Working Principle of Hard Disk

A hard disk is a storage device that makes use of the magnetization of particles to save data on
its surface. A hard disk is also known as a hard drive. The data is stored in a hard disk drive in
the form of a magnetic pattern. The hard disk drive was invented by a team of people working at
the American computer manufacturing company known as IBM or International Business
Machines Corporation in the year 1956. Rey Johnson led the team, which is why he is also
known as the father of disk drives. The first hard disk was launched by IBM on September 13,
1956. Initially, the hard disk drives were capable of storing a limited amount of data and were
bulky in size; however, with improvisation in the technology the data storing capacity of the
drives was enhanced and the size of the devices was effectively reduced. The maximum amount
of data that a hard disk drive is capable of storing to date is equal to 18 Terabytes. A hard disk
drive is capable of storing all types of data such as images, audio files, text documents, etc. It can
support the storage of a variety of file formats such as jpeg, png, WAV, mp3, mp4, MKV,
WEBM, and many more. Hard disk drives are advantageous as they have a longer life span as
compared to other data storage devices and are readily available in the market at affordable
prices. Also, they have a better data storing capacity than other devices such as SSDs. The
limitations of hard disk drives include heavy power consumption, high cost, and noise produced
during usage. As compared to RAM, a hard disk allows a slow rate of transferring and accessing
the data. The hard disk drives need to be handled carefully as even a minor crack on the surface
can cause rupturing of the device and loss of data.
Working Principle of a Hard Disk

A hard disk typically works on the principle of simple magnetism to store the data and
information. A hard drive typically consists of a large plate that is usually made up of a magnetic
material and is known as a platter. The platter is usually constructed in a circular shape. The
surface of the magnetic plate is divided into billions of tiny compartments. The magnetization of
the tiny areas can be performed independently. Magnetized tiny area of the plate denotes a binary
high and is equivalent to binary value one; whereas, the demagnetized tiny area denotes a binary
low and is equivalent to binary value zero. This indicates that the letters, numbers, and other
forms of data stored by the hard disk drive are a combination of binary values, i.e., zeroes or
ones. The smallest portion of the information stored by the hard disk drive is known as a bit. The
process of magnetization of materials is typically preferred to store information in the disks as it
does not get affected by switching off the power supply. The data is retained by the drive even if
it is not connected to the power supply for a long time period. The magnetised portion of the
hard disk tends to stay magnetized until it is externally demagnetised, thereby allowing reliable
storage of data.

Components of a Hard Disk

A hard disk drive typically consists of 9 major components, namely an actuator, a read-write
arm, a central spindle, a magnetic platter, a plug, a read-write head, circuit board, a connector,
and a small spindle.
1. Actuator

The actuator is a simple device that helps in the conversion of electrical energy into mechanical
energy. Here, the main purpose of the actuator is to drive the read-write arm. Initially, stepper
motors were typically used by the hard drives to move the read-write arm, but they were soon
replaced by the actuators as stepper motors move at a comparatively slower rate, are less reliable,
lack precision, and are much more sensitive to physical parameters of the environment such as
temperature, pressure, etc. In some of the latest versions of hard disk drives, voice coils are used
in the place of actuators.

2. Read-Write Arm

The read-write arm acts as a driving mechanism that moves the read-write head over the surface
of the platter in a back and forth direction.

3. Central Spindle

The spindle attached to the centre of the platter holds the device in place and helps in the uniform
rotation of the disk at a considerably high speed along its axis.

4. Magnetic Platter

A magnetic platter is a circular disk that is typically made up of aluminium or glass and has a
magnetic coating applied on its surface. It is one of the most important parts of a hard disk drive.
The magnetic platter of a hard disk is mainly responsible for the storage of data with the help of
the magnetisation process. A hard disk drive consists of a number of magnetic platter disks that
are stacked on top of one another and are mounted on a common spindle. The rotation per minute
of the platter is directly proportional to the speed of operation of the device.

5. Plug

The plug of the hard disk helps to connect the hard disk drive to a computer system.

6. Read-Write Head

The read-write head is a small piece of a magnet attached to the top of a read-write arm that
performs the main task of reading data from the hard disk and writing the data on the surface of
the platter. A hard disk drive typically consists of two read-write heads for each platter disk. One
of the heads is attached to the top of the platter, whereas, the other is placed in close contact with
its base. This enables the device to access data available on both sides of the platter. To protect
the device from excessive wear and tear, the read-write head is made to hover over the surface
and a layer of fluid or air is inserted between the read-write head and the platter.
7. Circuit Board

The circuit board of a hard disk drive is usually made up of aluminium, glass, or ceramic
material. It is embedded in the internal circuitry of the hard disk drive and is used to circulate the
data contained by the disk by controlling the flow of data to and from the magnetised platter.

