Hard Disk Drive

• It is a data storage device in a computer.

• It is a secondary storage device.
• Its stored in 0 (or) 1.
• The operating system , software and most other
files are stored in the HDD.
• Its invented in 1954 by IBM.
• Nowadays, HDD with3.5 inch or 5.25 inch platters
in different capacities, such as 10GB, 20GB, 40GB,
80GB etc.
• Track :
– The HDD is divided into number of concentric circles called
tracks.
– Circular path in sector is called track.
• Sector :
– Data storage area in one track multiple divided into the multiple
block is called sector.
– Each sector can have 512 bytes of the data.
• Cylinder:
– A set of corresponding tracks in all sides of a hard disk is called
cylinder.
• Storage capacity:
– Its having a formula shown below:
– storage capacity=number of cylinder’s*tracks per cylinder*
sector per tracks*bytes per sector.
 Disk formatting
• Disk formatting is the process of preparing a
data storage device such as a hard disk drive,
solid-state drive, floppy disk or USB flash drive
for initial use.
• Formatting a disk involves three different
processes
1. Low level formatting
2. Partitioning
3. High level formatting
 Low-level formatting
• The first part of the formatting process that
performs basic medium preparation.
• Low-level formatting is the process of marking
out cylinders and tracks for a blank hard disk,
and then dividing tracks into multiple sectors.

• It is normally done by the manufactures.

 Partitioning
Partitioning is the process of writing information
into blocks of a storage device that allows access
by an operating system.

It involves the division of the hard drive into logical

volumes for data storage.

• Fdisk is a command used in DOS and windows 9x

to partition a hard disk.
• Once your drive is partitioned, each partition will
have to be formatted with a file system.
 High-level formatting
• The third part of the process, is termed as"high-
level formatting" .
• It refers to the process of generating a new file
system.
• It is the process of setting up an empty file
system on a disk partition or logical volume and,
for PCs, installing a boot sector.
 File System
• in a computer system everything is stored as files.
• The files can be data files or application files.
• Each operating system has its own way of organizing
data internally in drive.
• The operating system performs this management
with the help of a program called File System.
• It specifies how data is stored on the drive and what
types of information can be attached to files—
filenames, permissions, and other attributes.
 Types of File system
• FAT
– FAT versions –FAT12,FAT16, FAT32
– (The traditional DOS file system types are FAT12
and FAT16)
• VFAT
• FAT32
• NTFS
 FAT File System
• FAT stands for "File Allocation Table".
• The file allocation table is used by the
operating system to locate files on a disk.
• A file may be divided into many sections and
scattered around the disk due to
fragmentation. FAT keeps track of all pieces of
a file.
• In DOS systems, FAT is stored after boot sector.
 Features of FAT File System
• Naming convention
– FAT file system used by MS-DOS provides file name of
only 8 characters long.
– A filename can have no more than eight characters
before the period and no more than three after.
– Filenames aren't case sensitive.
– File names can contain any character except “/ \ [] = , ^
?a “”
– File names should begin with alphanumeric characters.
– File names can contain spaces and multiple periods.
The characters after the last period are treated as file
extension.
• FAT does not support local and folder security.
A user logged on a computer locally has full
access to the files and folders in FAT partitions
of the computer.

• FAT provides quick access to files.

 VFAT
• VFAT is an extension of the FAT file system.
• It was introduced with Windows 95.
• VFAT maintains backward compatibility with FAT
• VFAT filenames can contain up to 255 characters,
spaces, and multiple periods.
• it's not considered case sensitive.
 VFAT
• When you create a long filename (longer than 8.3) with
VFAT, the file system actually creates two different
filenames. One is the actual long filename. This name is
visible to Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT (4.0
and later).
• The second filename is called an MS-DOS® alias. An MS-
DOS alias is an abbreviated form of the long filename. The
file system creates the MS-DOS alias by taking the first six
characters of the long filename (not counting spaces),
followed by the tilde [~] and a numeric trailer. For
example, the filename Brien's Document.txt would have
an alias of BRIEN'~1.txt.
 FAT32 File System
• FAT32 is an advanced version of FAT file system.
• It is actually an extension of FAT and VFAT
• It can be used on drives from 512 MB to 2TB in
size.
• Compatible with operating systems other than
Windows 2000.
 NTFS File System
• NTFS stands for "New Technology File System".
• Windows 2000 professional fully supports NTFS.

