Unit 6 - Storage Technologies

HDD form factors:

- 2 1/2 inch - 3 1/2 inch ^ These are the big sizes - 1.8 inch

SSDs form factors: [3]

- 3.5 inch - 2.5 inch - M.2 SSD - 1.8 (rare) -mSATA

Which interface does SSDs use?

- NVME (because SSDs are much faster, SATA speed is not enough for it)

2 modern SCSI Standards:

- SAS - iSCSI

[IEC values]: -1024 is called [-------] - 2^ 20 is called [------] - 2^ 30 is called [-------] - 2^ 40 is called [-------] - 2^ 50 is called [-------] - 2^ 60 is called [-------]

-Kibi -Mebi -Gibi -Tebi -Pebi -Exbi

****What's the maximum cable length for SATA?

1 meter

There are several ways to protect data using RAID, list them [4]:

1. Disk mirroring 2. Disk duplexing 3. Disk striping 4. Disk striping with parity

Numbering system [Decimal] 1. 1,000 is called [-------] 2. 1,000,000 is called [-----] 3. 1,000,000,000 is called [-------] 4. 1,000,000,000,000 is called [-------] 5. after that we have [--------] 6. After Peta we have [-------]

1. Kilo 2. Mega 3. Giga 4. Terra 5. Peta 6. Exa

Hardware RAID provides 2 features, List them:

1. Provides hot-swapping << because it uses SATA cabels 2. speed along with redundancy.

Each platter of a HDD requires ____ heads.

2 read/write heads

Steps of plugging a mass storage device: 1. Plug in mass storage 2. make sure that [------] recognize it. 3. The OS will automatically see it.

2. BIOS

Maximum length for eSATA:

2M

The minimum number of disks required to implement Raid 5 is [----] disks.

3

You can combine SCSI with SATA to get _____. a. SASI b. M.2 3. SAS 4. SSCSI

3. SAS [uses the SATA connector with the SCSI command language.]

What's the minimum number of disks needed to implement RAID6?

4

Important form factors for storage devices: [5]

5 1/4 inch >> really old form factor, but still used. 3 1/2 inch 2 1/2 inch 1.8 inch M.2

****Common speeds for HDDs are [----], [-----], [------], and [-------] RPM.

5400 7200 10,000 15,000

**How many pins are inside the SATA cable?

7 pins

[---------] is an efficient way to work with SATA HBAs + it supports hot swapping.

AHCI

The language needed to communicate with HDD is:

ATA or Advanced Technology Attachment

What does AHCI stand for?

Advanced Host Controller Interface

when you have a lot of mass storage devices, you have to define the [----------------].

Boot Order

[---------------]: Reading and writing data at the same time to two drives which creates (redundancy).

Disk mirroring or RAID 1

Adds parity data that can be used to rebuild this is called [------------]

Disk striping with parity or RAID 5

[----------------] sit at the front of a bay and blow air across the drive to avoid overheating.

Drive bay fans

true/false: Windows does not support AHCI.

False. Current versions of Windows support the AHCI

True/False: all modern motherboards have built-in PATA controllers.

False. SATA

The [--------] are comprised of aluminum and coated with a magnetic medium.

HDD platters

What does HDD stand for?

Hard Disk Drive

What does HBA stand for?

Host Bus Adapter

Combining flash memory, spinning platters is called [-----------------]

Hybrid Hard Drives

What's the advantage of RAID5?

If one of the disks got damaged, it can be changed and you will still be able to keep your data because of the (parity).

What's the advantage of RAID 6?

If you lost 2 disks, you will still be able to recover the data because RAID 6 contains 2 parity

•ATA hard drives referred to as [-------------------] drives

Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) << this is another name for PATA

•ATA-3 introduced Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) which is an [------------------------------].

Internal drive program that tracks errors

What's the functionality of eSATA?

It is used for external devices [designed to be used externally]

What is the function of SCSI

It's really old cable, not used anymore

What ties all mass storage devices together is [--------]

LBA, Logical Block Addressing

•[-------------] is a disk-optimization feature that enables faster read/write speeds.

Native command queuing (NCQ)

What does NVME stand for?

Non-Volatile Memory Express

The original interface for communicating with HDD was called [----------]. Really old, no longer used.

Parallel ATA or PATA

4 important terms related to Hard drives: [------------]: the circular discs inside the hard drive where the 1s and 0s that make up your files are stored. The spindle keeps them in position and rotates them as required. [-------------]: the smallest physical storage unit on the disk. [------------]: can consist of one or more sectors. [-------------]: a circular path on the surface of a disk. vertically formed tracks. In other words, track 2 on platter 0 and track 2 on platter 1 is called [---------].

Platter Sector Clusters Track Cylinder

What does (point to point) connection mean??

Point-to-point means that there are no intermediary chips or devices to slow down the flow of data.