8. Flexible Connector

The flexible connector attached to the internal mechanism of the hard disk drive near the platter
is mainly used to carry data from the circuit board to the read-write head of the device and vice
versa.

9. Small Spindle

A small spindle is attached to the side of the machinery that helps the read-write arm of the
device to swing sideways over the magnetised platter.

Working of a Hard Disk

A hard drive consists of a stack of disks or platters that spin at a significantly high speed. A
recording head is typically attached to the top and the bottom portion of each platter. A layer of
microscopic magnetized metal grains is applied to the surface of the disks. The main purpose of
the coating of magnetized metal grains present on the surface of disks is to form magnetic
patterns to hold the information or store the data. For this purpose, the grains tend to arrange
themselves in the form of groups. Here, each group formed by the grains is known as a bit. The
two states in which the magnetization of the grains can be achieved denote the binary bits 0 and
1. The data is stored on to the disk by converting digital data or the binary combination of bits
into analogue data or the electric current. The transfer of bits takes place with the help of an
electromagnet that is attached to the internal mechanism of the hard drive. The magnetic field
generated by the electromagnet is highly intense and is capable of reversing or changing the
direction of magnetization of the metal grains. To retrieve the information stored on the drive, a
magnetic reader is used. The information that is stored on the surface of the hard disk drive is
arranged in a specific order. The data bits containing the information are arranged in concentric
circular paths. These paths are known as tracks. The tracks can be further divided into smaller
areas known as sectors. Whenever the user provides a command to save the data, the read-write
head of the device tries to locate the free sectors of the platter and establish magnetisation and
demagnetisation of the magnetic grains present in that particular area according to the input
signal. A portion of the hard disk drive is specifically dedicated to keep a track of the free and
used up portions of the drive. The map that displays the usage of the drive is known as the file
allocation table or FAT. When the user provides a command to the computer to save information
on the surface of the disk, then the computer approaches the file allocation table to find the
appropriate place required to save the data. Once the suitable place is located by the computer,
the read-write head is made to move on the surface of the platter accordingly. Finally, the grains
present on the surface of the disk get magnetized and demagnetized as per the input data, and the
data is successfully saved. To read the data or to retrieve back the saved information, the process
gets reversed. A hard disk drive is susceptible to losing data if the particles of foreign material
such as dust particles, moisture molecules, etc. manage to enter the internal circuitry of the
device, which is why a backup of the data stored into a hard disk is usually preferred. This means
that a hard disk is a delicate device that requires proper and careful handling.
 Types and factors to be considered before buying a hard drive

Different types of Hard Disks/Hard drive-

There are a bunch of hard disks available for your usage. To buy the one that fits your needs, you
must have complete information. So here are all the most prominent types of hard disk drives
available:

External Hard Disk Vs Internal Hard Disk-

The major difference between an external and internal hard disk is that an internal hard disk is
mounted inside the laptop or desktop, while an external hard disk is connected via a USB in most
cases. A computer has to have one internal hard drive, otherwise the computer will not be able to
retain information for usage. It is vital for the functioning of the computer.

Whereas, an external hard drive is extremely useful when it comes to transferring files and can
act as an alternate storage. Both of these are a great addition for storage expansion. It completely
depends on the user which one they prefer as per their need.

With advancement in technology there has been a constant change in the hard disk drives. There
are a bunch of hard disks available, and at a reasonable hard disk price these will surely aid your
storage demand.

 Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA) -

PATA was the technology used in the first batch of hard drives. These are also called
Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) or Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE)
drives. These are known to offer a common interface for all the devices including hard
disks to connect to the computer. PATA hard drives have a data transfer rate 133 MB/s.
But these only allow up to two devices to be connected at a time. These drives transfer
data in parallel and simultaneously, and store data using magnetism.

 Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) -

Unlike PATA drives, SATA transfer data in a series. These are known to transfer
enormous data at low speed. These also have a lower price compared to PATA and are
used widely in computers now. SATA drives have a data transfer speed of 600 MB/s,
thus their transfer speed is more. These drives are useful for backups and storing large
files without high load servers. SATA drives also consume less power, which is a bonus!

Hard drives can be further divided into Hard disc drives and Solid State drives:
Hard Disc Drives (HDDs) -

These are found in most computer devices. These comprise a bundle of discs or plates, on which
the information is written using a spinner. These have a revolution speed of 15000 per minute,
which might be a little noisy. These have a large storage space which can go up to 4TB. The only
downside besides being noisy is that these also consume a lot of power.

