Hard disk - Hard disk A hard disk drive in computing is a type of data storage device made up of hard disk platters, a spindle, read and write heads, read and write arms, electrical motors, and integrated electronics contained inside an airtight enclosure. Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Hard vs. floppy 2 Hard disk hardware 3 Access and interfaces 4 Performance 5 Operating system use of hard disks 6 Manufacturers 7 Hard Disk Usage 8 Further reading Hard vs. floppy Using rigid platters and sealing the unit allows much tighter tolerances than in a floppy disk. Consequently, hard disks can store much more data than floppy disk, and access and transmit it faster. In 2003, a typical workstation hard disk might store between 60 GB and 120 GB.
Hard disk drive partitioning - Hard disk drive partitioning In the field of computer engineering, hard disk drive partitioning is the creation of logical divisions upon a hard disk drive that allows one to apply operating system-specific logical formatting. Disk partitioning is a simple technique which can be viewed as a precursor of Logical volume management. More than one operating system can be executed or installed in a single computer, without partition ( using LiveCDs, keydrives or a second hard disk unit with a bootable media -i.e. a floppy- that jumps to the second hard disk). Fancy partitioning creates separated partitions for /, /boot, /home, /tmp, /usr, /var, /opt and swap, instead of a "/" (root) partition, plus a swap partition. Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Drive partitioning on the IBM.
Hard disk platter - Hard disk platter A hard disk platter is a component of a hard disk drive, which may have one or more hard disk platters. Typically made from metal or plastic, a hard disk platter is a rigid, circular disk. A thin layer of either iron oxide or another material that possesses magnetic properties coats each side of a hard disk platter..
Hard disk recorder - Hard disk recorder A hard disk recorder is a type of recording system that utilizes a high-capacity hard disk to record digital audio. Hard disk recording systems represent an alternative to more traditional reel-to-reel tape or cassette multitrack systems, and provide editing capabilities unavailable to tape recorders. The systems, which can be standalone or computer-based, typically include provisions for digital mixing and processing of the audio signal. Prior to the 1980s, most recording studios utilized analog multitrack recorders, typically based on reel-to-reel tape. During the 1980s and 90s, companies like New England Digital began to include hard disk recording capabilities in their high-end systems. The high cost and limited capacity of these solutions limited their use to large recording studios, and even then, they were usually.
Hard sectoring - Hard sectoring Hard sectoring in magnetic or optical disk storage is sectoring that uses a physical mark on the disk, from which mark sector locations are referenced. Hard sectoring may be done, for example, by punching an index hole in a floppy disk. When the presence of the index hole is recognized by an optical reader, a reference signal is generated. All sector locations can be referenced from this signal. Source: from Federal Standard 1037C.
Fdisk - manipulator for Linux. It understands DOS type partition tables. Hard disks can be divided into one or more logical disks called partitions. This division is described in the partition table found in sector 0 of the disk. Linux needs at least one partition, namely for its root file system. It can use swap files and/or swap partitions, but the latter are more efficient. So, usually one will want a second Linux partition dedicated as a swap partition. On Intel compatible hardware, the BIOS that boots the system can often only access the first 1024 cylinders of the disk. For this reason people with large disks often create a third partition, just a few MB large, typically mounted on /boot, to store the kernel image and a few auxiliary files needed at.
Floppy disk - Floppy disk 5¼ inch floppy disk; 8 inch floppy disk looks similar 3½ inch (90mm) floppy disk A floppy disk is a type of data storage device that comprises a circular piece of thin, flexible (hence the name) magnetic media encased in a square or rectangular plastic wallet. The fact that the exterior aspect is not circular confuses some novice users. Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive or FDD, not to be confused with "fixed disk drive", which is an old IBM term for a hard disk drive. Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Background 2 History 2.1 Origins, the 8-inch disk 2.2 The 5¼-inch minifloppy 2.3 The 3½-inch microfloppy 3 Structure 4 Compatibility 5 More on floppy disk formats 6 See also:.
