Storage Technologies

Unitintro: ICT1001 Computer Systems 2009

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Overview
• In this chapter, you will learn how to:
• Explain how hard drives work
• Identify and explain the PATA and SATA hard drive
interfaces
• Describe how to protect data with RAID
• Describe hard drive installation

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How Hard Drives Work
• Hard Disk Drives Basics (Click here)
• A traditional hard disk drive (HDD) is composed
of individual disks or platters.
• The platters are comprised of aluminum and
coated with a magnetic medium.
• Two tiny read/write heads service each
platter.
• HDDs are referred to as magnetic hard drives or
platter-based hard drives Unitintro: ICT1001 Computer Systems 2009
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Inside the Hard Drive

Figure 9.1 Inside the magnetic hard drive

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Spindle (or Rotational) Speed
• Hard drives run at a set spindle speed,
measured in revolutions per minute (RPM)
• Older drives ran at 3600 revolutions per minute
(RPM).
• Common speeds are 5400, 7200, 10,000, and
15,000 RPM.
• Faster speeds means better performance, but also,
possible overheating.
• Heat can reduce life. Unitintro: ICT1001 Computer Systems 2009
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Drive Bay Fan

Figure 9.3 Bay fan Unitintro: ICT1001 Computer Systems 2009

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Solid-State Drives
• A solid-state drive (SSD) are based on
semiconductors and transistors with no moving
parts.
• Address shortcomings of HDDs
• Expensive compared to HDDs
• Solid-state technology is commonly used in
desktop and laptop hard drives, memory cards,
cameras, USB thumb drives, etc.
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Solid-State Drives (continued)
• SSD form factors are typically 1.8-inch, 2.5-
inch, or (rarely) 3.5-inch.
• Other variations include:
• mSATA – standard form used in portable devices
• M.2
• Add-on PCIe cards
• SSDs operate by writing data to high-speed
flash memory cells.
• Have a finite number of write cycles before wearing
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Hybrid Hard Drives
• Windows supports hybrid hard drives.
• Combine flash memory and spinning platters
• Fast boot times
• Add 20–30 more minutes of battery life for
portable computers

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Parallel and Serial ATA
• Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA)
• Appeared around 1990, virtually monopolizes hard
drive market
• ATA hard drives referred to as Integrated Drive
Electronics (IDE) drives
• Parallel ATA (PATA)
• Send data in parallel on a 40- or 80-wire ribbon
cable
• Serial ATA (SATA)
Unitintro: ICT1001 Computer Systems 2009

• Send data in serial on one wire10

PATA
• Latest ATA/ATAPI-7 standard allows very large
hard drives (144 petabytes).
• Up to two PATA drives can be connected on a
single ATA controller.
• ATA-3 introduced Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and
Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.).
• Internal drive program that tracks errors

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SATA
• SATA improvements over PATA
• Point-to-point connections between the SATA
device and the host bus adapter (HBA)
• Narrower cables
• Maximum cable length 1 meter
• Hot-swappable
• No drive limit
• Theoretically 30 times faster than PATA
• 1.5Gbps, 3Gbps, and 6Gbps
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SATA (continued)
• SATA Express (SATAe) or SATA 3.2
• Ties capable drives directly into the PCI Express bus
on motherboards
• Lack of overhead enhances speed of throughput
• Requires motherboard with SATAe support to take
advantage of superfast speeds

Unitintro: ICT1001 Computer Systems 2009

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AHCI
• Current versions of Windows support the
Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI).
• AHCI is an efficient way to work with SATA HBAs.
• AHCI supports hot-swapping
• If a Windows computer does not have ACHI enabled,
must use Add New Hardware Wizard
• Native command queuing (NCQ) is a disk-
optimization feature that enables faster read/write
speeds.
• It is best to enable AHCI in CMOS before installing
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eSATA and Other External Drives
• External SATA (eSATA)
• eSATA extends the SATA bus to external devices.
• Cable length up to 2 meters are possible.
• eSATA extends the SATA bus at full speed.
• External drives are encased in the external
enclosure.