• Features of NTFS File System

• Naming Conventions
– File names can be up to 255 characters
– File names can contain most characters except “ / \ *
|:
– File names are not case sensitive
• Security

– NTFS provides file and folder security. Files and folders are safer
than FAT. Security is maintained by assigning NTFS permissions to
files and folders. Security is maintained at the local level and the
network level. The permissions can be assigned to individual files
and folders. Each file or folder in an NTFS partition has an Access
Control List. It contains the users and group security identifier (SID)
and the privileges granted to them.

• Partition Size

– The NTFS partition and file sizes are much bigger than FAT
partitions and files. The maximum size of an NTFS partition or file
can be 16 Exabyte. The file size can be in the range of 4GB to
64GB.
• File compression
– NTFS provides file compression of as much as 50%.
• High reliability
– NTFS is highly reliable. It is recoverable file system. It uses
transaction logs to update the file and folders logs
automatically. The system also has a great amount of fault
tolerance. It means that if transaction fails due to power or
system failure, the logged transactions are used to recover
the data.
• Bad cluster Mapping
– NTFS supports bad-cluster mapping. It means that file
system detects bad clusters or areas of disk with errors. If
there is any data in those clusters, it is retrieved and stored
on another area. The bad clusters are marked to prevent
data storage in those areas in future.
 NTFS disadvantages
• NTFS volumes can’t be accessed by MS-DOS,
Win 9x
• Slower performance for very small volumes
(under 400 MB)
HARD DISK
DRIVE
Definitions
• A hard disk drive (HDD) is a non-volatile computer storage device
containing magnetic disks or platters rotating at high speeds.
• It is a secondary storage device used to store data permanently,
random access memory (RAM) being the primary memory device.
• Non-volatile means data is retained when the computer is turned off.
• A hard disk drive is also known as a hard drive.
1. Which is the world smallest
Hard Disk Drive?
Toshiba gets the credit for creating
the world's smallest hard drive.
At just .85 inches, it is about the size
of a postage stamp or a quarter,
and weighs in at just two grams.
It even made its way into the
Guinness Book of World Records
2. Can you guess the spinning speed
of Disk Platter in HDD
 ANSWER

5,400 or 7,200 times per minute,

depending on the hard drive
3. Which is the Largest Hard Disk Drive?
 ANSWER

Samsung unveils massive 16TB SSD built with

new 3D NAND
4. Which is the first hard
drive ever?
 ANSWER

The 350 Disk Storage Unit was

released in 1956 by IBM. It had a
capacity of 3.75MB and was the size of
a refrigerator.
ANSWER
5. Can you guess the Cost of
First ever HDD
ANSWER
it cost around
$35’000
26,35,325.00

26 LAKHS
DISK PLATTER
Definitions
• A hard drive fits inside a computer case and is firmly attached with
the use of braces and screws to prevent it from being jarred as it
spins.
• Typically it spins at 5,400 to 15,000 RPM. The disk moves at an
accelerated rate, allowing data to be accessed immediately.
• Most hard drives operate on high speed interfaces using serial ATA
(SATA) or serial attached technology.
HDD - Operation

• The basic physical construction of a hard disk drive consists of spinning

disks with heads that move over the disks and store data in tracks and
sectors.
• The heads read and write data in concentric rings called tracks, which
are divided into segments called sectors, which typically store 512 bytes
each.
HDD- Operation

• Hard disk drives usually have multiple disks, called platters, that are
stacked on top of each other and spin in unison, each with two sides on
which the drive stores data.
• Most drives have two or three platters, resulting in four or six sides, but
some PC hard disks have up to 12 platters and 24 sides with 24 heads to
read them
HDD - Operation

• The identically aligned tracks on each side of every platter together make
up a cylinder.
• A hard disk drive usually has one head per platter side, with all the heads
mounted on a common carrier device or rack.
• The heads move radially across the disk in unison; they can't move
independently because they are mounted on the same carrier or rack,
called an actuator.
 HDD - Operation

• Originally, most hard disks spun at 3,600rpm—approximately 10

times faster than a floppy disk drive.
• For many years, 3,600rpm was pretty much a constant among
hard drives. Now, however, most drives spin even faster.
• Although speeds can vary, modern drives typically spin the
platters at either 4,200rpm; 5,400rpm; 7,200rpm; 10,000rpm; or
15,000rpm. Most standard-issue drives found in PCs today spin at
5,400rpm, with high performance models spinning at 7,200rpm.
HDD - Operation

