Hard Disk

1.Introduction

A hard drive is a mass storage device found in all PCs (with some - [exclusions) that is used to store
permanent data such as the operating system, programs and user files. The data on hard drives can be
erased and/or overwritten, the hard drive is classed as a non-volatile storage device which means it
doesn't require a constant power supply in order to retain the information stored on it (unlike RAM).
Inside every hard drive are small round disk-like objects made of either an aluminium/alloy or a
glass/ceramic composite, these are called platters, each platter is coated with a special magnetic coating
enabling them to store data magnetically. Hovering above these platters are read/write heads that
transfer data to and from the platters.

Hard Drive Capacities Hard drives come with many different storage capacities, hard drive capacity is
measured in bytes, with common capacities being stated in MB (Megabytes) and GB (Gigabytes). To
understand these figures correctly you need to know the basics of how data is stored/processed in
digital systems such as PCs. Digital data is a series of 1's (ones) and 0's (zeroes) which are referred to as
bits (Binary digITs), a byte is made up of 8 of these bits, so a single byte of data may look like 01001011
(8 consecutive bits).

 1 Bit = either a 0 (zero) or a 1 (one)

 1 Byte = 8 bits 

1 KB (Kilobyte) = 1024 bytes (210)

 1 MB (Megabyte) = 1024 Kilobytes (220)

 1 GB (Gigabyte) = 1024 Megabytes (230)

 1 TB (Terabyte) = 1024 Gigabytes (240) In the old days it was common to find hard drives with a
capacity of just 5MB, nowadays it is hard to buy a new hard drive with less than 40GB, that's 40,960
Megabytes !

Common hard drive capacities these days range from 40GB up to and exceeding 120GB. As a real world
example let's take a colour photo, and let's say the photo takes up 500 Kilobytes of storage space on a
hard drive, so if you had a 40GB hard drive you could potentially store up to 81,290 colour photos. This
is obviously hypothetical due to the fact that on the hard drive you would need your operating system
and programs which would take up some of the storage space, but you can see the point. When you
consider that an average letter written in a word processor is around 30KB it becomes apparent that the
storage capacity of modern hard drives is massive!

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2.History OF Hard Disk

In 1953, IBM recognized the immediate application for what it termed a "Random Access File" having
high capacity and rapid random access at a relatively low cost.[1] After considering technologies such as
wire matrices, rod arrays, drums, drum arrays, etc.,[1] the engineers at IBM's San Jose California
laboratory invented the hard disk drive.[2] The disk drive created a new level in the computer data
hierarchy, then termed Random Access Storage but today known as secondary storage, less expensive
and slower than main memory (then typically drums and later core memory) but faster and more
expensive than tape drives.[3]

The commercial usage of hard disk drives (HDD) began in 1957, with the shipment of a production IBM
305 RAMAC system including IBM Model 350 disk storage.[4] US Patent 3,503,060 issued March 24,
1970, and arising from the IBM RAMAC program is generally considered to be the fundamental patent
for disk drives.[5]

Each generation of disk drives replaced larger, more sensitive and more cumbersome devices. The
earliest drives were usable only in the protected environment of a data center. Later generations
progressively reached factories, offices and homes, eventually becoming ubiquitous.

Disk media diameter was initially 24 inches, but over time it has been reduced to today's 3.5-inch and
2.5-inch standard sizes. Drives with the larger 24-inch- and 14-inch-diameter media were typically
mounted in standalone boxes (resembling washing machines) or large equipment rack enclosures.
Individual drives often required high-current AC power due to the large motors required to spin the
large disks. Drives with smaller media generally conformed to de facto standard form factors.

The capacity of hard drives has grown exponentially over time. When hard drives became available for
personal computers, they offered 5-megabyte capacity. During the mid-1990s the typical hard disk drive
for a PC had a capacity in the range of 500 megabyte to 1 gigabyte.[6] As of May 2023 hard disk drives
up to 22 TB were readily available.[7]

Unit production peaked in 2010 at about 650 million units, and has been in a slow decline since

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The 1980s saw the minicomputer age plateau as PCs were introduced. Manufacturers such as IBM, DEC
and Hewlett-Packard continued to manufacture 14-inch hard drive systems as industry demanded
higher storage; one such drive is the 1980 2.52 GB IBM 3380. But it was clear that smaller Winchester
storage systems were eclipsing large platter hard drives.

In the 1980s 8-inch drives used with some mid-range systems increased from a low of about 30MB in
1980, to a top-of-the-line 3GB in 1989.[18]

Seagate 20 MB HDD and Western Digital Controller for PC

Hard disk drives for personal computers (PCs) were initially a rare and very expensive optional feature;
systems typically had only the less expensive floppy disk drives or even cassette tape drives as both
secondary storage and transport media. However, by the late 1980s, hard disk drives were standard on
all but the cheapest PC and floppy disks were used almost solely as transport media.

Most hard disk drives in the early 1980s were sold to PC end users by systems integrators such as
the Corvus Disk System or the systems manufacturer such as the Apple ProFile. The IBM PC XT in 1983,
included an internal standard 10 MB hard disk drive and IBM's version of Xebec's hard disk
drive controller, and soon thereafter internal hard disk drives proliferated on personal computers, one
popular type was the ST506/ST412 hard drive and MFM interface.

