Jimma Institute of Technology

Faculty of Informatics and Computing

Course Title: Computer Maintenance and

Technical Support

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 Chapter 6
Storage Devices

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 Objective

After completing this chapter you will be able to

• Recognize Floppy Disk and Floppy Disk Drive.

• Explain how hard drives work

• Recognize CD/DVD(Optical disks) and CD/DVD Drive.

• Identify mass storage interface connections.

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Storage Devices

• A storage device is any hardware capable of holding information so

storage in computers is the process of retaining information for future use.
There are several types of storage devices, each with its own unique
characteristics:
 Secondary storage (hard disks, SSDs)
 Optical storage (CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs)
 Flash storage (USB drives, SD cards)
 Floppy Disk

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Floppy Drive

• Floppy disks are made of flexible plastic coated with a magnetic material,
and are enclosed in a hard plastic case.
• A Historical Storage Medium
• Two version of floppy drives
• 3 1/2 inch: -can store 1.44MB of data
• 5 1/4 inch: -can store 1.2MB of data

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Hard Disk Drive

• Hard disk is one of the core components of any computers and it can
contain huge amount of data.

• The hard drive consists of one or more hard drive platters (hard
disks) inside of an air sealed casing to protect it from dust.

• Because the hard disk drive is expected to retain data until deliberately
erased or overwritten, the hard drive is used to store crucial programming
and data.

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Hard Disk Drive

• Form Factor
• Hard disk drives are manufactured in two standardized form factors,
2.5-inch and 3.5-inch. You’ll see both form factors in desktops and
servers; most laptops use the 2.5-inch form factor.

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Basic Components of hard disk

• A hard disk is comprised of four basic parts:

• Platters (disks),
• Spindle,
• Actuator:

 Read/Write head
 Read/Write actuator arm
• Integrated electronics.

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• Platters are rigid disks made of metal or plastic.
• Both sides of each platter are covered with an extremely thin coating of
iron oxide or other magnetizable material.
• The platters are mounted on a central axle or spindle, which rotates all the
platters at the same speed.
• Read/write heads are mounted on head arms that extend over both top
and bottom surfaces of each disk.

• The integrated electronics translate commands from the computer and

move the read/write heads to specific areas of the platters, thus reading
and/or writing the needed data.

• The head actuator is the device used to position the head arms to
different tracks on the surface of the platter.

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Tracks and Sectors

• Platters are organized into

specific structures to enable
the organized storage and
retrieval of data.

• Each platter is broken into

tracks- tens of thousands of
them - which are tightly-
packed concentric circles.

• One corresponding track on

all surfaces of a hard drive is
a cylinder.

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 Tracks and Sectors

• Each track is further broken down into sectors.

• A sector is normally the smallest individually addressable unit of information

stored on a hard disk, and normally holds 512 bytes of information.

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Hard Drive Interface

• There are two major hard drive interfaces:

• IDE (integrated drive electronics), also known as the ATA (AT
Attachment) standard.
• SCSI (small computer system interface).
• IDE is the most common in home and office computers. SCSI is
commonly found in network servers.

PATA SATA

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Hard Drive Interface

SATAe

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Hard Drive Interface

• PATA (parallel ATA) is the older IDE type, which uses a 40-pin cable
that connects the IDE hard drive to an adapter or the motherboard
and transfers 16 bits of data at a time.

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Hard Drive Interface

• The newer IDE standard is SATA (serial ATA).

• The original specification transfers data at 1.5Gbps (sometimes seen
as 1.5Gb/s) with the latest release at 6Gbps. But the maximum speed
of PATA is 133 Mbps.
• Serial ATA is a point-to-point interface, which means that each
device connects to the host through a dedicated link.

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Hard Drive Interface

• eSATA (external SATA) provides external device connectivity using

the SATA standard.
• eSATA allows shielded cable lengths up to 2 meters (~6.56 feet), with
faster connections than USB 2.0 or most IEEE 1394 types.

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How Is Data Stored and Retrieved?

• When a computer saves data, it sends the data to the hard disk as a
series of bits( 0s and 1s).