Solid State Drives (SSDs) -

Unlike HDDs these do not have any disks which are required to rotate for information storage.
Instead, these consist of memory chips. Due to the elimination of rotation of disks, these do not
make any noise and also consume significantly less power. These are also smaller in size. These
are best suited for projects that require constant writing and rewriting, but due to this rewriting
their life gets reduced.

Now that all the types of drives available are clear, next thing to focus upon are the factors that
need to be considered before you get to the best hard disk.

Things to look for while buying a hard disk:

Storage Capacity-

The most obvious factor to consider is the storage space. Depending on what you require in the
hard drive, you would have to make a choice. The price for less space is less and goes up with
more storage. Some of the common hard disk drive sizes are 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 250GB...A
medium storage drive would be perfect for storage expansion, backup and file transfer.

Transfer Speed-

Transfer speed is another important factor. A low transfer speed may get annoying if you are in a
hurry and the transfer is taking ages. A SSD would transfer data faster than HDD. Transfer speed
depends a lot on the connector as well, if it is external. For example if you want a high speed and
you are using USB 2.0, chances are even if the HDD has a good speed the connector will reduce
it. So, make sure to research about the speed of the USB type you are using.

Security-

The most important factor will always remain the security, more so now than ever, because of
the risk computers possess due to the constant use of the internet. This exposure has made it
important to invest in a hard disk that is encrypted. Some disks also come with a pin adding extra
security. Beside this, physical security is also equally important. A good hard drive must have a
secured casing to protect the chips from scratches or any other form of tempering as that might
result in data loss.
Compatibility-

Whichever drive you are looking for, be it external or internal, make sure you check whether the
drive will run on the OS of your computer. Many hard drives are made to work on particular
systems, a drive aimed for Mac might not work properly on Windows. So to avoid this
compatibility needs to be checked.

Durability and Portability-

Before buying a hard drive, one needs to keep in mind how extensively is this drive going to get
used and what will be its life span. Also, if the drive is going to travel with you to places, you
might also need one which can fit in your bag and can be easily carried, i.e., is portable. Lately,
most hard drives are made portable due to the demand. In comparison, however, from the point
of view of portability and durability a SSD would be a better option compared to HDD.

Conclusion:

Once all these factors are considered, you will be able to make a wise choice. Make sure that you
do look up for the best brands to guarantee security but would also be giving warranties and
other perks.

CPU modes

CPU modes (also called processor modes, CPU states, CPU privilege levels and other names)
are operating modes for the central processing unit of some computer architectures that place
restrictions on the type and scope of operations that can be performed by certain processes being
run by the CPU. This design allows the operating system to run with more privileges than
application software.

Ideally, only highly trusted kernel code is allowed to execute in the unrestricted mode;
everything else (including non-supervisory portions of the operating system) runs in a restricted
mode and must use a system call (via interrupt) to request the kernel perform on its behalf any
operation that could damage or compromise the system, making it impossible for untrusted
programs to alter or damage other programs (or the computing system itself).

In practice, however, system calls take time and can hurt the performance of a computing
system, so it is not uncommon for system designers to allow some time-critical software
(especially device drivers) to run with full kernel privileges.
Multiple modes can be implemented—allowing a hypervisor to run multiple operating system
supervisors beneath it, which is the basic design of many virtual machine systems available
today.

Mode types
Further information on interoperation between CPU and OS levels of abstraction: Protection ring

The unrestricted mode is often called kernel mode, but many other designations exist (master
mode, supervisor mode, privileged mode, etc.). Restricted modes are usually referred to as user
modes, but are also known by many other names (slave mode, problem state, etc.).

Kernel
In kernel mode, the CPU may perform any operation allowed by its architecture; any
instruction may be executed, any I/O operation initiated, any area of memory accessed,
and so on. In the other CPU modes, certain restrictions on CPU operations are enforced
by the hardware. Typically, certain instructions are not permitted (especially those—
including I/O operations—that could alter the global state of the machine), some memory
areas cannot be accessed, etc. User-mode capabilities of the CPU are typically a subset of
those available in kernel mode, but in some cases, such as hardware emulation of non-
native architectures, they may be significantly different from those available in standard
kernel mode.
User
Some CPU architectures support multiple user modes, often with a hierarchy of
privileges. These architectures are often said to have ring-based security, wherein the
hierarchy of privileges resembles a set of concentric rings, with the kernel mode in the
center. Multics hardware was the first significant implementation of ring security, but
many other hardware platforms have been designed along similar lines, including the
Intel 80286 protected mode, and the IA-64 as well, though it is referred to by a different
name in these cases.

