A Study On Hard Disk Drive Computer Science Essay

A Study On overweight Disk postulate Computer Science EssayEvery desktop figurer, laptop and netbook contains a clayey- discus crowd. The impenetrable-disk catch, better known as the unexpressed strike, is one of the most racy dowrys in a computer. The great(p) bewilder stores information for the computer in a non-volatile way, meaning that when the user shuts off the computer, alone the information he saved exit still be there when he turns the computer back on. Today, hard drives can store an enormous amount of information. We will take a look at how a hard drive operates and saves information. Figure 1 is a picture of a typical hard drive (Hallock). Figure 1 Enclosed hard drive (Hallock) vi basic elements make up the composition of a hard drive The enclosure, stiletto heel motor, hard drive platters, actuator ramification, interface and logical systemal system board. The enclosure is entirely the outer shell that protects and holds everything together. The four la rgest and most imembrasureant properties that will be outlined below are the interface, logic board, hard drive platters, arbor motor, and the withdraw/ make unnecessary to disk. The actuator arm will be referred to and described at heart these outlined sections (Hallock).Interface A hard drive connects to your computer by a specific type of interface (Bleeping Computer). The hard drive port and the port on the computer where they connect must be the same otherwise they will not be able to sync up together. Logic BoardThe logic board performs several significant operations. The logic board is the brain of the hard drive. It tells the computer what the drive is, how big it is, what occupation its connected to, and how to access the drive in your direct system. Figure 2 below is a picture of a logic board (Hallock). other key function of the logic board is the read/write tip over up process, without this the hard drive would be slow in parsimoniousness and retrieving files. When a computer is told to open 1,000 megabytes of information, the hard drive passes the information to you as pronto as it is able through the hoard process. While the hard drive is loading the first 16MB of the file, the next chunk of data is prepared to roll and is waiting in the cache when you open the cached chunk of data, another is feed into the cache, and so on until all the information is opened. This is the read portion of the cache process, the reverse of this process occurs to write information (Hallock). This cache process is an constitutive(a) part of the read/write to disk function that is described in a section below. fleshy Drive PlattersPlatters are the round plates in the Figure 4 below (Bleeping Computer). Platters contain all the information stored on the hard drive. The platters themselves are the most important and complicated component include in a hard drive. Todays platters are thin disks (thus the hard disk name) of glass or aluminum, coated with an u ltra-thin layer of a cobalt alloy, which is naturally magnetic. Data is written to sectors which are organized into concentric rings outward from the spindle called tracks, and all of those are managed into clusters by the file system youve chosen. To write the data, the actuator arm aligns the magnetization of the platter in a pattern placeable to the hard drives logic board (Hallock). In other words, the actuator arm swings crosswise the platter to find information that the user desires. The Spindle Motor The spindle motor is the most basic moving component in a hard drive. The spindle motor is controlled by the logic board and is answerable for turning the hard disk platters, allowing the hard drive to operate. The faster the spindle spins the faster the read/write capabilities the hard drive has. Below in Figure 3 is a spindle motor stripped of its platters and all other components (PC Guide). Figure 3 Spindle Motor (PC Guide)Read/ frame to Disk The read process is when the user requests data from the hard drive and it is transmitted to the computer. The write process is when the user saves information on the hard drive for later use. Here are the steps in the read/write processThe user requests information on the hard drive. The operating system accesses the files and locations via the motherboards hard drive controller. The operating system tells the hard drives logic board that it wants a file. The logic board spins up the platters on the spindle. The actuator arm is moved into position. The logic board reads and amplifies the very weak, isolated magnetic palm that comprise your data. The logic board begins using the actuator to read information from the sectors in the requested cluster.Information is streamed into the hard drive cache. The information is fed from the cache, to the hard drive controller, to you and RAM. The write process is almost the exact opposite, except kinda of accessing the platters to find a files location its accessing th e file table to find reconcile clusters for write space (Hallock).Summary Hard drives are the main component in many computer-driven technologies today. There are seven basic separate to a hard drive the enclosure, spindle, platter, motor, actuator arm, interface and logic board. A hard drive in where all the information is stored on a computer. Hard drives have been a key innovative technology in saving and storing data that has become such an integral part of our society. Works CitedHallock, Robert. How Hard Drives Work.Icrontic. N.p., 5 June 2007. Web.10 Mar. 2010.Hard Disk Spindle Motor.The PC Guide. N.p., 17 April 2001. Web.12 Mar. 2010.How Hard Drives Work.Bleeping Computer. Bleeping Computer ,12 Nov. 2005. Web. 10 Mar., 2010.