• As the disk receives the bits, it uses the read/write heads to magnetically
record or “write” the bits as a magnetic charge on the oxide coating of a
disk platter.

• When the computer requests data stored on the disk, the platters rotate
and the read/write heads move back and forth to the specified data areas.

• The read/write heads read the data by determining the magnetic field of
each bit, positive or negative, and then reply that information back to the
computer.

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How Is Data Stored and Retrieved?

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Common Problem of HDD: Head Crashes

• Read/write heads of a hard disk are floating on a microscopic layer of air

above the disk platters.

• Normally, the heads only contact the surface when the drive is either
starting up or stopping.

• It is possible that the heads can make contact with the media

• Head crash is a condition where the heads contact the surface of the disk
while it is at operational speed.

• The most common causes of head crashes are contamination getting

stuck in the thin gap between the head and the disk, and shock applied to
the hard disk while it is in operation.

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Common Problem of HDD: Bad Sector

• A bad sector, also known as a bad block, is a section of storage media

that can no longer be reliably read or written to.
• This can occur for various reasons, including physical damage to the
media, software error or manufacturing defects.
• When a bad sector is encountered, the OS will typically mark it as
unusable and prevent data from being stored on it.
• The presence of bad sectors can cause a variety of problems:
• Data loss
• System instability
• Performance degradation

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SSD (Solid State Drive )

• SSDs (solid state drives) are storage devices

that use nonvolatile Flash memory
technologies instead of hard drive
technologies.
• SSDs eliminate the number-one cause of hard
drive failure: moving parts.
• SSDs use Flash memory and can therefore be
low heat producing, reliable, quiet, secure,
long-lasting, and fast.
• The main drawback to SSDs is cost. SSDs are
expensive compared to hard drives.
• As with Flash drives, each memory block of an
SSD has a finite number of reads and writes.
• An SSD that writes data across the entire
memory capacity will last longer.
• SSDs can replace HDD soon.
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SSD

• SSDs for personal computers come in one of three form factors:

• The 2.5-inch form factor previously mentioned and two flat form
factors called mSATA and M.2.
• mSATA and M.2 drives connect to specific mSATA or M.2 slots on
motherboards. Many current motherboards offer two or more M.2 slots.
• Less expensive SSDs typically implement less reliable multi-level cell
(MLC) memory technology in place of the more efficient single-level cell
(SLC) technology to cut costs.

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SSD vs HDD

• .

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Hard Drive Preparation

• Once a hard drive is installed and configured properly, and the hard drive
type is entered into the Setup program, the drive must be prepared to
accept data.
• The two steps of hard drive preparation are as follows:
• Partition
• High-level format
• Partitioning the hard drive allows a drive letter to be assigned to one or more
parts of the hard drive. High-level formatting prepares the drive for use for a
particular operating system.
• This allows the drive to accept data from the operating system. For today’s
computers, a drive cannot be used until it has been partitioned and high-level
formatted; thus technicians should be very familiar with these steps.

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Partitioning
• The first step in preparing a hard drive for use is partitioning. Partitioning a
hard drive divides the drive so the computer system sees the hard drive as
more than one drive.
• Windows NT and higher versions partitions can be set up during the
operating system installation process.
• Also use Disk Managment program that is available after the operating
system is installed, or by using the diskpart utility from the command line.
• Partitioning provides advantages that include the following:
• Dividing a hard drive into separate subunits that are then assigned
drive letters such as C: or D: by the operating system
• Organizing the drive to separate multiple operating systems, and data
• Providing data security by placing data in a different partition to allow
ease of backup as well as protection
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Partitioning
• The type of partition and how big the partition can be depends on the file system
being used. A file system defines how data is stored on a drive.
• The most common file systems are FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS. The file system
that can be used depends on what operating system is installed.

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Partitioning
Partitioning Types
• Partitions are defined as primary and extended. If there is only one hard drive
installed in a system and the entire hard drive is one partition, it is the primary
partition. The primary partition on the first detected hard drive is assigned the
drive letter C:.
• If the drive is divided so only part of the drive is the primary partition, the rest of
the cylinders can be designated as the extended partition.
• An extended partition allows a drive to be further divided into logical drives.
• A logical drive is sometimes called a volume.
• A volume is assigned a drive letter and can include a logical drive as well as
removable media such as a CD, Flash Drive.
• There can only be one extended partition per drive. A single hard drive can be
divided into a maximum of four primary partitions.