• High rotational speeds combined with a fast head-

positioning mechanism and more sectors per track are what
make one hard disk faster overall than another.
• The heads in most hard disk drives do not (and should not!)
touch the platters during normal operation.
HDD – Operation (HEAD CRASH)
• However, on most drives, the heads do rest on the platters when the drive is
powered off. In most drives, when the drive is powered off, the heads move
to the innermost cylinder, where they land on the platter surface. This is
referred to as contact start stop (CSS) design.
• When the drive is powered on, the heads slide on the platter surface as they
spin up, until a very thin cushion of air builds up between the heads and
platter surface, causing the heads to lift off and remain suspended a short
distance above or below the platter.
• If the air cushion is disturbed by a particle of dust or a shock, the head can
come into contact with the platter while it is spinning at full speed. When
contact with the spinning platters is forceful enough to do damage, the event
is called a head crash.
HDD - Operations
• The result of a head crash can be anything from a few lost bytes of
data to a completely ruined drive.
• Most drives have special lubricants on the platters and hardened
surfaces that can withstand the daily "takeoffs and landings" as well
as more severe abuse.
Hard Disk Drive Components

HDD
Basic components of a hard drive
• Disk platters
• Read/write heads
• Head actuator mechanisms
• Spindle motor
• Logic board
• Cables & connectors
• Air Filter and Bezel
Components
 Hard Disk Platters
• Hard disk drive contains a number of disk platters.
• Information is magnetically recorded here.
• Platter size is called the form – factor of the hard drive.
• Hard disk drive size is referred by the platter’s diameter.
• 5 ¼ inch ( actually 5.12 inch)
• 3 ½ inch (actually 3.74 inch)
• 2 ½ inch
• 1 1/8 inch
• 1 1/3 inch
 Hard Disk Platters

• Hard disks have been a number of different form

factors over the years
• 3 1/2 inch drives are the most popular for desktop &
some portables
• Max number of platters in a 3 1/2 inch drive is 11.
• 1 1/3 inch drives are very small, almost the wrist
watch size.
• Number of platters in one HDD can be as low as 1 and
as high as 10 or more, but 2 or 3 are most common.
 Hard Disk Platters
• Traditionally made from aluminum alloy
– Because of their strength and light weight
• Being a metal, they expand and contract with the change in
the temperature.
• This led the drive manufacturer to use glass or glass
ceramic.
• Desire for higher density has led to the use of platters
made of glass (glass ceramic composite)
– Glass platters offer greater rigidity & more stable
thermally
 Hard Disk Platters
• No matter what type of platter is used, the platters are
covered with a thin layer of magnetically retentive
substance (called the medium) on which magnetic
information is stored.
– Oxide media

– Thin-film media
 Oxide media
• Made of various compounds, oxide being the
primary active ingredient
• Put on the disk like syrup, coating the entire disk
• Coating is approx 30 millionths of an inch and is
made smooth
• Platters appear to look brownish or amber

• Very sensitive to head-crash during movement of

operation
• Very few drives use this technology anymore.
 Thin-film media
• Thinner, harder & more perfectly formed than oxide
media
• Thickness of thin film media is 1-4 millionth of an inch.

• The thinness of the coating allows the HDD head to be

positioned very close to the disk surface, which allows
very high density recording on the surface.
• Coating is put on the platter using an electroplating
mechanism, similar to that of putting chrome plating on
the bumper of the car.
• Looks silver like the surface of a mirror
 Thin-film media
• The thin film media is created on the platter surface
using two different process
– Plating process

– Sputtering process
 Plating and Sputtering
• Plating is produced using electroplating process.

• The Platter substrate is immersed in different chemicals

to coat the platter surface with a very uniform 2 to 3
micro inch thick cobalt alloy coating.

• Sputtering provides thinnest, hardest and finest

media surface.
• The platter substrate is first coated with a layer of
nickel phosphorus and then on this surface cobalt
alloy material is deposited using sputtering
 Read/Write Heads
• Read / Write head is used to write any information on the
disk surface and to read the written data back without any
data loss.
• A hard disk has one read/write head for each side of the
platter.
 Read/Write Heads
• Six read/write head will be used to read the two (top &
bottom) sides of each platter.
• All the heads are connected together and moved in and out
on a single movement mechanism. i.e. one cannot move
different head in different order.
 Read/Write Heads
• At rest, Read/Write head will be in direct contact with the
disk surface.
• Due to very high rotation speed, air pressure developed and
this helps the read/write head to lifts them above from the
disk surface.
• 3 to 10 millionth of inch above from the disk surface.

