Sipna College of Engineering & Technology, Amravati.

Department of Computer science and Engineering

Branch: - Computer Science & Engg. Class:- III Year
Subject: - CLab-II Semester:- VIth

Teacher Manual

PRACTICAL NO: 4

AIM: Hard Disk Installing, Configuring, Formatting, Maintenance

THEORY:

Hard disk:

A hard disk drive (HDD) is a data storage device used for storing and retrieving digital information
using rapidly rotating disks (platters) coated with magnetic material. An HDD retains its data even when
powered off. Data is read in a random-access manner, meaning individual blocks of data can be stored or
retrieved in any order rather than sequentially. An HDD consists of one or more rigid ("hard") rapidly
rotating disks (platters) with magnetic heads arranged on a moving actuator arm to read and write data to the
surfaces.

The primary characteristics of an HDD are its capacity and performance. Capacity is specified in unit
prefixes corresponding to powers of 1000. 1-terabyte drive has a capacity of 1,000 gigabytes .Typically,
some of an HDD's capacity is unavailable to the user because it is used by the file system and the computer
operating system, and possibly inbuilt redundancy for error correction and recovery. Performance is
specified by the time required to move the heads to a track or cylinder plus the time it takes for the desired
sector to move under the head , and finally the speed at which the data is transmitted .The two most common
form factors for modern HDDs are 3.5-inch in desktop computers and 2.5-inch in laptops. HDD’s are
connected to systems by standard interface cables such as SATA (Serial ATA), USB or SAS (Serial attached
SCSI) cables.

Hard disk terms:

Disk Packs:

To increase storage capacity, disks are assembled into a disk pack, which may include many disks
and hence many surfaces. A Disk pack is a layered grouping of hard disk platters. Disk pack is the core
component of a hard disk drive. In modern hard disks, the disk pack is permanently sealed inside the drive.

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 Sipna College of Engineering & Technology, Amravati.
Department of Computer science and Engineering

Track and cylinder:

The circular area on a disk platter which can be accessed without moving the access arm of the drive
is called track. Information is stored on a disk surface in concentric circles of small width, for each having a
distinct diameter. Each circle is called a track. For disk packs, the tracks with the same diameter on the
various surfaces are called cylinder. The set of tracks of a disk drive which can be accessed without
changing the position of the access arm are called cylinder. The number of tracks on a disk range from a few
hundred to a few thousand, and the capacity of each track typically range from tens of Kbytes to 150 Kbytes.

Sector:

A fixed size physical data block on a disk drive. A track usually contains a large amount of
information; it is divided into smaller blocks or sectors. The division of a track into sectors is hard-coded on
the disk surface and cannot be changed

Performance metrics:

A number of parameters are used to measure and characterize the performance of the disk drive.

Access time: i. Average latency time + time for a random seek, or

ii. Average latency time + time taken for 1/3 of full stroke seek
(Estimate).

Random Seek time: Time to move from any random track to another random track at
any time.

Full stroke: Head movement from track 0 to track N-1 or vice versa, where N
is the total number of tracks

Average latency: Time taken for 1/2 of a disk revolution.

Seek time: Time to move the Read/Write Head from current position to the
desired track location.

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Department of Computer science and Engineering

Installation of Hard disk drive :

1. Power down the computer. Shut off the power supply in the back.

2. Remove the case panels. You may need a head screwdriver, but most newer computers have
thumbscrews. You will need to remove both sides.

3. Secure the hard drive. Once the hard drive has been inserted, use the screws that came with it to
secure the hard drive in the housing. If the hard drive is loose, it can rattle and cause more noise and
lead to physical damage. Tighten the screws to a firm tightness, but don’t overtighten as that may
cause damage as well.

4. Connect a SATA hard drive to the motherboard. Newer hard drives will use SATA cables, which are
thin and resemble USB cables. Use a SATA cable to connect the hard drive to the motherboard.
SATA cables can be connected in either direction. If you are connecting your primary hard drive, the
SATA cable should be plugged into the first SATA channel. This may be labeled SATA0 or SATA1.
Secondary drives should be connected to the next available SATA channel.

5. Connect a PATA (IDE) hard drive to the motherboard.IDE drives are older model hard drives that
can be identified by the long rows of pins on the back. IDE Drives are connected via an IDE cable,
which is wide and flat. The cable is usually gray in color. The blue end of the cable plugs into the
motherboard. The black connector plugs into your primary (Master) drive, while the black connector
plugs into the secondary (Slave) drive if applicable. Set the jumper for your primary drive to Master.
The jumper diagram should be printed onto the hard drive. If you are installing a secondary drive but
it is the only drive connected to the cable, it should be set to Master as well.

6. Connect the power supply to the hard drive. Most new power supplies have SATA power
connectors, though older power supplies typically only have Molex (4 pin) connectors. If this is the
case, and you are installing a SATA drive, you will need a Molex-to-SATA adapter. IDE drives will
use the Molex connector. Make sure that all of your connections are secure. Ensure that none of the
cables can come undone by wiggling them a little bit.