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Partitioning

Why Use Multiple Partitions?

• Install more than one OS on your hard disk;

• Make the most efficient use of your available disk space;

• Make your files as secure as possible;

• Physically separate data so that it is easy to find files and back up data.

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Partitioning

Primary partition
• A primary partition may contain an operating system along with any
number of data files (for example, program files or user files). Before an
OS is installed,
• The primary partition must be logically formatted with a file system
compatible to the OS.
• If you have multiple primary partitions on your hard disk, only one primary
partition may be visible and active at a time.
• The active partition is the partition from which an OS is booted at
computer startup.
• Primary partitions other than the active partition are hidden, preventing
their data from being accessed.
• Thus, the data in a primary partition can be accessed (for all practical
purposes) only by the OS installed on that partition.

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Partitioning

Extended partition
• The extended partition was invented as a way of getting around the
arbitrary four-partition limit.

• An extended partition is essentially a container in which you can further

physically divide your disk space by creating an unlimited number of
logical partitions.

• An extended partition does not directly hold data. You must create logical
partitions within the extended partition in order to store data.

• Once created, logical partitions must be logically formatted, but each can
use a different file system.

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 Partitioning

Logical partition
• Logical partitions can exist only within an extended partition and are
meant to contain only data files and OSs that can be booted from a
logical partition (OS/2, Linux, and Windows NT)

• You can access logical partition files from multiple OSs

• A logical partition is what
you can create to store
things like movies,
software, application files,
and more.

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32
Partitioning
• Remember that a partition is a contiguous section of storage space that
functions as if it is a separate drive.

• The first hard drive in a computer system must have a primary partition, but it
does not require an extended partition.
• If the drive has an extended partition, it can be further subdivided into logical
drives that appear as separate hard drives to the computer system.
• Logical drives created in the extended partition are assigned drive letters (D:, E)
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Partitioning
• When a hard drive is first installed and partitioned, the outermost track on the
platter (cylinder 0, head 0, and sector 1) is reserved for the partition table.
• The partition table holds information about the types of partitions created and in
what cylinders these partitions reside.
• The partition table is part of the MBR (master boot record) that contains a
program that reads the partition table, looks for the primary partition marked as
active, and goes to that partition to boot the system.

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MBR vs GPT
• Windows supports three different partitioning methods: the older master boot
record (MBR) partitioning scheme, Windows’ proprietary dynamic storage
partitioning scheme, and the GUID partition table (GPT).
Master Boot Record
• The first sector of an MBR hard drive contains the master boot record (MBR),
code that informs the system about installed operating systems.
• While your computer boots up, BIOS looks at the first sector of your hard drive
for instructions. Without this bit of code, your OS will never load.

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MBR vs GPT
• After the MBR locates the appropriate partition, the partition boot sector loads
the OS on that partition. The partition boot sector stores information important to
its partition, such as the location of the OS boot files.

GUID Partition Table

• The GUID partition table (GPT) partitioning scheme shares a lot with the MBR
partitioning scheme, overcoming many of the MBR scheme’s limitations.
• While MBR drives were limited to four partitions, a GPT drive can have an
almost unlimited number of primary partitions.
• MBR partitions were no larger than 2.2 TB, on GPT no restrictions. 36
Preventive Maintenance for Hard Drives
• The most common hard drive failures are due to moving parts (heads and
motors) and power fluctuations and/or failures.
• Performing preventive maintenance on the entire computer is good for all
components found inside the computer, including the hard drive subsystems.
• A program called CHKDSK can be executed from Command prompt and the
program locates clusters disassociated from data files.
• Windows also has a program called Disk Cleanup that removes temporary files,
removes offline Internet files, empties the Recycle Bin, compresses unused files,
removes unused programs etc.
• Disk Defragment:
• Defragmentation is the process of placing files in contiguous sectors.