HDDs continued to get smaller with the introduction of the 3.5-inch form factor by Rodime in 1983 and
the 2.5-inch form factor by PrairieTek in 1988.

Industry participation peaked with about 75 active manufacturers in 1985 and then declined thereafter
even though volume continued to climb: by 1989 reaching 22 million units and US$23 billion in revenue.
[19]

The 1980s saw the minicomputer age plateau as PCs were introduced. Manufacturers such as IBM, DEC
and Hewlett-Packard continued to manufacture 14-inch hard drive systems as industry demanded

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higher storage; one such drive is the 1980 2.52 GB IBM 3380. But it was clear that smaller Winchester
storage systems were eclipsing large platter hard drives.

In the 1980s 8-inch drives used with some mid-range systems increased from a low of about 30MB in
1980, to a top-of-the-line 3GB in 1989.[18]

Seagate 20 MB HDD and Western Digital Controller for PC

Hard disk drives for personal computers (PCs) were initially a rare and very expensive optional feature;
systems typically had only the less expensive floppy disk drives or even cassette tape drives as both
secondary storage and transport media. However, by the late 1980s, hard disk drives were standard on
all but the cheapest PC and floppy disks were used almost solely as transport media.

Most hard disk drives in the early 1980s were sold to PC end users by systems integrators such as the
Corvus Disk System or the systems manufacturer such as the Apple ProFile. The IBM PC XT in 1983,
included an internal standard 10 MB hard disk drive and IBM's version of Xebec's hard disk drive
controller, and soon thereafter internal hard disk drives proliferated on personal computers, one
popular type was the ST506/ST412 hard drive and MFM interface.

HDDs continued to get smaller with the introduction of the 3.5-inch form factor by Rodime in 1983 and
the 2.5-inch form factor by PrairieTek in 1988.

Industry participation peaked with about 75 active manufacturers in 1985 and then declined thereafter
even though volume continued to climb: by 1989 reaching 22 million units and US$23 billion in revenue.
[19]

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3.Types Of Hard Disk

1.parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA) :

Parallel ATA (PATA), originally AT Attachment, also known as IDE, is a standard interface designed for
IBM PC-compatible computers. It was first developed by Western Digital and Compaq in 1986 for
compatible hard drives and CD or DVD drives. The connection is used for storage devices such as hard
disk drives, floppy disk drives, and optical disc drives in computers.

The standard is maintained by the X3/INCITS committee.[1] It uses the underlying AT Attachment (ATA)
and AT Attachment Packet Interface (ATAPI) standards.

The Parallel ATA standard is the result of a long history of incremental technical development, which
began with the original AT Attachment interface, developed for use in early PC AT equipment. The ATA

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interface itself evolved in several stages from Western Digital's original Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE)
interface. As a result, many near-synonyms for ATA/ATAPI and its previous incarnations are still in
common informal use, in particular Extended IDE (EIDE) and Ultra ATA (UATA). After the introduction of
SATA in 2003, the original ATA was renamed to Parallel ATA, or PATA for short.

Parallel ATA cables have a maximum allowable length of 18 in (457 mm).[2][3] Because of this limit, the
technology normally appears as an internal computer storage interface. For many years, ATA provided
the most common and the least expensive interface for this application. It has largely been replaced by
SATA in newer systems.

History and terminology

The standard was originally conceived as the "AT Bus Attachment," officially called "AT Attachment" and
abbreviated "ATA"[4][5] because its primary feature was a direct connection to the 16-bit ISA bus
introduced with the IBM PC/AT.[6] The original ATA specifications published by the standards
committees use the name "AT Attachment".[7][8][9] The "AT" in the IBM PC/AT referred to "Advanced
Technology" so ATA has also been referred to as "Advanced Technology Attachment".[10][4][11][12]
When a newer Serial ATA (SATA) was introduced in 2003, the original ATA was renamed to Parallel ATA,
or PATA for short.[13]

Physical ATA interfaces became a standard component in all PCs, initially on host bus adapters,
sometimes on a sound card but ultimately as two physical interfaces embedded in a Southbridge chip on
a motherboard. Called the "primary" and "secondary" ATA interfaces, they were assigned to base
addresses 0x1F0 and 0x170 on ISA bus systems. They were replaced by SATA interfaces.

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2. Serial Advanced Technology Attachment. (SATA)

The full form of SATA is Serial Advanced Technology Attachment. SATA or Serial ATA is
an interface used for connecting various devices like SSDs, hard disks, optical devices, and
more with the motherboard. This interface was originally introduced to replace the
Parallel ATA (PATA). Serial Advan Serial Advanced Technology Attachment. SATA ed
Technology Attachment. SATA Serial Advanced Technology Attachment. SATA

SATA (also referred to as Serial ATA) stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment,
an industry-standard bus interface for connecting a computer's host bus adapter to storage
devices such as hard disk SATA (also referred to as Serial ATA) stands for Serial
Advanced Technology Attachment, an industry-standard bus interface for connecting a
computer's host bus adapter to storage devices such as hard disk drives (HDD), optical
drives and solid-state drives (SSD) drives (HDD), optical drives and solid-state drives (SSD)

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