7. Close up your computer. Replace the case sides and reconnect your cables if you had to move the
case to work on the inside. Turn the power supply back on and then turn your computer on.

8. Finish the installation. Once you’ve got everything connected and the computer turned back on,
you’ll need to finish the installation of the hard drive from your computer. If you are replacing your
primary drive, you’ll have to reinstall your operating system. If you are adding a new drive, you will

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Department of Computer science and Engineering
need to format the drive before you can use it.

Formatting and Partitioning of hard disk

1. with Command Prompt

In Windows we would normally be driven to either format a drive through the Disk Management
console or by right-clicking on a drive in Explorer and selecting the “Format” option, but there can be
advantages to formatting a drive through Command Prompt. For example if we are reformatting a drive
which previously had an Operating System on the drive we can find there are System Partitions on the
drive which can’t be seen in Explorer and refuse to format in the Disk Management console.

1. In order to format a drive through Command Prompt first open the prompt. Click Start >
Run and type “CMD” ( pressing Enter should open a new terminal.)

2. We need to next start the Disk Part tool, type “DISK PART” into the Command Line and
press Enter.

3. Next let’s display and identify which volume we would like to format. Type “list volume”
and press Enter. You should see a list of available volumes. Type “select volume <x>” and
press Enter, where <x> is the volume you wish to focus on.

4. Type “clean” and press Enter. This removes any and all partition or volume formatting from
the disk in focus.

5. Type “create partition primary” and press Enter. This creates a primary partition on the
current disk. After you create the partition, the focus automatically shifts to the new
partition. It is possible to create multiple partitions if you like. To do this you would add the
option size=<x> where <x> is the size in megabytes (MB) you would like the partition to be.
If no size is specified, the partition continues until there is no more unallocated space.

6. Type “format fs=ntfs quick label=drivename” and press Enter. This will now perform a
quick format, using a ntfs file system and labelling the drive “drivename”. You may wish to
use the file system fat32 in place of ntfs if you would like to use the drive with other
operating systems.

7. Lastly type “assign letter <x>” and press Enter, where <x> is the letter you would like to
assign the drive.

8. You can close the Disk Part tool and Command Prompt using the “exit” command. You
should now see your freshly formatted drive on Computer, ready to use.

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9.

2. Third party partition tools:

1. EASEUS Partition Master (Home Edition) allows you to easily create, delete, format, convert or
explore partitions on your hard drive. A few clicks and you can also resize, move, hide or unhide
existing partitions - all without harming your data. Also included is a Copy Wizard. Upgrading from
smaller disks to larger disks is easily accomplished with the help of the copy wizard.

2. Paragon Partition Manager Free Edition offers a few basic tasks: create a partition, resize
partitions, copy and delete a partition. This program includes a wizard to create a new partition in the
appropriate place of your hard disk, format it to NTFS and make it available in the system by
assigning a drive letter

3. To format an external drive:

1. Plug your drive into the computer and, if necessary, into a wall outlet. Open Windows Explorer,
click the "Computer" section in the sidebar, and find your drive. Right-click on the drive and
choose "Format."

2. Under "File System," choose the file system you want to use. See the above section for more
details on which one to pick. Give your drive a name under "Volume Label," and check the
"Quick Format" box.

3. Click "Start" to format the drive. You'll get a notification when it's done (it should only take a
few seconds).When you're done, open up the drive in Windows Explorer and you can begin
dragging files to it

Maintain Hard disk drive :

1. Clean out all the junk left behind by browsers. To do this, you can use the Disk Cleanup utility, or
download a freeware program such as Cleaner to do it for you. In Linux you can use Kleansweep or
Bleach bit.

2. Search and destroy spyware and/or viruses on your PC.There is a myriad of tools available to do this.

3. Defragment your hard drive monthly to keep your computer running smoothly.Windows XP includes
a utility to do this, but a tool called Magical Defrag also exists, which automatically defragments
your system during periods of inactivity.

4. Uninstall programs you no longer use, and delete music you no longer listen to.The more free space
your computer has, the faster it will go.

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 Sipna College of Engineering & Technology, Amravati.
Department of Computer science and Engineering
5. Use the msconfig command in the RUN command prompt to open up a window that will allow you
to uncheck start up programs you don't use.This can up your start up and boot down times a lot.
CCleaner also has a feature that allows you to do the same thing (Tools--->Startup)

6. Use your computers disk management systems.For Windows, select Performance and Maintenance
and then choose"Rearrange items on your hard disk..." and"Free up space on your hard disk."For
Mac, go to the Applications Folder, select Utilities Folder then launch Disk Utility.

Troubleshooting:

1. If your computer won’t boot from your hard drive, run FDISK again and check to see the partition
you have your OS installed on is set as the active partition.

2. If FDISK reports a disk size that may incorrectly identify your hard drive. Run your BIOS setup
program and confirm that the size is correct, and try running FDISK again.

RESULT: Thus, We have studied Hard Disk Installing, Configuring, Formatting, and Maintenance

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