Hard Drive Technology

A hard disk drive (sometimes abbreviated as a hard drive, HD, or HDD) is a non-volatile data storage
device. It is usually installed internally in a computer, attached directly to the disk controller of the
computer's motherboard. It contains one or more platters, housed inside an air-sealed casing. Data is
written to the platters using a magnetic head, which moves rapidly over them as they spin. Internal hard
disks reside in a drive bay, connected to the motherboard using an ATA, SCSI, or SATA cable. They are
powered by a connection to the computer's PSU (power supply unit). Examples of data stored on a
computer's hard drive include the operating system-installed software and the user's files.

How a hard drive works: When you save a document, it gets written somewhere "non-volatile" that
keeps its state even when the power is off. How does that work for a hard drive? The hard drive contains
a spinning platter with a thin magnetic coating A "head" moves over the platter, writing 0's and 1's as
tiny areas of magnetic North or South on the platter to read the data back, and the head goes to the
same spot, notices the North and South spots flying by, and so deduces the stored 0's and 1's A Modern
hard drive can store well over a trillion 0/1 bits per platter, so the individual North/South spots are quite
small "Flash" storage is made with chips (no moving parts) and is gradually replacing spinning hard
drives like this. Flash chips are what's inside camera SDHC memory cards and USB storage keys.

Current standards
Technology: The magnetic hard drive represents today's predominant technology. Magnetic tapes and
optical storage (CD/DVD) are most often used for data storage and backup in a professional
environment.

Size: As well as the storage capacity of hard drives, the device’s physical size has also undergone
significant evolutions during the last 50 years. The RAMAC was the size of two refrigerators, while the
majority of today's hard drives measure 3"1/2 (3.5 inches, or 9 cm). The standard size for laptop drives is
2.5 inches. The boom in MP3 players and other portable devices has also contributed to the
development of microdrives that measure only 1 inch!

Interface: The interface is an essential component of all hard drives because it links the motherboard to
the hard drive. The type of interface, among other factors, determines the speed of information
transfer. Just like hard drives' size and capacity, interfaces are constantly evolving. For the sake of
simplicity, we will only discuss the most common ones:

ATA/IDE: the most widespread interface until 2005 for personal computers, this type of interface has
now been replaced by SATA interfaces.

SATA (serial ATA): the most common interface since 2005, it allows for faster transfer rates than the
ATA,

SCSI (Small Computer System Interface): this interface allows the connection of various peripherals via
an adaptor or SCSI controller.

Components of a magnetic hard drive

A traditional magnetic hard drive is composed of two essential components:

➔ A mechanical component:

The drives are double-sided circular trays, most often made of aluminum, covered by a magnetic layer
where data is stocked and organized. These drives are placed around a rotary axis driven by a spindle
motor. The speed of the rotation varies according to the brand and model of the hard drive at generally
between 5,400 and 15,000 rotations per minute.

◆ The read head/write head is another mobile component of the hard drive. They are steered by an
actuator that is driven by a second motor. Their pivoting motions allow them to sweep the entire
surface of the drives. The role of the arm is to position the heads on a certain path to have access to the
information. It is important to note that the read heads are never in direct contact with the magnetic
surface of the hard drive. Even light friction or a speck of dust is sufficient to damage a drive.

➔ An electronic component: though the mechanical components are the most visible on a hard drive,
the electronic component is just as important, because it handles the data transmission as well as
procession and commands between the motherboard and the hard drive. Each hard drive has a
microprocessor and an associative memory held on a printed circuit board (PCB). A signal processor
handles the conversion of electric signals to digital signals.

Installing a Hard Drive - How to Install a Hard Drive

Installing a hard drive only takes a few simple steps - let us show you how. Learn how to

install a hard drive today with this full-picture guide. In this guide we shall be installing a hard disk drive
(HDD) - The steps for installing a solid state drive (SSD) are the same since they both have the same
SATA power and data connectors. A desktop hard disk drive belongs inside a 3.5" drive bay within your
computer case. With its SATA connectors facing outwards, slide the hard drive into an empty bay. Align
the hard drive's screw holes with the bay holes, then secure your hard drive inside the bay with screws
or toolless fasteners:

A SATA hard drive has two L-shaped connectors: The larger connector (on the left) is the

power connector while the smaller one is the data connector. See the image below:

- Connect a SATA power cable (see image below) from the power supply unit to the hard drive's power
connector. SATA power cables are notorious for coming loose so be sure to insert it fully into the
connector.
- Connect one end of a SATA data cable to the hard drive's data connector. Here's what a SATA data
cable looks like:

- Plug the other end of the SATA cable into a SATA connector on your motherboard (see the image
below).