Disk storage - Disk storage Disk storage is a group of data storage mechanisms for computers; data is transferred to planar surfaces or disks for temporary or permanent storage. In the early 1960s single data bits were stored as magnetic charges in magnetic core memory. The scientists at IBM in San Jose, California successfully created a rotating drum that was coated in a magnetically polarizable film that could be used to store data by changing and sensing magnetic polarization. The drum was superseded by disks, as the lower mass and inertia allowed smaller and lighter devices. In musical and audio data storage, the first devices were also drum shaped, called phonograph cylinders, which were popularized by Thomas Edison. In the 1910s these were replaced as the dominant medium of.
Disk operating system - Disk operating system In times when hard disk drives and even floppy disk drives were optional rather than default features of operating systems, being a Disk Operating System (i.e. disk-based or disk-aware) was a mark of distinction. A number of such systems exist; the Commodore 64 and the Apple II home computers each featured a DOS, as did (on the other end of the spectrum) IBM's System/370 and System/390 series of mainframes (DOS/VSE, Disk Operating System/Virtual Storage Extended). The most popular family of operating systems called "DOS" is that running on IBM PCs. The original version was provided to IBM by Microsoft, and marketed as "PC-DOS". Later versions were also sold as "MS-DOS". Digital Research produced a compatible variant known as "DR-DOS", and (after a buyout).
Disk format - Disk format A formatting of a disk involves two quite different processes that have come to be known as "low-level formatting" and "high-level formatting." Low-level formatting deals with formatting of disk surfaces required by the disk controller hardware. High-level formatting deals with software-specific information written by a specific operating system. Formatting a floppy disk Low-level formatting The process is most easily seen with a standard 1.44MB PC floppy disk. Low-level formatting of the floppy normally writes 18 sectors of 512 bytes each on each of 80 tracks (40 on each side) of a floppy disk. That provides 1,474,560 bytes of storage on the floppy. (Sectors are actually larger than 512 bytes as they include sector numbers, CRC bytes, and other information required in order to identify.
Disk - Disk For mathematical usages, see Disk (mathematics). Before the computer revolution, the term disc frequently referenced an analogue disc record: a flat vinyl recorded audio storage device, designed for playback on a gramophone (phonograph in American English). Compact discs have largely rendered the technology obsolete, except amongst audiophiles who specialise in using various sound technologies. And the term disc is also common for other flat, circular things, such as the Frisbee flying disc. Early BBC technicians differenciated between disks (in-house transcription records) and discs (the colloquial term for commercial gramophone records, or what the BBC dubbed CGRs). In the minutiae of computer jargon, there also exists a distinction in spelling between what is called a disk and what is called a disc. Simply put, disks are.
Disk read and write heads - Disk read and write heads Disk read/write heads are mechanisms that read data from or write data to disk drives. The heads have gone through a number of changes over the years. In the case of floppy disks, the heads generally slide along the surface of the magnetic media. In the case of hard drives, the heads fly above the disk surface at altitude as low as 150 Angstroms (=15nm =6 microinches). The "flight altitudes" are constantly decreasing with improvements in drive technology. The heads themselves started out similar to the heads in tape recorders -- simple devices made out of a tiny U-shaped piece of highly magnetizable material called ferrite wrapped in a fine wire coil. When writing, the coil is energized, a strong magnetic.
Disk controller - Disk controller The disk controller (or "hard disk controller") is the circuit which allows the CPU to communicate with a hard disk, floppy disk or other kind of disk drive. The most common disk controllers in use are IDE and SCSI controllers. Most home personal computers use IDE controllers. High end PCs, workstations and network file servers mostly have SCSI adaptors. This article was originally based on material from FOLDOC, used with permission. Update as needed..
Disk formatting - Disk formatting Disk formatting is the process of preparing a hard disk or other storage medium for use by an operating system or a user. Formatting essentially creates the file system structure that the operating system requires for data to be stored on the medium. There are many different file systems, such as FAT, ext2, UFS, and the like. Disks can be formatted with two or more filesystems, divided into logical sections: this is known as partitioning. Formatting destroys all data when it is initiated. For this reason, before any disk formatting should be taken place, backups of vital data should be taken. However, the advantage of this is that a computer system running on a severely corrupted operating system or filesystem can be reverted to.
