1 chapter overview floppy disk drives hard disk drives

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Chapter Overview

Floppy Disk Drives Hard Disk Drives

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The Basics of Floppy Disk Drives

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Keeping a Floppy Disk Drive Running Watch for exposure to environmental

conditions and foreign objects. Schedule monthly cleanings. Check the floppy disk first for data errors or

write protection. Check complementary metal-oxide

semiconductor (CMOS) settings. Check or change the floppy disk drive cable. Change the floppy disk drive controller. Replace the floppy disk drive as needed.

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Physical Characteristics

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Storing Data

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Actuator Arms

Hold read/write (R/W) heads in place Must deliver speed and accuracy Use one of the following technologies:

The stepper motor (older) had many disadvantages.

The voice coil motor (newer) uses the head for mapping.

Might be damaged by head-to-disk interference (HDI), or head crash

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Geometry

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Hard Disk Drive Types

ST-506 Enhanced Small Device Interface (ESDI) Integrated Device Electronics/Enhanced

Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE/EIDE) Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)

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Installation and Setup: the Five Steps

1. Physical installation and cabling2. CMOS setup3. Low-level formatting4. Partitioning5. High-level formatting

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Physical Installation and Cabling

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Setting the System CMOS for the Hard Disk Drive–CMOS Main Screen

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Setting the System CMOS for the Hard Disk Drive–Hard Drive Setup Screen

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Low-Level Formatting

Creates and organizes sectors Sets the proper interleave Establishes the boot sector

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Preparing the New Drive

Create a bootable disk with formatting utilities.

Create a Microsoft Windows 98 startup disk.

Use the bootable disk to partition and format the new drive.

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Partitioning

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High-Level Formatting

FORMAT.COM does the following: Creates and configures the file allocation

tables (FATs) Creates the root directory

The FAT tracks which part of a file is stored on which sector.

FAT32 uses disk space more efficiently.

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High-Level Formatting (Cont.)

Consider several factors before using FAT32. You should not use FAT32 on dual boot

systems shared by operating systems (OSs) that do not support FAT32.

FAT32 partitions that are shared can be read across the network.

FAT32 does not support compression. You should not use disk utilities that are not

made for FAT32.

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Fragmentation and Compression

A hard disk can become fragmented over time.

MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, and Microsoft Windows Me have defragmentation programs.

Disk compression eliminates wasted cluster space.

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Maintaining a Hard Disk Drive

Perform comprehensive, regularly scheduled backups.

Save a copy of the boot sector and partition table information.

Have tools on hand for hard disk repairs.

Use only disk tools certified for the hard disk drive and the OS.

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Common Errors and Troubleshooting Utilities

Errors Abort, Retry, Fail Connectivity problems Lost boot and partition information CMOS errors

Utilities Scandisk SCSI BIOS disk utility

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Chapter Summary Floppy disk drive technology has changed little over

the years. Floppy disk drives fail more often than any other

computer component. Installing a hard disk drive requires you to partition

the drive, set the CMOS settings, and format the drive.

The fdisk utility is used to create partitions. The geometry (CHS values) of a hard disk drive

determines its storage capacity. Partition types include primary, extended, logical,

and active. The active partition is used to initialize the OS.