinder and Secondary Storage
Tcchnlquev
waits for the rotational latency, which may take less than 36ms. The latency
depends upon the rotation speed of the disk which may be anywhere from 300
RPM to 7200 RPM. An average latency of a disk system is equal to half the time
taken by the disk to rotate once. Hence, the average latency of a disk system
whose rotation speed is 7200 RPM will be 0.5 / 7200 minutes = 4.1 ms.
I
t Rotation Speed: This refers to the speed of rotation of the disk. Most hard disks
rotate at 7200 RPM (Revolution per Minute). To increase data transfer rates, higher
rotation speeds, or multiple readlwrite heads arranged in parallel or disk arrays are
required.

Access Time: The access time is the time required between the requests made for a
read or write operation till the time the data are made available or written at the
requested location. Normally it is measured for read operation. The access time
depends on physical characteristics and access mode used for that device.

I The disk access time has two major components:

Seek Time: The seek time is the time for the disk arm to move the heads to the
cylinder containing the desired sector.

"I Latency Time: The latency time is the additional time waiting for the disk to
rotate the desired sector to the disk head.

The sums of average seek and latency time is known as the average access time.

-5 3.3.2 Partitioning and Formatting: FAT, Inode

.Today the modern PC contains total capacity of approximately 40GB for storage of
program and data. Because of this huge capacity, instead of having only one operating
system in our PC, partitions are used to provide several separate areas within one
disk, each treated as a separate storage device. That is, a disk partition is a sub-
division of the disk into one or more areas. Each partition can be used to hold a
different operating system. The computer system boots from the active partition and
software provided allows the user to select which partition is the active one.

For example, we can run both Windows and Linux operating systems from the same
storage of the PC.

A new magnetic disk is just platters of a magnetic recording material. Before a disk
can store data, it must be divided into sectors that the disk controller can read and
write. This is called low level formatting. Low level formatting fills the disk with a
special data structure for each sector, which consists of a header, a data area, and a
trailer. The low level formatting is placing track and sector information plus bad
block tables and other timing information on the disks. Sector interleave can also be
specified at this time.

In any disk system, space at some time in use will become unwanted and hence will
be 'free' for another application. The operating system allocates disk space on
demand by user programs. Generally, space is allocated in units of fixed size called
an allocation unit or a cluster, which is a simple multiple of the disk physical sector -
size, usually 5 12 bytes. The DOS operating system forms a cluster by combining two
or more sectors-so that the srnallest unit of data access from a disk becomes a cluster,
Bnslc Computer High level formatting involves writing directory structures and a map of free and
Organlsntion
allocated space (FAT or INODE) to the disk. Often this also means transferring the
boot file for the operating system onto the hard disks.

FAT and Inode

The FAT maps the Gage of data space of the disk. It contains information about the
space used by each individual file, the unused disk space and the space that is
unusable due to defects in the disk. Since FAT contains vital information, two copies
of FAT are stored on the disk, so that in case one gets destroyed, the other can be
used. A FAT entry can contain any of the following:
unused cluster
reserved cluster
bad cluster
last cluster in file
next cluster number in the file.

The DOS file system maintains a table of pointers called FAT (File allocation table)
which consists of an array of 16-bit values. There is one entry in the FAT for each
cluster in the file area, i.e., each entry of the FAT (except the two) corresponds to one
cluster of disk space. If the value in the FAT entry doesn't mark an unused, reserved
or defective cluster, then the cluster corresponding to the FAT entry ib part of a file
and the value in the FAT entry would indicate the next cluster in the file.

The first two entries (0 & 1) in FAT are reserved for use by the operating system.
Therefore, the cluster number 2 corresponds to the first cluster in the data space of
the disk. Prior to any data being written on to the disk, the FAT entries are all set to
zero indicating a 'free' cluster .The FAT chain for a file ends with the hexadecimal
value, i.e., FFFF. The FAT structure can be shown as in Figure 2 below.