Most modern motherboards have both SATA 2 and SATA 3 connectors. On a motherboard, SATA 2
connectors are often labeled as SATA2 or SATA_3G, while SATA 3 connectors are tagged as SATA3 or
SATA_6G. As always, your motherboard manual is your best friend when learning how to install a hard
drive n addition, most motherboards will also color-code the connectors to help you differentiate them.
In the image below, the SATA2 connectors are blue in color while the SATA 3 connectors are white.

- While SATA 3 motherboard connectors are backward compatible and work with SATA 2 hard drives,
save them for your SATA 3 drives

(especially solid-state drives).

- Once you are done installing a hard drive, it should end

up looking something like this:

Experiments:
1. Installing Parallel ATA Hard Drives

2. Installing Serial ATA Hard Drives

3. Configuring CMOS Settings

4. Comparing Solid-State Drives and Magnetic Hard Drives

5. Exploring SCSI and RAID

6. Troubleshooting Hard Drive Installations

7. Installing Multiple Hard Drives in Preparation for RAID

Installing Parallel ATA Hard Drives

Step 2:

• How many holes does your

connector have for pins?

Ans: 39 holes

• Are any of the holes in your connector filled in?

Ans: yes, one hole is filled in

• Does your connector have a raised portion on one side so that it only fits one way? In other words, is it
keyed?

Ans: Yes it is

• Take a close look at the top connector in Figure 1. How many connectors are on your ribbon cable?

Ans: Two (2)

• Do you have a 40-wire or 80-wire ribbon cable?

Ans: No

• How many PATA controllers do you see on your motherboard?

Ans: One (1)

• Look closely at your motherboard and see if you can find writing on the board

next to the IDE connections.

• Are the interfaces grouped into pairs?

Ans: Yes

• Are any of them dedicated to special configurations such as RAID?

Ans: No

• What color are the IDE connections on the motherboard?

Ans: Black and white

• A Seagate ST310211A PATA hard drive has CHS values of 16383, 16, and 63.

What is its total capacity?

Bytes: 16383 x 16 x 63 x 512 = 8455200768

Megabytes: 8455200768/ 1048576 = 8063.5

Gigabytes: 8063.5/1024 = 7.87

(To convert from megabytes to gigabytes, divide the number of megabytes by 1024.)

Look at the end of the drive where the ribbon cable connects. Find the markings for

where pin 1 of the ribbon cable should go.

• Is it closer to the center (near the power connector), or the side, of the drive?

Ans: center, near the power connector

• Does your hard drive have jumpers like the ones in Figure 3?

Ans: No.

Notice that the drive in Figure 3 has the jumper set to CS (which stands for cable select). Each PC system
that boots from a PATA hard drive should have the hard drive located on the first PATA interface (IDE1).
Normally the jumper must be set to Master so that the system can recognize it as the boot drive. A
second drive (hard drive or optical drive) can be on the same cable but must be set to Slave.

• How are the jumpers set on your hard drive?

Ans: You enable particular settings by placing a jumper shunt onto specific pins—

creating an electrical circuit between them. The settings these jumpers enable are hard-coded onto a
drive's programmed printed circuit board
• How are the jumpers set on your optical drive?

• Can you have two master drives in the system?

Ans: Yes, you can have more than one hard drive in the system. In most cases with ATA drives, you will
want to jumper both the master and slave drive as cable select. Once the drive is properly configured to
act as a slave, you will want to partition and format the drive.

Step 8:

• How many surfaces does your sample drive have?

Ans: Two surfaces are covered with a magnetic material and information is recorded on the surfaces.
The platter of hard disks is made from rigid metal or glass

• How many physical heads does your sample drive have?

Ans: 2 heads per platter, one per side Both answers are most likely the same because usually there is a
read/write head for each surface.

Look at Figure 4 and identify the following parts by number.

• Read/write heads ;Ans: 3

• Platters; Ans: 2

• Voice coil motor ; Ans: 1

 Now look at Figure 5 and match the numbered
components.

• Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE)

controller; Ans: 1

• Molex connector ; Ans: 4

• PATA connector ; Ans: 2

• Master/slave jumper ; Ans: 3

Installing Serial ATA Hard Drives

Step 1
Using your reference materials, review the features and specifications of SATA hard drive
technology. Then answer these questions:
What is the speed of data transfer with ATA/133 drives? Ans: 133MB/sec_________
What is the speed of data transfer with SATA I (SATA 1.5Gb) drives? Ans: 150MB/s
What is the speed of data transfer with SATA II (SATA 3Gb) drives? Ans: 300MB/s
What is the maximum length of a SATA cable? Ans: 1 meter or 39.37 inches
How many wires are in a SATA cable? Ans: The SATA power connector has 15 pins and supplies
+3.3V DC, +5V DC, and +12V DC. SATA power cables are often paired with a 4-pin Molex LP4
connector, which connects to a computer's power supply
• A SATA data cable has 7 pins.
• A SATA power cable has 15 pins.
What is the maximum length of an 80-wire PATA cable?
Ans: The maximum workable cable length is 46 centimeters (about 18 inches
How many drives can a single SATA cable support?
Ans: up to fifteen storage device
Step 5
Look at the SATA connections on your motherboard (see Figure 8).
How many SATA connectors do you see on your motherboard?
Ans: 4
Look closely at your motherboard, and see if you can find writing on the board next to
the SATA connectors.
Ans: Yes.
Are the interfaces grouped into pairs? Are any of them dedicated to special
configurations such as RAID?
Ans: NO

