Chapter Six

Storage devices
Storage devices/Hard Disk
• A storage device is any hardware capable of holding information
• Storage in the computer is process of retaining information for future use
• There are two types of storage devices used in computers;
• A primary storage device, such as RAM, and
• A secondary storage device, like a hard drive
• Secondary storage can be a removable, internal, or external storage.
• Without a storage device, your computer would not be able to save
• Any settings or
• Information and
• would be considered a dumb terminal.
Cont.
• The following are some additional examples of storage devices that
are used with computers.

• Jump or USB flash drive

• Floppy diskette • Hard drive
• CD-ROM disc • Memory card
• CD-R and CD-RW disc • Memory stick
• Cloud storage • Network media
• Tape cassette
• DVD+/-R and DVD+/-RW disc
• Zip drive…
• Computers allow users to select where to save information when
needed.
• By default information is saved to computers hard disk.
• To appropriate destination.
• E.g.. Photo files to picture folder, word or document file to documents
folder…
The hard drive
• Secondary storage
• Magnetic coated
• Retain data until deliberately erased
• Mostly used internally but currant technology also support external
HD
• Support some type of connecting cables for data movement
• SATA, PATA and SCSI
• Store large enough data and programs relevant for the computer and
user need
Cont...
• The hard drive was first introduced on September 13, 1956 and consists
of one or more hard drive platters inside of an air sealed casing.
• PC uses it for nonvolatile data storage.
• Nonvolatile, or semi-permanent, storage means that the storage device
retains the data even when no power is supplied to the computer
• The hard drive is used to store crucial programming and data.
• As a result, when the hard disk fails, the consequences are usually very
serious
• Most computer hard drives are in an internal drive and connect to the
motherboard using either an PATA, SCSI, or SATA cable and power cable
Basic Components of hard disk
• A hard disk drive contains rigid, disk-shaped platters, usually constructed of
aluminum or glass.
• Unlike floppy disks, the platters cannot bend or flex; hence the term hard disk.
• A hard disk is comprised four basic part platter, spindle, read/write heads, and
integrated electronics.

• The head actuator,

• Read/write actuator arm,
• Read/write head,
• Spindle, and
• Platter.
Hard Disk Platters and Media

• Every hard disk contains one or more flat disks that are used to
actually hold the data in the drive
• These disks are called platters
• They are composed of two main substances
• Substrate material that forms the bulk of the platter and gives it structure
and rigidity, and
• A magnetic media coating which actually holds the magnetic impulses that
represent the data
• Hard disks get their name from the rigidity of the platters used
Cont...
• The platters are "where the action is"--this is where the data itself is
recorded
• The surfaces of each platter are precision machined and treated to
remove any imperfections
• The form factor of the hard disk also has a great influence on the
number of platters in a drive.
• Even if hard disk engineers wanted to put lots of platters in a particular
model, the standard PC "slim line" hard disk form factor is limited to 1
inch in height, which limits the number of platters that can be put in a
single unit
• Larger 1.6-inch "half height" drives are often found in servers and
usually have many more platters than desktop PC drives
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
• A track holds too much information to be suitable as the smallest unit of
storage on a disk, so each one 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.
• The first PC hard disks typically held 17 sectors per track.
• Today's hard disks can have thousands of sectors in a single track, and make
use of zoned recording to allow more sectors on the larger outer tracks of the
disk
Head Actuator
• The actuator is the device used to position the head arms to different
tracks on the surface of the platter, Actually, to different cylinders, since
all head arms are moved as a synchronous unit, so each arm moves to
the same track number of its respective surface
• The actuator is a very important part of the hard disk, because changing
from track to track is the only operation on the hard disk that requires
active movement
• Changing heads is an electronic function, and changing sectors involves
waiting for the right sector number to spin around and come under the
head (passive movement).
• Changing tracks means the heads must be shifted, and so making sure
this movement can be done quickly and accurately is of paramount
importance
Head Crashes
• Since the read/write heads of a hard disk are floating on a
microscopic layer of air above the disk platters themselves, it is
possible that the heads can make contact with the media on the hard
disk under certain circumstances.
• Normally, the heads only contact the surface when the drive is either
starting up or stopping.
• Considering that a modern hard disk is turning over 100 times a
second, this is not a good thing
• If the heads contact the surface of the disk while it is at operational
speed, the result can be loss of data, damage to the heads, damage to
the surface of the disk, or all three.
• This is usually called a head crash, two of the most frightening words
to any computer user.
• 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.
A hard disk is comprised of Five basic parts:
• Actuator used to position the head arms to different tracks on the surface of the
platter
• Platters are rigid disks made of metal or plastic.
• Both sides of each platter are covered with a thin layer of iron oxide or other
magnetized 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 arms that extend over both top and bottom
surfaces of each disk.
• There is at least one read/write head for each side of each platter.
• The arms jointly move back and forth between the platters‟ centers and outside
edges; this movement, along with the platters‟ rotation, allow the read/write heads to
access all areas of the platters.
• 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.
How Is Data Stored and Retrieved?
• When a computer saves data, it sends the data to the hard disk as a
series of bits.
• 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
• NB: Data bits are not necessarily(but it is possible) stored in succession;
for example, the data in one file may be written to several different
areas on different platters.
• 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 relay that information back to
the computer
Disk Formatting
• It's most basic form of disk organization
• Formatting prepares the hard disk so that files can be written to the platters and
then quickly retrieved when needed
• Hard disks must be formatted in two ways: physically and logically
• A hard disk's physical formatting (also called low-level formatting) is usually
performed by the manufacturer. (means when they are built)
• Physical formatting divides the hard disk's platters into their basic physical
elements: tracks, sectors, and cylinders
• The tracks are identified by number, starting with track zero at the outer edge
• Tracks are divided into smaller areas or sectors, which are used to store a fixed
amount of data
• Sectors are usually formatted to contain 512 bytes of data
• A cylinder is comprised of a set of tracks that lie at the same distance from the
spindle on all sides of all the platters
Cont...
• When data is written to a disk in cylinders, it can be fully accessed
without having to move the read/write heads.
• Because head movement is slow compared to disk rotation and
switching between heads, cylinders greatly reduce data access time
• Bad sectors. Are the sectors that can no longer be used to hold data
due to gradual deterioration of magnetic properties of the platter
coating
• Consequently, it becomes more and more difficult for the read/write
heads to read data from or write data to the affected platter sectors
• Most modern computers can determine when a sector is bad; if this
happens, the computer simply marks the sector as bad (so it will
never be used) and then uses an alternate sector
Logical Formatting

• Logical formatting places a file system on the disk, allowing an

operating system (such as DOS, OS/2, Windows, or Linux) to use the
available disk space to store and retrieve files

• Next
Understanding Partitions