hardcore hardware

Storage

Introduction What makes the hard drive so interesting? I think it is amazing how all that data can be stored in a device shaped like an 8-track cassette. We all want the biggest and fastest hard drive out there. But the question is how does it really work?

About the hard drive: Getting to know your hard drive is an easy thing to do. All most people know is that it stores your files, mp3's, videos, etc. The question is what is inside of the hard drive? How does it work?

I decided to open up a Western Digital hard drive and find out myself what is in there. There are three "slots" on the rear of the drive:

The first slot is called an IDE cable slot, which is how the data is transferred from your motherboard. There are 40 small pins in that slot so you do not want to bend them. If you do, the hard drive might not work. Inserting the IDE cable can be done only one way. In the middle of the pins is a blank area with no pins so the cable can only go in one way. The second slot is for the jumpers; this is what makes your hard drive a master drive or slave drive. What you have to do is position the jumpers in a correct sequence to make it happen. It should state how to do it on the top of the drive, or in an instruction booklet provided with the hard drive.

The third slot is the power slot. The power cable that inserts into this slot comes from the main power supply. The power cable can only go in one way and should go in smoothly, so do not try to jam it in. A hard metal to protect what is inside surrounds the casing of the hard drive.

Underneath is a green board with parts that are very fragile so try not to touch. Make sure you clear your body of static electricity to avoid possible damage to the hard drive.

On the outside edge was a strip of metal tape with the wording "Void warranty if removed" I removed that so I could get the cover off.

Once you take the cover off you expose the heart of the hard drive. Need less to say I could not put it back on and use it because it was sealed so no moisture or dust could get at it.

The disk is actually called, put in technical terms the "platter". The platter is where all your data is stored. You can see an arm extending over the platter. (Kind of reminds me of a record player).

On the outside edge was a strip of metal tape with the wording "Void warranty if removed" (Sorry Western Digital I guess I voided the warranty) I removed that so I could get the cover off.

The Platter It looks like your 3.5-inch floppy disk or a CD, but it can store a lot more data. Most platters are made up of an aluminium alloy (it is very light weight) it is coated with a film of some magnetically sensitive material. There are two ways of doing this. A compound syrup mixture is poured and then spun on the platter to evenly distribute the film over the entire platter. The main ingredient (iron oxide) is why many platters that you see are brownish-orange in colour. The other main media consists of a thin film of a cobalt alloy and is placed on the platter through electroplating. Some companies have started to use glass platters, which can be made much thinner than the aluminium kind and can better resist the heat that is produced when in use.

The Read/Write Arm An actuator mechanism (located where it says magnet) moves the read/write arm across the platter surfaces in an arc to read / write the data on your drive.

The Read/Write Heads

There was only one read/write head on this drive. It was located at the very end of the read/write arm; it reads the topside side of the platter. The tiny read/write head on the end of each arm are not actually touching the platter surface; it rides on a cushion of air so small that a particle of dust could screw up your entire drive.

Now what is very interesting about the hard drive is that the data that is stored on the platter starts from the centre of the platter then works it's way out. So if you have the platter half full, the arm moves the head only half way where the last data is. When you have the whole platter full and start to delete data from it what you are doing is making holes of empty space in the platter, in turn, making the arm move a lot more. By defragging your hard drive you are correcting this. What you are doing when you defrag is getting all the data from the outside edge and moving it in closer to the centre so the arm moves less in turn speeding up your hard drive.

You always want to keep good maintenance on your hard drive, so run the program defragmenter and scan disk that is in Windows. The other important thing that you should know is that the hard drive is a very fragile piece of hardware. So when you get mad at your computer please do not bang it around. It would be like banging a record player while playing a record it would skip and you hope there will be no scratch, in our case a bad sectors (I know first hand, I had 198 bad sectors in my hard drive) so be careful.

In Hard Drive 101, Part One - I looked into the hard drive then I destroyed it. In Part Two, I will show you what to look for when purchasing a new hard drive, and give you some idea of what's out there before you go out and look on your own. After I explain the basics, I will go through the installation process step by step.

Purchasing A New Hard Drive.
When deciding on a new hard drive there are a few steps you should follow. The first and foremost thing to do is research which kind of hard drive you want to buy. Tphere are so many types and sizes out there - the most popular range from 9 gigs to 60 gigs. Once you have done this, you must also decide on which speed you want. They range from the following:
7200RPM ATA/100-7200RPM ATA/100: It has a rotation speed of 7200RPM and a transfer rate of data of 100mbs (Mega bytes per Second). This is a lot better than the 5400RPM Ultra ATA/66 (below) because the ATA/66 only allows the drive to transfer data up to 66mbs (where the ATA/100 allows 100mbs) and the rotation speed is 1800RPM slower than the 72000PRM. Over all the 7200RPM hard drives are about 33% faster than the 5400RPM hard drives.
7200RPM Ultra ATA/66 - 7200RPM Ultra ATA/66 has the rotation of 7200RPM and a transfer rate of data of 66mbs. This would be the same rate of transfer as the 5400RPM Ultra ATA/66 except for the rotation speed is 1800RPM faster.
5400RPM Ultra ATA/66/5400RPM ATA/100 - 5400RPM Ultra ATA/66 has a rotation speed of 5400RPM and a transfer rate of data of 66mbs. Also there is a transfer data rate of 100mbs but it is still a rotation speed of 5400RPM.
5400RPM Ultra ATA/33 - 5400RPM Ultra ATA/33 the rotation speed is 5400RPM and the transfer rate of data of 33mbs. What this did was opened new doors for the higher performing ATA/66 and the ATA/100