Pointcr from 1hFE-I

, ....
directory cntry
for FILE 1 -2Fh
Pointcr fro15 4'=$

Ii~.cctorycntr*
for FILE 2
I
7-PI
8 v?, I End of FILE I is in Clustcr 7

9 1 1 ( c~ustcr9 1s frcc
10 [ F p ' End of FILE 2 IS tn Clustcr 10
Clustcr I I is frcc
11 )

Figure 2: FAT structure

Limitation of FAT16: The DOS designers decided to use clusters with at least four
sectors in them (thus a cluster size of at least 2KB) for all FAT16 hard disks. That
size suffices for any hard disk with less than a 128MB total capacity. The largest
logical disk drives that DOS can handle comfortably have capacities up to 2GB. For
such a large volume, the cluster size is 32KB. This means that even if a file contains
only a single byte of data, writing it to the disk uses one entire 32KB region of the
disk, making that area unavailable for any other file's data storage.
"'he most recent solution to these large-disk problems was introduced by Microsoft in Secondary Storage ,
Techniques
its OSR2 release of Windows 95 and it was named FAT32. The cluster entry for
FAT32 uses 32-bit numbers. 'The minimum size for a FAT32 volume is 512MB.
klicrosoft has reserved the top four bits of every cluster number in a FAT32 file
;illocation table. That means there are only 28-bits for the cluster number, so the
rnaxi~iiumcluster number possible is 268,435,456,

In the UNlX system, the information related to all these fields is stored in an lnode
lable on the disk. For each file, there is an inode entry i n the table. Each entry is made
up of 64 bytes and contains the relevant details for that file. These details are:

1) Owner of tlie file

) Group to which the Owner belongs
):I File type
I) File access permissions
) Date & time of last access
I) Date & time of last modification
) Size of the file
1) Nc.ofli~;ks
i) Addresses of blocks where the file is physically present.

3.3.3 Drive Cache

Disk cache may be a portion of RAM, sometimes called soft disk cache that is used to
speed up the access time on a disk. In the latest technologies such memory can bZ a
part of disk drive itself. Such memory is so~netimescalled hard disk cache or buffer.

These hard disk caches are more effective, particularly applicable in

~nultiprogra~n~ning machines or in disk file servers, but they are expensive. and
therefore are smaller. Almost all-modern disk drives include a small amount of
internal cache. The cycle time of cache would be about a tenth of the main memory
cycle time and its cost about 10 times the cost per byte of main memory.

The disk caching technique can be used to speed up the performance of the disk drive
system. A set (cache) of buffers is allocated to hold a number of disk blocks which
have been recently accessed. In effect, the cached blocks are in memory copies of the
disk blocks. If the data in a cache buffer memory is modified, only the local copy is
updated at that time. Hence processing of the data takes place using tlie cached data
avoiding tlie need to frequently access the disk itself.

The mahi disadvantage of the system using disk caching is risking loss of updated
information in the event of machine failures such as loss of power. For this reason,
the system may periodically flush the cache buffer in order to minimize the amount of
loss.

The disk drive cache is essentially two-dimensional-all the bits are out in the open.

3.3.4 Hard Drive Interface: IDE, SCSI, EIDE, Ultra DMA and
ATAI66
Secondary storage devices need a controller to act as an intermediary between the
device and the rest of the computer system. On some computers, the controller is an
integral part of the computer's main motherboard. On others, the controller is an
expansion board that connects to the system bus by plugging into one of the
computer's expansion slots. In order that devices manufactured by independent
vendors can be used with different computer manufacturers, it is important that the
Basic Computer controllers follow some drive interfacing standard, Following are the commonly used
Organisatlon
drive interface standards:

IDE (Integrated Disk Electronics) Pevlces

IDE devices art connected to the PC motherboard via a 34-wire ribban cftble,
The common drive used today for workstations h ~ capacities
~ s of 4QMB to
lOOOMB and ratation speed 72QORPM.The contraller is embedded on the disk
drive Itself, It is an interface between the disk controller and an adopter located
on the motherboard. It has good access time of 20ms and data transfer rates of
about 1Mbps under ideal conditions, Drives are reasonably cheap, The latest
version of the IDE specification enables four IDE channels: each one Is capable
of supporting two JDE devices.

r SCSI (Small Compwter Systems Interface)

The other popular way Ls to attach a disk drive to a PC via a SCSTr interface. The
common drive choice for servers or hlgh-end workstatinns with drive capacities
rangas from 100MB to 20GB and rotation speed 7200RPM, It is w common 110
interface between the adapter and disk drives or any other peripheral, I.@., CP;
ROMs drives, @pe drives, printers etc.

SCSI (pronounced "scuzzy") Is arl interesting arld important variation ~f the separate
device controller idea for each device. It uses a generic device eontroller (called
SCGI controller) on the computer system wnd allows sny devloe with an SC61
interface to be direcltly conpected to the $@91bus of the SCSl oontroller. The SCSI
i n t e r h e of a devios contains all ~1rcuitrythat the device needs to operate with the
computer system.

As shown in Figure 3, a S C E controller

~ cmnects dlrectly to the eomguter bus on one
side asd contr~lsanother bus (called SCSI bus) on the other @id&. SLnce the SCSI
controllel: is connected to the computer's bug on ope side and to the- SCST bus on the
@her side, it Carl communicated with the praGessor and memory and can also control
the devjces cannected ta the SCSI bu4. The SCSI bus is a bus design@dfnr connecting
devices t0 a cornputer in a uniform way,

These drives have fast access tine and hlgh data rates but &reexpensive. Orlg
advantage of these drives is that a single 8CSI controller can cornmusicate
simultaneously with up to seven 16-bit PCfiT devices or up ?a 15 Wlde or Ultra-Wid@
devices. Each device myst be assigned a unique SCSI id~ntlfi~atiorl
(or 15).
between Q and 7 1
, _ _ _ _ _ _ _Mqin
_ _ _ Computer
_ _ _ _ - - - -System I

Conpuler bus

Controller 1.

bus I Interface
H Interface

I Disk drjvg ( ( Tqpe drive

Figure 3: SCSI Drive Interface Standards

.
7
The versions of SCSI:

The SCSI-1 calls for a cable with 8 data wires plus one for parity.
The SCSI-2 enables the use of multiple cables to support 16- or even 32-bit data
transfers in parallel.
The SCSI-3 enables the use of ~nultiplecables to support 32- or even 64-bit data
transfers in parallel.
o With fast SCS1, it is possible to transfer 40MB ofdata per second on a single
SCSI cable.

r ElDE (Enhanced IDE)

The principle behind the F:IDE interface is the same as in the IDE interface but
this drive has capacities ranging from 10.2GB to 20.5GB. 'The rotation speed i s
7200RPM. Its feature include 9.51nsaccess time, a 2MB buffer and suppo~tfor
the Ultra ATAI66 interface for high speed data throughput and greater data
integrity.

Modern EIDE interfaces enable much faster communication.The speed

increases due to i~nprovernentsin the protocol that describes how the clock
cycles will be used to address devices and transfer data. The modern ElDE hard
drives are Ultra DMA and ATAl66.

.m Ultra DMA or ATA133 (AT Attachment): The ATA standard is the for~nal
specification for how IDE and ElDE interfaces are supposed to work with hard
drives. The ATA33 enables up to 33.3 million bytes of data to be transferred
each second, hence the name ATA33.

ATAl66: The ATA66 enables up to 66.7 millions bytes of data to be transferred

each second. hence the name ATA66 doubles the ATA33.
. Basic Computer
brgxnisntion 3.4 REMOVABLE DRIVES
A disk drive with removable disks is called a removable drive. A removable disk can
be replaced by another similar disk on the same or different computer, thus providing
enormous data storage that is not limited by the size of the disk. Examples of
removable disks are floppy disks, CDROM, DVDROM, etc.