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Managing Partitions

• Shrinking volume

• Extending volume

• Creating partition

• Deleting volume

• Hiding volume

• Making primary part as active

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• When you create multiple primary partitions to hold different operating
systems, you must tell the computer which primary partition to boot from.

• The primary partition from which the computer boots is called the active
partition.

• If there is no active primary partition on the physical hard disk,

your computer will not be able to boot from your hard disk.

• WARNING! Before you make a primary partition active, make sure that it
is a bootable partition.

• Bootable partitions are logically formatted and have the necessary OS

files installed.

• Partitions without an OS cannot be booted.

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Optical Disks

Use laser light to read or write data

DVD, CD
CD (compact disc)
Can store up to 700 MB
Three types
CD-ROM( compact disk read only memory)
You can’t write to or erase
CD-R (compact disk recordable)
Can be written on once but can’t be erased-WORM (write once read
many)
CD-RW –(compact disk rewritable)
Can write several times
Can be erased
DVD- Digital Versatile Disc
Can store 4GB, 8GB
More recent drives can read Blu-ray discs and write to BD-R (Blu-ray disc
recordable) discs, and these drives are often called BD-ROM or Blu-ray drives.
provide 28 GB of space to store data.

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CD-ROM

• CD-ROM drives have speeds ranging from 1x all the way up to 72x,
meaning it reads the CD roughly 72 times faster than the 1x version.

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Top CD-ROM Drive Problems and solutions

• Problem: Cannot read information on a CD or DVD.

 Check all the cables, monitor, keyboard and mouse functionality.

 Remove the disk and try to clean it with a commercial cleaning fluid or
a clean damp cloth.
 Try to clean the disk drive with a disk cleaning CD or DVD.

• Problem: Disc drive not working in Windows

 Make sure you have tested more than one CD in the disc drive it may
be one CD that is bad or dirty.
 Check Device Manager: Within Device Manager verify that the
CDROM has no exclamation marks or red Xs
 Corruption in Windows: Try testing the CDROM in Safe Mode.

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End of Chapter 6

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 Chapter 7
Bus and Cards

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 Objective
After completing this chapter you will be able to

• Define Bus

• Recognize Types of Buses.

• Understand expansion cards.

• Identify types of expansion cards like:

 The Video Card

 The Sound Card

 Network card

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7.1 Buses

Bus is a pathways or set of pathways that allows data and signals to travel
between components on the motherboard.
E.g., a bus enables a computer processor to communicate with
the memory

memory

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7.1 Buses

• The purpose of buses is to reduce the number of "pathways" needed

for communication between the components, by carrying out all
communications over a single data channel. This is why the metaphor
of a "data highway" is sometimes used.

• The "first" bus is the system bus, which connects the CPU with RAM.
In older designs it was a local bus. In newer designs this bus is
called the Front Side Bus (FSB).

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• A bus connects various components of a computer using a number of different
wires, which usually appear in the form of tracks on a Printed Circuit Board
(PCB). These wires can be classified into four functional groups: power,
address, data and control.

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• Today all computers utilize two bus types, an internal bus or local bus
and an external bus, also called the expansion bus.

 An internal bus enables a communication between internal

components such as a computer video card and memory and

 An external bus is capable of communicating with external

components such as a USB.

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Characteristics of Bus

• A bus is characterized by the amount of information that can be

transmitted at once. This amount, expressed in bits, corresponds to the
number of physical lines over which data is sent simultaneously.

• A 32-wire ribbon cable can transmit 32 bits in parallel. The term "width" is
used to refer to the number of bits that a bus can transmit at once.

• Additionally, the bus speed is also defined by its frequency (expressed in

Hertz), the number of data packets sent or received per second. Each
time that data is sent or received is called a cycle.

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• It is possible to find the maximum transfer speed (Throughput (bps or
MB/s)) of the bus, the amount of data which it can transport per unit of
time, by multiplying its width by its frequency. A bus with awidth of 16 bits
and a frequency of 133 MHz, therefore, has a transfer speed equal to:

= 16 bits × 133*106 Hz

= 2128 × 106 bits/second

= 266 × 106 bytes/second

= 266 × 103 KB/s => 266 MB/s

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Types of bus and its architecture

Address bus (sometimes called the memory bus) - carries memory

addresses from the processor to other components such as primary
storage and input/output devices. The address bus is unidirectional.