Mode protection may extend to resources beyond the CPU hardware itself. Hardware registers
track the current operating mode of the CPU, but additional virtual-memory registers, page-table
entries, and other data may track mode identifiers for other resources. For example, a CPU may
be operating in Ring 0 as indicated by a status word in the CPU itself, but every access to
memory may additionally be validated against a separate ring number for the virtual-memory
segment targeted by the access, and/or against a ring number for the physical page (if any) being
targeted. This has been demonstrated with the PSP handheld system.

Hardware that meets the Popek and Goldberg virtualization requirements makes writing software
to efficiently support a virtual machine much simpler. Such a system can run software that
"believes" it is running in supervisor mode, but is actually running in user mode.
 Computer POST and beep codes
The computer POST (power-on self-test) checks a computer's internal hardware for compatibility
and connection before starting the remainder of the boot process. If the computer passes the
POST, the computer may give a single beep (some computers may beep twice) as it starts and
continues to boot. However, if the computer fails the POST, the computer may generate a beep
code telling the user the source of the problem.

The most common causes of POST failures are problems with the following components.

 BIOS ROM
 CPU (processor)
 Motherboard
 RAM (memory)
 Video card

If your computer has an irregular POST or a beep code not mentioned below, follow the POST
troubleshooting steps to determine the failing hardware component.

Note

Except for Dell and Mac, your computer or motherboard manufacturer is not the BIOS
manufacturer. Determine the BIOS manufacturer for your computer's motherboard, then select
the appropriate link below for beep code meanings.

 AMI BIOS beep codes.

 Award BIOS beep codes.
 Dell beep codes.
 IBM BIOS beep codes.
 Insyde beep codes.
 Macintosh startup tones.
 Phoenix BIOS beep codes.
 Motherboard help and support.

Some number of short beeps that are sounded by the BIOS upon startup when a memory, cache
or processor error is encountered. There are numerous beep code patterns, and Phoenix BIOS
codes are long and short beeps delivered in groups. The following beep codes are for AMI
BIOSs.

1 Beep - Refresh Failure

Reseat/replace memory, troubleshoot motherboard.
2 Beeps - Parity Error
Reset/replace memory, troubleshoot motherboard.

3 Beeps - Memory Error (first 64KB)

Reset/replace memory.

4 Beeps - Timer Failure

Troubleshoot motherboard.

5 Beeps - Processor Failure

Troubleshoot CPU, motherboard.

6 Beeps - Keyboard Controller Failure

Troubleshoot keyboard, motherboard.

7 Beeps - Virtual Mode Exception Error

Troubleshoot CPU, motherboard.

8 Beeps - Display Memory Failure

Troubleshoot graphics card, motherboard.

9 Beeps - ROM BIOS Checksum Failure

Replace ROM BIOS, troubleshoot motherboard.

10 Beeps - CMOS Shutdown Register Failure

Troubleshoot motherboard.

11 Beeps - L2 Cache Failure

Troubleshoot L2 cache, motherboard.

Continuous Beeps - Memory or Video Failure

Troubleshoot memory, graphics card, and motherboard.

Dell beep codes

Beep Code Description

1 beep BIOS ROM corruption or failure.

2 beeps Memory (RAM) not detected.

3 beeps Motherboard failure.

4 beeps Memory (RAM) failure.

5 beeps CMOS battery failure.

6 beeps Video card failure.

7 beeps Bad processor (CPU).

IBM BIOS beep codes

Below are general IBM BIOS beep codes. However, because of the wide variety of models
shipping with this BIOS, the beep codes may vary.
Beep Code Description

No beeps Why won't my computer turn on?

1 short beep Normal POST, computer is ok.

2 short beep POST error, review screen for error code.

Continuous beep No power, loose card, or short.

Repeating short beep No power, loose card, or short.

1 long, 1 short beep Motherboard issue.

1 long, 2 short beeps Video (Mono/CGA display circuitry) issue.

1 long, 3 short beeps. Video (EGA) display circuitry.

3 long beeps Keyboard or keyboard card error.

1 beep, blank or incorrect display. Video display circuitry.

Macintosh startup tones

Tones Error

Error tone. (two sets of different tones). Problem with logic board or SCSI bus.

Startup tone, drive spins, no video. Problem with video controller.

Powers on, no tone. Logic board problem.

High tone, four higher tones. Problem with SIMM.