3.4.1 Floppy Drives

The disks used with a floppy disk drive are small removable disks made up of plastic
coated with magnetic recording material. The disk rotates at 360RPM. Floppies can
be accessed from both the sides of the disk. Floppy diskette drives are attached to the
motherboard via a 34-wire ribbon cable. You can attach zero, one or two floppy
drives and how you connect each one determines whether a drive become either A: or
R: A typical floppy drive and floppy is as shown in Figure 4.
#

8.9 cm High Density

,
/
lndm hole
mco~edn,,
write
Protect
.-

Hcad acCnr
.--- Ilc4
9.3
cm

Read~WriteAccess Door

Spindle

(a) Floppy Disk (b) Floppy Drive

Figure 4: T l ~ eFloppy Disk and Drive

A floppy is about 0.64 Inm thick and is available in diameters 5.25 inch and 3.5 inch.
The data are organized in the form of tracks and sectors. The tracks are numbered
sequentially inwards, with the outermost being 0. The \ltiliiy of index hole is that
when it comes under a photosenser, the system comes to know that the readlwrite
head is now positioned on the first sector of the current track. The write-protect notch
is used to protect the floppy against deletion of recorded data by mistake.

The data in a sector are stored as a series of bits. Once the required sector is found,
the average data transfer rate in bytes per second can be cornputed by the formula:

Ayerage data transfer rate =

bytedsector * sector/track * speed in rpin
60
 Typical values for IBMIPC co~npatiblesare given in the following table: Sccundary Storrgc
Techniques

/ Size 1 Capacity 1 Traclcs 1 Sectors I

3.4.2 CD-ROM and DVD-ROM

Optical disks use Laser Disk Technology, which is the latest, and the most promising
technology for high capacity secondary storage. The advent of the compact disk
digital audio system, a non-erasable optical disk, paved the way for the development
of a new lour-cbst storage technology. In optical storage devices the information is
written using a laser beam. We will discuss here the use of some optical disks such as
CD-ROM and DVD-ROM devices that are now becoming increasingly popular in
various computer applications.

Pits in polycarbonate layer

Laser beam focused on

polycarbonate pits in front of
reflective layer
(b) Reading from CD-ROM disk
Fully Reflective

(c) Reading from 2 layers of DVD-ROM disk

Figure 5: CD-ROM and DVD-ROM

1. CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory): This technology has evolved
out of the entertainment electronics market where cassette tapes and long playing
records are being replaced by CDs. The term CD used for audio records stands
for Compact Disk. The disks used for data storage in digital computers are
Basic Computer known as CD-ROM, whose diameter is 5.25 inches. It can store around 65OMB.
Organlsatlon
Information in CD-ROM is written by creating pits on the disk surface by
shining a laser beam. As the disk rotates the laser beam traces out a continuous
spiral. The focused beam creates a circular pit of around 0.8-micrometer
diameter wherever a 1 is to be written and no pits (also called a land) if a 0 is to
be written. Figure 5 shows the CD-ROM & DVD-ROM.

The CD-ROM with pre-recorded information is read by a CD-ROM reader

which uses a laser beam for reading. It is rotated by a motor at a speed of 360
RPM. A laser head moves in and out to the specified position. As the disk rotates
the head senses pits and land. This is converted to 1s and 0s by the electronic
interface and sent to the computer. The disk speed of CD-ROM is indicated by
the notation nx, where n is an integer indicating the factor by which the original
speed of 1SOKBIs is to be multiplied. It is connected to a computer by SCSl and
IDE interfaces. The major application of CD-ROM is in distributing large text,
audio and video. For example, the entire Encyclopedia could be stored in one
CD-ROM. A 640MB CD-ROM can store 74 min. of music.

The main advantages of CD-ROMs are:

large storage capacity

mass replication is inexpensive and fast
these are removable disks, thusthey are suitable for archival storage.