Data bus - carries the data between the processor and other components.
The data bus is bidirectional. Data is passed in parallel or serial manner.

Control bus - carries control signals from the processor to other

components. It is a bidirectional bus, as it also transmits response signals
from the hardware.

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The primary buses

There are generally two buses within a computer:

• The internal bus (sometimes called the Front side bus, or FSB for
short). The internal bus allows the processor to communicate with the
system's central memory (the RAM).

• The expansion bus (sometimes called the input/output bus) allows

various motherboard components (USB, serial, and parallel ports, cards
inserted in PCI connectors, hard drives, CD•ROM and CD•RW drives,
etc.) to communicate with one another. However, it is mainly used to add
new devices using what are called expansion slots connected to the
input/output bus.

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FSB (Front Side Bus)

• FSB is also known as the Processor Bus or System Bus and connects
the CPU (chipset) with the main memory and L2 cache. The FSB can
range from speeds of 66 MHz, 133 MHz, 100 MHz, 266 MHz, 400
MHz, and up.

• The FSB is now another important consideration when looking at

purchasing a computer Motherboard or a new computer.

• The FSB speed can be set either using the system BIOS or with jumpers
located on the computer motherboard. While most motherboards allow
you to set the FSB to any setting, ensure that the FSB is properly set
unless you plan to overclock the computer.

• Keep in mind that improper settings may cause issues such as hardware
lockups, data corruption, or other errors may arise with older hardware.

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55
Chipset

• A chipset is the component which routes data between the computer's

buses, so that all the components which make up the computer can
communicate with each other.

• The chipset originally was made up of a large number of electronic chips,

hence the name. It generally has two components:

• The Northbridge (also called the memory controller) is in charge of

controlling transfers between the processor and the RAM, which is why it
is located physically near the processor. It is sometimes called the
GMCH, for Graphic and Memory Controller Hub.

• The Southbridge (also called the input/output controller or expansion

controller) handles communications between peripheral devices. It is also
called the ICH (I/O Controller Hub). The term bridge is generally used to
designate a component which connects two buses.
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Types of Expansion Buses

• Over the years many different buses have been developed.

• Types of Expansion Buses:

– ISA

– PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)

– PCI Express (PCIe)
– AGP (Acceleration Graphics Card)
– USB (Universal Serial Bus) USB (Universal Serial Bus)

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Types of Expansion Buses

PCI Bus (Peripheral Component Interconnect Bus)

The PCI is the high speed bus of the 1990s.

It emerged as the answer to the performance bottleneck.

It is a high performance bus that is used for peripherals requiring CPU-like

performance

It is commonly used bus on computers today for connecting adapters, such

as network-controllers, graphics cards, sound cards etc.

The PCI bus connects PCI slots to the Southbridge. On most systems, the
speed of the PCI bus is 33 MHz.

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Types of Expansion Buses

PCI Express (PCIe)

Originally known as 3rd Generation I/O (3GIO) was approved as a standard

on July 2002.

It is a serial bus designed to replace PCI and AGP and is available in

different formats: x1, x2, x4, x8, x12, x16, and x32.

The data transmitted over PCI-Express is sent over wires called lanes in
full duplex mode (both directions at the same time).

Each lane is capable of around 250MBps and the specification can be

scaled from 1 to 32 lanes. This means 16 lanes could support a bandwidth
of up to 4,000MBps in both directions. => 16x250MBps => 4000MBps =>
4GBps.

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Types of Expansion Buses

USB (Universal Serial Bus)

USB is a standard that was introduced in 1995 by Intel, Compaq, Microsoft
and other computer companies.