Computer hardware - need to concern themselves with. A typical computer (Personal Computer, PC) contains in a desktop or tower case the following parts: Motherboard which holds the CPU, main memory and other parts, and has slots for expansion cards power supply - a case that holds a transformer, voltage control and fan storage controllers, of IDE, SCSI or other type, that control hard disk , floppy disk, CD-ROM and other drives; the controllers sit directly on the motherboard (on-board) or on expansion cards graphics controller that produces the output for the monitor the hard disk, floppy disk and other drives for mass storage interface controllers (parallel, serial, USB, Firewire) to connect the computer to external peripheral devices such as printers or scanners Computer architecture Central Processing Unit - CPU Motherboard PCI Bus ISA.
The First 20 Million Is Always The Hardest - (Jake Busey), a tall, blond, pierced, scary, germophobic, deep-voiced man with personal space issues who regularly refers to himself in the third person. The team finds many non-essential parts but cannot come close to the magical $99 mark. It is Salman's idea to put all the software on the internet, eliminating the need for a hard drive, RAM, a CD-ROM drive, a floppy-disk drive, and anything that holds information. The computer has been reduced to a microprocessor, a monitor, a mouse, a keyboard, and the internet, but it is still too expensive. Having seen the rest of his team watching a hologram of an attractive lady the day before, in a dream Andy is inspired to eliminate the monitor in favor of the cheaper holographic projector. The last few hundred dollars.
SuperDisk drive - as Imation) circa 1997 as a high-speed, high-capacity alternative to the 3.5", 1.44MB floppy disk. SuperDisk's main claim to fame was that in addition to being able to read and write its native 120MB (later 240MB) disks, the drives could read and write the 1.44MB floppy format (MFM) that was still popular at the time. The newer LS-240 drives also have the ability to read and write regular 1.44MB floppies at much higher densities. The design of the SuperDisk system came from an early 1990s project at Iomega. It is one of the last examples of Floptical technology, where lasers are used to guide a magnetic head which is much smaller than those used in traditional floppy disk drives. Iomega orphaned the project around the time they decided to release the.
RAM disk - RAM disk A RAM disk or RAMdrive is a segment of active computer memory, RAM, which is being used as if it were a disk drive. Access times are greatly improved (RAM disks are approximately a thousand times faster than hard disk drives.) and durability of data through power loss is completely absent, because they are made of normal RAM, RAM disks lose their contents once the computer is turned off. RAM disks are great places to store temporary data or to hold uncompresseded programs for short periods. A proper disk cache in the operating system will usually obviate the performance motivation for a RAM disk; a disk cache fulfills a similar role (fast access to data that is notionally stored on a disk) without the various.
VESA Local Bus - 5 or 6 ISA slots. This was because, as a direct branch of the 80486 memory bus, the VESA Local Bus didn't have the electrical ability to drive more than 1 or 2 cards at a time. Reliability problems. The same electrical problems that limited the VESA Local Bus to 2 slots also limited its reliability. Glitches between cards were common, especially on low-end motherboards, and when important devices such as hard disk controllers were attached to the bus, there was the all-too-common possibility of massive data corruption. By 1996, the Pentium (driven by Intel's Triton chipset and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) architecture) had all but eliminated the 80486 market, and VESA Local Bus with it; most of the last 80486 motherboards made have PCI slots in addition to (or completely.
Kaypro - Zilog Z80 microprocessor. The Kaypro 2 had 64 KB of RAM, and dual, single-sided, 180K 5¼" floppy disk drives. The screen was an 80 column green monochrome 9" CRT. CP/M was the standard operating system of the day, and the Kaypro 2 also came with applications such as the WordStar word processor (incl MailMerge, for personalised mass mailings), the SuperCalc spreadsheet, two versions of the Microsoft BASIC interpreter, Kaypro's own compiled S-BASIC (which produced executable .com files), a bytecode compiled BASIC called C-BASIC, and the dBaseII relational database system. Using the comma separated file format (CSV) you could move data between these programs quite easily, which multiplied the utility of the package. The manuals assumed no computer background, the programs were straightforward to use, and thus it was usual to find.