The main disadvantages of CD-ROMs are:

m
it is read only, therefore, cannot be updated
access time is longer than that of a magnetic disks.
very slow as compared to hard disks, i.e., the normal transfer rate is 300 Mbps
1
for double speed drives and 600 Mbps for quadruple speed drives. \

2. DVD-ROM (Digital VersatileQisk Read Only Memory): DVD-ROM uses the

same principle as a CD-ROM for reading and writing. However, a smaller
wavelength laser beam is used. The total capacity of DVD-ROM is 8.5GB. In
double-sided DVD-ROM two such disks are stuck back to back which allows
recording on both sides. This requires the disk to be reversed to read the reverse
side. With both side recording and with each side storing 8.5GB the total
capacity is 17GB.

In both CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs, the density of data stored is constant throughout .
the spiral track. In order to obtain a constant readout rate the disk must rotate faster,
near the center and slower at the outer tracks to maintain a constant linear velocity
(CLV) between the head and the CD-ROMIDVD-ROM platter. Thus CLV disks are
rotated at variable speed. Compare it with the mechamism of constant angular
velocity (CAV) in which disk is rotated at a constant speed. Thus, in CAV the
density of information storage on outside sectors is low.

The main advantage of having CAV is that individual blocks of data can be accessed ..
at semi-random mode. Thus the head can be moved from its current location to a
desired track and one waits for the specific sector to spin under it.

The main disadvantage of CAV disk is that a lot of storage space is wasted, since the
longer outer tracks are storing the data only equal to that of the shorter innermost
track. Because of this disadvantage, the CAV method is not recommended for use on
CD ROMs and DVD-ROMs.
 Comparison of CD-ROM and DVD-ROM Secondary Storage
Techniques
Characteristics CD-ROM DM)-ROM

Pit length(micron) 0.834 0.4

Track pitch(micron) 1.6 0.74
Laser beam wave-
length(nanometer) 635 780
Capacity
1 layer11 side 650MB
4.7GB
2 layers11 side NO
8.5GB
1 layerl2sides NO
9.4GB
2 layers12 sides NO
17GB

Speed l x 15OKBIs
1.38MBIs

Check Your Progress 2

I. Compare and contrast the difference between CD-ROM and DVD-ROM.

................................................................................................
................................................................................................
................................................................................................
2. List the advantage and disadvantage of CD-ROM.
................................................................................................
................................................................................................

3.5 REMOVABLE STORAGE OPTIONS

3.5.1 Zip, Jaz and Other Cartridge Drives
Zip Drive: Volumes of data, loads of files have definitely increased the onus on
today's computer user, and the protection of this data is what bugs each one of us.
The Zip drive is a special high-capacity disk drive that uses a 3.5-inch Zip disk which
can store 100MB of data. It allows an easy and rapid shift of the data from desktop to
laptop. The user can also connect to notebooks running Windows 95lWindows
981Windows ME via a Zip cable. The latest addition of Zip drive is [omega's Zip
250MB drive that can store 250MB of data.

Jaz Drive: The Jaz drive is a popular drive with 2GB and unleashes the creativity of
professionals in the graphic design and publishing, software development, 3D
CADICAM, enterprise management systems and entertainment authorizing markets
by giving them unlimited space for dynamic digital content. It has an impressive
sustained transfer rate of 8.0 MB/s - fast enough to run applications or deliver full-
screen, full-motion video. It is compatible with both Windows (95/98/NT 4 0 & 2000)
 Basic Computer Cartridge Drive: A cartridge is a protective case or covering, used to hold a disk,
Organisation
magnetic tape, a printer ribbon or toner. The contents are sealed inside a plastic
container so that they cannot be damaged.