• Since the disk is rotating at 3600 to 7200 rpm, even a small

dust particle may seem like a mountain.
• It may result in scratch at the disk surface and may loss the
data.
 Read/Write Heads
• The hard disk is manufactured and serviced in a room
known as “class 100 clean room”
– Room where less than 100 dust particles of 19.7 μ inch,
when one cubic air foot is checked.
• Four types of read/write head designs:
– Ferrite
– Metal-In-Cap
– Thin-film
– Magneto-resistive
 Ferrite
• Developed by IBM.
• Made of iron-oxide core wrapped by passing a magnetic
field near them.
• Heads were large & heavy.
• Required a much higher floating height than today.
 Ferrite
• To write any information using the head, the coil is
energized, which produces magnetic field on the disk
surface.

• To read the information, the head is passed over the disk

surface and the induced current generated in the coil is
used to read the data.
 Metal-In-Gap
• Have a layer of magnetic alloy, which increased the
magnetization capability & allowed the heads to write at
higher densities.
• Enhanced version of the ferrite heads

• Virtually obsolete.
 Thin Film
• Very small and light weight heads.

• Can be used as close as 2 μ inch or less to the disk surface.

• Created through a photolithographic process

• Manufactured in the same manner as a semiconductor

• Very narrow & controlled head gap that is created by

sputtering (a process of spreading material very thinly on a
surface) a hard aluminum material.
• Initially, it was very costly.
 Thin Film
• The material completely encloses the gap & protects
the area.
• Head is very light & can float much closer to the
platters than previous technologies.
• Writes at much higher densities.
 Magneto-Resistive
• Latest in technology & highest performance available

• As areal density increases (technology growth rate indicator), TF and MIG

will disappear

• Relies on the fact that the resistance of a conductor changes slightly when an

external magnetic field is present

• Two heads in one - MR heads do not write

• They are sensors for reading

 Head Actuator Mechanism
• A drive using a stepper motor is much less reliable than one using a voice coil
• Floppy drives use a stepper motor to position their heads
• Accuracy of the stepper is suited to a floppy drive, because track densities
usually lower
• Moves the heads across the disk & positions them accurately above the desired
cylinder
• Two basic categories
– Stepper Motor actuators

– Voice coil actuators

 Stepper Motors
• An electrical motor that can step or move from position to position, with mechanical
dents or click-stop positions.
• Can only stop at predetermined spots
• Motors sealed outside of the head disk assemble, although the spindle of the motor
penetrates the head disk assembly through a sealed hole
• Variety of problems
– Temperature, largest

– Can’t compensate for changes in the track movement due to expansion &
contraction
 Voice Coil
• Used in almost all hard drives today

• Uses feedback signal from drive to accurately determine head positions &
adjust them
• Works by pure electromagnetic force

• Similar to construction of a typical audio speaker

• Audio speaker uses a stationary magnet surrounded by a voice coil which

is connected to the speakers paper cone
• When the coil is energized, it moves & produces sound from the cone

• In a typical hard disk, the electromagnetic coil is attached to the end of the
head rack & placed near a stationary magnet
 Voice Coil
• There is no physical contact between the coil & the magnet
• It moves by electromagnetic force
• This force moves the head rack.
• Use a servo-mechanism to move to the desired position on the disk
– Stepper motors move to predetermined spots
• Not affected by temperature
• Automatic head parking
– Heads are positioned by magnetic force, so when power removed,
mag field disappears & heads stop
 Air filters
• Most have two

– Recirculating filter - filters small particles scraped off

the platers during takeoffs & landings
– Breather filter - allows for pressure equalization

• Heads don’t float if pressure not right

• Drives are sensitive to temperature

• If the drive has been very cold, let it warm up before

powering on. Watch humidity
 Spindle motor
• Motor that spins the platters

• Connected directly to the drive

 Logic Boards
• Mounted on the hard drive

• Contain electronics that control the drive’s spindle &

head actuator systems & present the data to the
controller
 Cables & Connectors
• Several connectors for interfacing to the computer,
receiving power & sometimes grounding to the system
chassis
• Three types
– Interface connectors
– Power connectors
– Option ground connector (green wire)
 Power Connector
• Usually same 4-pin connector type that is used in a floppy disk
drive
• Same power-supply connector plugs into it