Unitintro: ICT1001 Computer Systems 2009

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Protecting Data with RAID
• Data is the most critical part of a PC.
• There are several ways to protect data.
• Disk mirroring
• Reading and writing data at the same time to two drives
• Disk duplexing
• A separate controller for each drive
• Disk striping
• Spreading the data among multiple drives
• No redundancy
• Disk striping with parity
• Adds parity data that can be used to rebuild

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RAID
• Redundant Array of Independent (or
Inexpensive) Disks (RAID)
• RAID 0—disk striping
• Requires at least two drives
• No redundancy
• RAID 1—disk mirroring/duplexing
• At least 2 hard drives
• Requires double storage space
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RAID (continued)
• RAID 5—disk striping with distributed parity
• Distributes data and parity information across all
drives
• Fastest way to provide redundancy
• RAID 6—disk striping with extra parity
• RAID 5 with extra parity information
• Larger arrays of disks

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RAID (continued)
• RAID 10—nested, striped mirrors
• “Stripe of mirrors”
• 1 pair of mirrored disks, and another pair mirrors
the first pair
• RAID 0+1—nested, mirrored stripes
• Start with two RAID 0 striped arrays, then mirror
the two arrays to each other

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Protecting Data with RAID (continued)

Figure 9.13 Duplexing drives

Figure 9.12 Mirrored
drives

Figure 9.14 Disk striping

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Implementing RAID
• Thousands of methods can be used to set up
RAID.
• Specialized RAID controller cards support arrays
of up to 15 drives.

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Software Versus Hardware
• Software RAID
• Operating system is in charge of all RAID functions.
• Built-in software RAID comes with Windows.
• Hardware RAID
• Requires an intelligent controller that handles all of
the work of implementing RAID
• Invisible to the operating system
• Provides needed speed along with redundancy
• Provides hot-swapping Unitintro: ICT1001 Computer Systems 2009

• Replace a bad drive without disturbing

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Software RAID Management

Figure 9.15 Disk Management tool of Computer

Management in Windows Server
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Installing Drives
• Choosing your drive
• Decide where you are going to put the drive.
• Make sure you have room for the drive in the case.
• Jumpers and cabling on PATA drives
• Master
• Slave
• Cable select

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Jumpers

Figure 9.19 Master/slave jumpers on a hard drive

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Master/Slave Settings

Figure 9.20 Drive label showing master/slave settings

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Cabling SATA Drives
• Connect the power and plug in the controller
cable.
• No jumpers

Figure 9.21 Properly connected SATA cable

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Connecting Solid-State Drives
• Connect the same way as any PATA or SATA
drive.
• Before replacing an HDD with an SSD, these are
considerations:
• Do you have appropriate drivers and firmware?
• Is everything important backed up?

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BIOS Support: Configuring CMOS and
Installing Drivers
• Configuring controllers
• Make sure controllers are enabled.
• Autodetection
• If controllers are enabled and the drive is properly
connected, the drive should appear in CMOS.
• SATA uses channels for each controller with channel
1 as the first boot device.

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BIOS Support: Configuring CMOS and
Installing Drivers (continued)

Figure 9.23 Typical controller settings Figure 9.24 Old standard CMOS
in CMOS settings

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BIOS Support: Configuring CMOS and
Installing Drivers (continued)

Figure 9.25 Current standard CMOS features

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BIOS Support: Configuring CMOS and
Installing Drivers (continued)
• Boot order
• Identifies drive or device from which the system
will try to load an operating system
• Multiple devices configured
• Enabling AHCI
• Applies to motherboards that support AHCI
• Implement in CMOS

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Troubleshooting Hard Drive Installation
• Drive recognition by a PC requires:
• Power
• Proper connection
• CMOS setup recognition

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Troubleshooting Hard Drive Installation
(continued)
• If device is not recognized, work though steps
to figure out what went wrong.
• Make sure the BIOS recognizes your hard drive.
• Use the CMOS setup program to check.
• Check physical connections.
• Run through issues in CMOS.
• Is the controller enabled?
• Can your motherboard support the type of drive you are
using?
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Troubleshooting Hard Drive Installation
(continued)
• If device is not supported by the motherboard:
• Flash the BIOS with an upgraded BIOS.
• Get a hard drive controller that goes into an
expansion slot.

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