Disk Cartridges: Removable disk cartridges are an alternative to hard disk units as a
form of secondary storage. The cartridge normally contains one or two platters
enclosed in a hard plastic case that is inserted into the disk drive much like a music
tape cassette. The capacity of these cartridges ranges from 5MB to more than 60MB,
somewhat lower than hard disk units but still substantially superior to diskettes. They
are handy because they give microcomputer users access to amounts of data limited
only by the number of cartridges used.

Quarter Inch Cartridge Tapes (QIC Standard): These tape cartridges record
information serially in a track with one head. When the end of the tape is reached the
tape is rewound and data is recorder on the next tradk. There are 9 to 30 tracks. Data
bits are serial on a track and blocks of around 6000 bytes are written followed by
error-correction code to enable correction of data on reading if any error occurs. The
density of data is around 16000 bits per inch in modern tapes. The tapes store around
500 MB. The cassette size is 5.25 inch just like a floppy and mounted in a slot
provided on the front panel of a computer. The tape readlwrite speed is around 120
inchlsecond and data are transferred at the rate of 240KBls.

These tapes are normally interfaced to a computer using the SCSI standard. The data
formats used in these tapes are called QIC standard.

3.5.2 Recordable CDs and DVDs

The optical disk becomes an attractive alternative for backing up information from
hard disk drives, and uses large text, audio and video data. The advent of CD-ROM-R
1 and DVD-ROM-R has broken the monopoly of tapes for backing up files from hard
disks with enormous storage capacities in GB range.

3.5.3 CD-R vs CD RW
A CD-R disc looks like a CD. Although all pressed CDs are silver, CD-R discs are
gold or silver on their label side and a deep green or cyan on the recordable vide. The
silverlcyan CD-Rs were created because the green dye used in the original CD-R does
not reflect the shorter-wavelength red lasers used in new DVD drives. The cyan dye
used in the CD-R will allow complete compatibility with DVD drives. The CD-R disc
has four layers instead of three for a CD. At the lowest level, the laser light suffices to
detect the presence or absence of pits or marksdonthe recording surface to read the
disc. At the higher level, it can actually bum marks into the surface.
CD-RW is relatively new technology, but it has been gaining market share quite
rapidly. The drives cost little more than CD-R drives because they can be used to play
audio CDs and CD-ROMs as well as playing and recording CD-RW discs. A CD-RW
 ~
~
disc contains two more layers than a CD-R. The difference is that the recordable layer Gecoodaq S t m y ,
Tcsk~~lqua
Is made of a special material, an alloy of several metals,
Iomega Corporation has announced a CD-RW drive, the Iomega 48*24*48 USB 2,O
exterasl CD-RW drive, These drive features buffers under run protection, which list
user's record safely, even while multitasking. It offers plug-&-play capability with
Microsoft Windows 4 Mgc OS operating systems and its digital audis extraction rate
(DAE) of 48x allows users to rep or bum a 60-min CD in under 3 min,, while
maximum drive speed is attainable only with hi-speed USB 2.0 connections.

3.5,4 Tape Backup

Magnetic tapes are used nowadays in computers for the following pvrposes:

r stored In disks. It is necessary to regularly save data ~toredon

Backing up d a t ~
disk in another medium so that if accidentally the data on disk are overwritten or
if data get corrupted due to hardware failure, the saved data may be wrltten back
on the disk.
9 Storing procer~eeddata for future use. This is called archiving.

il 9 Program and data interchange between organizations.

Compslrative Characteristic6 of Secondary Memorles

(Please note that this may change with technology rtdvancements /time)

1
1 1 1 1 1
Memory Average Technology Average Pemanence of Access Purpose in Relative
~e Capacity time to storage mode computer cost per
in byte access a system byte in
I
bye 1
[{ard 50 Cit3 Magnetic 10 msec Non-volatile Direct Large data
surgaces 011 files and
hard Jishs program
overflow
from main
- I

I
memoly

Floppy I0 MB Magnet~c 500 msec Non-volatile Direct Data entry.