• Most use both 5 & 12 volt power

– Red, yellow, 2 black with keyed white end
 INSTALLING A HDD
• Turn off the power and remove the power
cable from the socket. Remove the system unit
cover.
• Install the drive’s controller card as you would
any other card. Be sure to secure the card into
the expansion slot by replacing the screw that
holds the card to the back of the chassis.
• Remove the bay’s blanking plate if you are
installing a drive that has a bezel.
 INSTALLING A HDD
• Check the settings of jumpers on the drive to
ensure that, it is properly setup. Check the
position of the drive select jumper,
master/slave jumper etc.
• Attach the mounting rails to the sides of the
drive, if appropriate, then slide it into the drive
bay.
• Attach the data / control cable to the controller
card, and then attach it to the back of the drive.
Be sure the striped edge (edge with red
color) ..
 INSTALLING A HDD
• .. Of the ribbon cable goes to the side of the
connector where pin 1 is. Attach the power
supply cable.
• Insert and tighten the mounting screws. Make
sure that they do not dig into the casing of the
HDD.
• Connect the HDD led indicator connector to
the appropriate pins on your controller card or
HDD, if you wish to use the LED to note hard
drive activity.
 INSTALLING A HDD
• Power up the system. Update the CMOS RAM
configuration on AT machines. You must boot
from a diskette if you have inserted a new
unformatted C drive. Low – level format the
new drive if necessary.
• If everything works fine then replace the
system unit cover.
• Partition the new drive using FDISK and then
DOS FORMAT it.
 FAT
• A file allocation table (FAT) is a file system
developed for hard drives that originally used
12 or 16 bits for each cluster entry into the file
allocation table. It is used by the operating
system (OS) to manage files on hard drives
and other computersystems.
 FAT function
• A file allocation table (FAT) is a table that an
operating system maintains on a hard disk that
provides a map of the clusters (the basic units
of logical storage on a hard disk) that a file has
been stored in.
 TYPES of FAT
• Today, later versions of Microsoft Windows, such
as Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 10 are using NTFS
and not FAT.
• FAT8. The oldest FAT, FAT8 was used on 8-inch
floppies with the 8086 processor.
• FAT12. A File Allocation Table that uses 12-bit
binary system that was derived from FAT8. ...
• FAT16. ...
• FAT32.
 VFAT
• Virtual File Allocation Table (VFAT) is the
part of the Windows 95 and later operating
system that handles long file names, which
otherwise could not be handled by the original
file allocation table file allocation table (FAT)
programming.
 VFAT and log file names
• When you create a long filename (longer than
8.3) with VFAT, the file system actually
creates two different filenames. One is the
actual long filename. This name is visible to
Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT
(4.0 and later). The second filename is called
an MS-DOS® alias.
 VFAT and log file names
• An MS-DOS alias is an abbreviated form of
the long filename. The file system creates the
MS-DOS alias by taking the first six
characters of the long filename (not counting
spaces), followed by the tilde [~] and a
numeric trailer. For example, the filename
Brien's Document.txt would have an alias of
BRIEN'~1.txt.
 FAT 32
• FAT32 is the older of the two drive
formats. FAT32 is the most common version
of the FAT (File Allocation Table) file
system created back in 1977 by Microsoft. It
eventually found its way on the IBM PC's PC-
DOS in 1981, and carried over to MS-DOS
when that became a standalone product.
 NTFS
• NTFS (NT file system; sometimes New
Technology File System) is the file systemthat
the Windows NT operating system uses for
storing and retrieving files on a
harddisk. NTFS is the Windows NT
equivalent of the Windows 95 file allocation
table (FAT) and the OS/2 High
Performance File System (HPFS).
HDD
FEATURES

Form factor
Storage capacity
Disk geometry
Interleave
Skew
Disk geometry translation
FORM FACTOR
It is a basic unit of measurement of the
size of the drive.
Drives with platter width of 5.25 inch &
3.5 available.
The original 5.25 inch drive is called full
height drive.
◦ Other sizes of 5.25 inch drives are
made by different manufactures.
◦ 1 inch , .75 inch and .6 inch height 3.5
inch drives are commonly used.
◦ Smaller form factors like 2.5 inch, 1.75
inch, 1.3 inch drives are commonly
used and popular .
Storage capacity
◦ HDD capacity can be expressed in 4
different ways
 Unformatted storage capacity in millions
of bytes
 Formatted storage capacity in millions of
bytes
 Unformatted storage capacity in
megabytes
 Formatted storage capacity in
megabytes.
Storage capacity
◦ Example;
◦ 1024 cylinder, 16 heads, 36 sectors
and 512 bytes per sector.