Step 9
With Windows still running, disconnect the SATA data cable from the additional drive.
What happened?
You cant access the drive files or access the drive and will vanish from exiting from the
drives listing. But you shouldn’t do this, as there’s are chance of being crash or data
read/write error, and might damage some partitions
Step 10
• Plug the data cable back in. Does Windows see the drive?
Ans: Undoubtedly you can plug in and unplug external drives. eSATA supports hot-swap feature
so these should work fine as well.
Internal hard drives do support hot-swap feature but you need to enable this in the
BIOS first. Go into System Peripherals and under the SATA ports,
Step 11
• Try the same hot-swap test with the SATA power cable—unplug it, then plug it
back in. Does this produce the same effect as the hot swap with the data cable?
Ans: yes

Configuring CMOS Settings

Step 4
Save your settings, then exit CMOS to reboot the system. Make sure there is no floppy
disk in the floppy drive, reboot normally, and watch the monitor display for messages.
What message is displayed last?
Step 6
Now that the controllers are enabled, go back to the Auto-detection utility and look for any
drives connected. If Auto-detection still does not see a hard drive, save your settings, reboot
your system, and reenter the CMOS setup utility. Then try it again.
Do you now see all of the storage devices that are installed in the system?
Ans: Yes
Step 7
While you’re still in CMOS, navigate to the menu where all of the storage devices can be
configured. Use this screen (sometimes there are multiple screens) to examine the device
settings and answer the following questions:
Are there any devices listed as ATA/IDE devices (Primary Master, Primary Slave,
Secondary Master, or Secondary Slave)?
Ans: No
Are there any SATA controllers present? If yes, are there any SATA devices installed on
the system (SATA Port 0, SATA Port 1, and so on)?
Ans: Yes

Is the motherboard capable of implementing RAID? If yes, how is it currently

configured?
Ans: NO
Exit CMOS without saving changes and let the PC reboot.
 Comparing Solid-State Drives and Magnetic Hard Drives
Step-1
Search the Internet for “solid-state drives.” Use manufacturer and retailer Web sites to find the
information listed in the following table. Record your findings.
Step 2
Now do the same thing for “hard drives” and note whether it’s a PATA or SATA drive.
Step 3:
Question: why SSD is better than HDD ??
Ans:

Exploring SCSI and RAID

Step 1
Access the Internet and search for information on parallel SCSI devices, primarily hard drives.
Use keywords such as Ultra320, Ultra640, white paper, controllers, and storage solutions.
What speed of data transfer can be achieved with parallel SCSI?
Ans: At 10 MHz with a bus width of 16 bits it is possible to achieve a data rate of 20 MB/s.
Subsequent extensions to the SCSI standard allowed for faster speeds: 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80
MHz, 160 MHz, and finally 320 MHz. At 320 MHz x 16 bits there is a theoretical maximum peak
data rate of 640 MB/s.
How many drives can be attached to a single controller?
Ans: The SCSI architecture allows 8 devices per SCSI bus. The controller itself is a device so
seven additional physical devices can be attached. Each physical device can have 7 logical
devices attached to it as well. In theory, 64 addressable devices can be attached to a single SCSI
controller.
What is the price range of parallel SCSI drives?
Ans: 40$(8GB) to 500$(78GB)
What is a SCSI chain?
Ans: A SCSI chain is a term used to describe the devices connected to one SCSI
through one cable
Step 2
Visit a few of the motherboard manufacturers’ Web sites and research their implementation of
RAID. Use the following questions to refine your focus.
What are the most popular implementations of RAID used on desktop machines?
Ans: RAID 5 is perhaps the most common RAID configuration, and unlike RAID 0 and RAID 1,
requires a minimum of three disk drives to function. RAID 5 utilizes data striping, whereby data
are separated into segments and stored on separate disk drives in the array.
How many drives are required to support the various RAID levels?
• RAID 0: requires at least 2 disks.
• RAID 1: requires at least 2 disks.
• RAID 5: requires at least 3 disks.
• RAID 6: requires at least 4 disks.
• RAID 10 or RAID 01: requires at least 4 disks.
Can you configure desktop RAID using both PATA and SATA drives?
Ans: Yes, you can do it, but it would need to be a software RAID set up through Windows
Disk Manager.
What are the two goals when implementing a RAID solution?
Ans: There are two main reasons for RAID storage to work in this way: it increases data
reliability and improves I/O (input/output) performance.