USB 1.x is an external bus standard that supports data transfer rates of 12
Mbps

USB transfer speeds

USB 2.0, also known as hi-speed USB, was developed by Compaq,
Hewlett Packard, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft, and NiCad Philips and was
introduced in 2001. Hi-speed USB is capable of supporting a transfer rate
of up to 480 Mbps and is backwards compatible

As of 2012, USB 3.0 also known as Super Speed USB is the latest version
of the USB protocol. Most new computers feature USB 3.0 ports built-in,
offering data transfer speeds of up to 5 Gbps.

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61
ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment)

ATA is a standard interface for connecting storage devices such as hard drives and CD-
ROM drives to a computer motherboard.

It was originally developed in the late 1980s by Western Digital and Compaq.

ATA is also known as Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) or Parallel ATA (PATA). ATA uses
a 40-pin connector to connect the storage device to the motherboard. The interface
supports data transfer rates of up to 133 megabytes per second.

ATA was widely used in the 1990s and early 2000s, but has since been replaced by
newer interfaces such as Serial ATA (SATA) and NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express).

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Types of ATA

There are several types of ATA interfaces, including:

1. Parallel ATA (PATA): This is the original ATA interface, which uses a parallel
connection to transfer data between the storage device and the computer.

2. Serial ATA (SATA): This is a newer ATA interface that uses a serial
connection to transfer data between the storage device and the computer.
SATA is faster and more efficient than PATA.

3. ATA/ATAPI-4: This is an updated version of ATA that includes support for

faster transfer rates and additional features such as DMA (Direct Memory
Access).

4. ATA/ATAPI-5: This is another updated version of ATA that includes support

for even faster transfer rates and additional features such as Native
Command Queuing (NCQ).

5. ATA/ATAPI-9: This is the latest version of ATA, which includes support for
even faster transfer rates and additional features such as SATA III (also
known as SATA 6G). 63
Standards of ATA

Some of the main standards of ATA include:

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Comparison Table Between SATA and PATA

Parameters of SATA PATA

Comparison
Full-Form SATA stands for Serial PATA stands for Parallel
Advanced Technology Advanced Technology
Attachment. Attachment.
Use SATA is currently in use. PATA is currently not in use.
Therefore, it is outdated.
Connection SATA is hot-pluggable. PATA is not hot-pluggable.
Speed The speed capacity is faster in The speed capacity is slow in
SATA. The average speed is PATA, with an average speed
3Gbps. of 133MBps.
Interface SATA provides an external PATA provides an internal
interface. interface.
Cable Size The size of the cable of SATA is The size of the cable of PATA
small. is larger as compared to
SATA.
Bit Rate The bit rate of SATA is 150 The bit rate of PATA is 16
MB/s – 600 MB/s. MB/s – 133 MB/s
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7.2 Cards

Expansion Cards (Adapter cards) are printed circuit boards which can be
inserted into expansion slots on a computer's motherboard to add functionality
to a computer system.

They increase the functionality by adding controllers for specific devices or by

replacing malfunctioning ports.

Common types:
– Sound
– Video (VGA)
– Network (NIC)
– Modem
– Bluetooth

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The video card

It is the component responsible for producing the visual output from your
computer.

Virtually all programs produce visual output;

The video card is the piece of hardware that takes that output and tells the
monitor which of the dots on the screen to light up (and in what color) to allow
you to see it.

Video cards today are much more like coprocessors; they have their own
intelligence and do a lot of processing that would otherwise have to be done by
the system processor.

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The video card ……
The video card in your system plays a significant role in the following important
aspects of your computer system:

Performance
Software Support
Reliability and Stability
Comfort and Ergonomics

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The sound card

An expansion board that enables a computer to manipulate and output sounds.

Sound cards enable the computer to output sound through speakers connected to the
board, to record sound input from a microphone connected to the computer, and
manipulate sound stored on a disk.

Sound cards use two basic methods to translate digital data into analog sounds:
1. FM Synthesis - mimics different musical instruments according to built-in formulas.
2. Wavetable Synthesis - relies on recordings of actual instruments to produce sound.
• Wavetable synthesis produces more accurate sound, but is also more expensive.

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Network card

Network Interface Cards (NICs) enable you to plug network cables in

to the PC.

Most network cables have either an RJ45 or BNC connector that

connects to the NIC in a corresponding port.

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71