disk surea~eson As input
hard disks unit

Main
( 50 MB Integrated 20 nsec Volat~le Random Progrqm

1 I 1 I
memory 1 circuits and data
I

back 0.5 MEl High speed 2 nsec Non-volatile Direct Instructions

memory integrated and data to
be
immediately
--- used

CD-ROM 650 MB Laser Disk 500 msec Non-volatile Direct Store large
text,
plctures and
audio.
Software
distribution

DVD- 1 8.5 GB 1 Laser Disk 1 500 msec 1 Non-volatile I Direct Video files
ROM

hI@gnetie
tape
1 1 10Y
I

Long W 1 I
I

25 sec
I

Non-volatile 1
I

Iequential Historical
files.
Backup for
Basic Computer Digital Audio Tape (DAT): The mobt appropriate tape for backing up data from a
Organivation
disk today is Digital Audio Tape (DAT). It uses a 4mm tape enclosed in a cartridge. It
uses a Iielical scan, read after write recording technique, which provides reliable data
recording. The head spins at a high speed while the tape moves. Very high recording
densities are obtained. It uses a recording format called Digital Data Storage (DDS),
which provides three levels of error correcting code to ensure excellent data integrity.
The capacity is up to 4GB with a data transfer speed of 366KBIsec. This tape uses
SCSI interface.

Check Your Progress 3

1. What is the difference between CD-R and CD-RW?

2. State True or False:

(a) Zip drive can.be used for storing 10 MB data. l
.3
(b) QIC standard Cartridges have 40 tracks '2
(c) DAT is a useful backing store technology El
(d) DVD-ROMs are preferred for data storage over CD-ROMs E
l
(e) Magnetic tape is faster that CD-ROM. 0

3.6 SUMMARY
In this unit, we have discussed the characteristics of different secondary storage
drives, their drive speed, access time, iotation speed, density, etc. We also describe
the low-level and high-level formatting of a blank disk and also the use of disk
partitioning. We have also learnt to distinguish among the various types of drives, i.e.,
hard drives, optical drives, removable drives and cartridge drive, the hard drive
interfaces, removable drives and non-removable drives. This unit also described the
different types of disk formats. The advanced technologies of optical memories such
as CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, etc., and backups for storage such as DAT
are also discussed in this unit.

3.7 SOLUTIONS /ANSWERS

Check Your Progress 1
1. Access time is 'seek time' plus 'latency time'. Seek time is the time taken by
read-write head to get into the right track. Latency time is the time taken by read-
write head to position itself in the right sector. Here a track has 300 sectors. So
on an average to position in the right word the read-write head should traverse
150 words. Time taken for this will be 150 / (30 x 300) second = 17 ms
(approximately). So the access time will be 30 + 17 = 47 ms.
2. Cluster size is 4 x 512 = 2048 bytes
Number of clusters = 30 x 1,000,00012048 = 14648 approx.
 etc. A T A (Advanced Technology Attachment) is a disk drive that integrates the Scronclrry Stornge
rerI~nique+
controller on the disk drive itself. IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) is an
interi'clce for mass storage devices that integrates thc controller into the disk or
CD-ROM drive.

Checlc Your Progress 2

I. A Ct)-ROM is a tlon-erasable disk used for storing computer data. The standard
(Ices 12 cm disk and can hold more than 650 MB.
,? I)VI)-ROM is used for providing digitized compressed representation of video
; I < well a \ the largz v o l u ~ ~ufdigit:>l
lc data. Both 8 and 12 cm diameters are used
l c capncit). of up to 17GB.
\ \ it11 a d o ~ ~ bsicled

2. 1 he a d v a ~ ~ t a g of
e s CD-ROM are:
1 arge storage capacity.
hlnss replication is inexpensive and fast.
'I'licse are re~novablcdisks, thus they are suitable for archival storage

Chcclc Your Progress 3

I. A CD-R is similar to a CD-ROM but the user can write to the disk only once. A
CD-RW is also similar to a CD-ROM but the user can erase and rewrite to the
d i s l ~multiple times.