◦ 1024 X 16 X 36 X 512 = 301, 989, 888

bytes

◦ Equivalent to 288 MB
 Dividing 301,989,888 it twice with 1024.
Disk Geometry
◦ To arrange the data properly on the
disk surface, data is divided into
 Heads / Side
 Tracks
 Sectors
 Cylinders etc.

Computer stores information on some

specific track and sector. The value of
track, sector, cylinder information are
recorded in FAT.
Sides or Heads
 A HDD may contain several heads / sides
 Data can be written on any side or head.

 If a HDD has 3 disk platter, then it may

have 3 X 2 = 6 heads / sides.

 Each side have separate read / write

head to do its duty. All these heads are
connected to a single head rack which
makes them move as an unit.
 Heads don not require cleaning or any
other maintenance. Head number starts
form 0 and followed it with 1 and so on.
Track
 Each side of the hard disk drives platter’s
surface is divided into concentric circles
called tracks.

 Tracks are not visible marks on the disk

surface.

 These are magnetic information written

during the formatting of the HDD.

 The outermost track number is 0 and the

next track is 1, next track is 2 and so on.

 Number of tracks on hard disk may

ranges from 300 to 3000.
Cylinder
 On a hard disk drive which has more than
one platter, same tracks of different
platters form an imaginary cylinder like
structure.

 Data are normally stored in cylinder. First

all the tracks of same cylinder is written,
once a cylinder becomes full the read/
write head moves to the next cylinder
and so on.

 Cylinder basis recording is done to avoid

more read/ write movement and speeds
up the time required for data read and
write operation.
Sectors
 Normally a track can store more than
5000 bytes of data.
 To store less than 5000 bytes, the entire
track will be wasted.
 This led to dividing the entire track into
different smaller segments known as
sectors.
 17 to 100 or more sectors per track are
very common in HDD.
 Number of sectors may change from
manufacture to manufacture.
 Single sector can store 512 bytes of data.
Sectors - Calculation
 Let HDD has 6 sides, 1024 tracks and 37
sectors per track.

 Total sectors = total sides X total tracks

per side X total sectors per track

 Total sectors = 6 X 1024 X 37

 Total sectors = 227,328

 Total storage capacity = 227,328 X 512

 = 116,391,936
bytes or 116.4MB
INTERLEAVE
Numbering the sectors out of order with
leaving a gap of one or more sectors in the
sector numbering is called interleaving.

Depending on the speed of the system and

hard disk drive , one can follow 1:2 or 1:3 or
any other interleave scheme.

An interleave of 1:2 means that the next

serially numbered sectored is 2 sectors away
from the current sector. Correct interleave
depends on the system on which the hard disk
drive is being used and the controller being
used to connect the drive to the system.
INTERLEAVE
Currently the interleave is not an
issue as most computers support 1:1
interleave that is no interleave.

Allthe IDE and SCSI drive are pre

formatted with 1:1 interleave in the
factory and most of them do not allow
a change of the setting.

To change the interleave of other

drives, one would require some low
level format program.
SKEW
HEAD SKEW
CYLINDER SKEW
Zone bit recording
HEAD SKEW
HDD first reads information on the cylinder 0,
Head 0, Sector 1. Next, it reads all the
information on the remaining sectors on the
same cylinder, until the last sector is reached.

Once the last sector of the cylinder is reached,

the drive will have two options, one is to read the
data from the next cylinder or read the data from
the same cylinder but under the same head.

To read the data from the next cylinder, the drive
will have to move the read/write head to the next
position, whereas to read data under the next
head, only the selected head need to be
switched.
HEAD SKEW
Switchingthe head is much more faster
then moving the head to the next cylinder.

Head skewing is the change or offset in

the sector numbering in tracks under
adjacent heads of the same cylinder. This
head skewing takes care of the delay
incurred in head switching when data is
read continuous from one head to the next
head.

Head skewing improves the drive

performance of the computer.
CYLINDER SKEW
Moving of head from one cylinder
to other takes more time than the
time required for the head
switching. Because of this the
cylinder skew value is always
larger than the head skew value.
ZONE BIT RECORDING
Zone bit recording is used by the current high
capacity IDE and SCSI hard disk drives to store
more number of sectors in the outer tracks
compared to the number of sectors in the inner
track.

The complete surface of Hard disk platter is

divided into different zones, most of the drive
has 10 or more than 10 zones.

Each zone will have a fixed number of sectors

per track. The outermost zone will have
maximum number of sectors per track and the
inner most zone have least.