There are 2 connectors in the HDD for the SATA cable. The big one is for [---------] the smaller one is for [--------]

Power Data

4 disks. Each 2 will be stripped then they will be mirrored.

RAID 0 + 1 or mirrored stripes

[--------------]: Spreading the data among multiple drives. No redundancy

RAID 0 or Disk striping

4 disks, Each 2 will be stripped then they will be mirrored, this is called [------------].

RAID 10 or striped mirrors

disk striping with extra parity is also called [-----------]

RAID 6

In RAID1, in terms of reading and writing. [-----------] will be faster than [-----------]

Reading Writing [ It will be slower since we're writing into 2 drives instead of 1 ]

What does RAID stand for?

Redundant Array of Independent Disks

Which cable is used nowadays instead of PATA?

SATA

[--------] runs 6GB/Sec

SATA

•[--------] uses channels for each controller with channel 1 as the first boot device.

SATA

Which one is more expensive HDD or SSD?

SSD

Which one is faster HDD or SSD?

SSDd are faster

what does SATA stand for?

Serial Advanced Technology Attachment / Serial ATA

What does SAS stand for?

Serial Attached SCSI ^ looks like a SATA but they are not compatible

You only see SCSI in [----------], we don't use it with desktops.

Servers

what does SCSI stand for?

Small Computer System Interface

What does SSD stand for?

Solid State Drive

Which part is responsible for defining the boot order?

System Set-up

True/false: SATA is theoretically 30 times faster than PATA.

TRUE

What's the built-in software for implementing RAID?

The Disk Management program

True/False: Hardware RAID Invisible to the operating system.

True

True/False: It is best to enable AHCI in CMOS before installing the OS.

True

True/False: The most advantage of RAID 0 in terms of reading and writing is speed.

True

True/False: Windows supports hybrid hard drives.

True

True/False: •SSDs operate by writing data to high-speed flash memory cells.

True

true/false: Installing SATA hard disk drives is even easier than installing PATA devices because there's no master, slave, or cable select configuration to mess with.

True

True/False: Faster speeds for HDDs means better performance, but also, possible overheating.

True!

True/False: in RAID 5, reading is faster than writing.

True, writing will be slower because of the parity.

True/False: SSDs have a finite number of write cycles before wearing out.

Trueee

What cannot be set as the first boot choice? M.2 drive USB drive optical drive UEFI

UEFI is a firmware interface, not a boot device.

Is SATA considered Hot-swappable?

YES

(LinkedIn Quiz): How many wires do SATA drives use to transfer data to and from the computer? a. 1 b. 8 c. 2 d. 4

a. 1 It's a serial interface; all data moves in sequence (serial) over a single wire.

What is a likely reason for a computer to fail to boot? a. The boot order was changed to a non-bootable device. b. The boot order was set to bootable optical media. c. The system cannot boot from the USB drive. d. The system was set to boot from SSD.

a. The boot order was changed to a non-bootable device.

Which of the following can SSDs use to retain data integrity when a system loses power or is turned off? a.NAND b.SDRAM c.DRAM d.RAM drive

a.NAND

Which of the following SSD form factors might you expect to find in a portable device? a.mSATA b.SATAm c.eSATA d.3.5-inch

a.mSATA

The responsibility of LBA is to [-------------] in the hard drive/storage unit to save files.

allocate blocks

To be able to do RAID 0, how many drives do you need?

at least 2

To be able to do RAID 1, how many drives do you need?

at least 2

Which does not describe a mass storage device? a. magnetic disk b. M.1 drive c. SSD d. optical drive

b. M.1 drive

Which interface is the fastest? a. SCSI b. NVMe c. SATA d. PATA

b. NVMe

SSDs are organized into logical blocks, but their memory storage cells are called _____. a. sockets b. pages c. sectors d.slots

b. pages

Which of the following represent common solid-state drive form factors? a.8-inch, 2.5-inch, and 5.25-inch b.2.5-inch, M.2, and mSATA c.IEEE 1394, USB, and SCSI d.AT, ATX, and BTX

b.2.5-inch, M.2, and mSATA

(moodle quiz): John wants to install two drives in a new system, a small SSD and a large HDD. How should he install the drives to prep the system to use the SSD for Windows and the HDD for other applications and storage? a.It doesn't matter. Windows always installs on the faster drive by default. b.Connect the SSD to channel 1 and the HDD to channel 2. c.In CMOS setup, set the SSD to Boot device and the HDD to Storage device. d.Set the jumper on the SSD to master and the jumper on the HDD to slave.

b.Connect the SSD to channel 1 and the HDD to channel 2.

Which tool in Windows enables you to implement RAID? a.Disk Duplicator b.Disk Management c.System Tools d.RAID Management

b.Disk Management

Jane replaced two 5400-RPM drives with a pair of 10,000-RPM drives, but now her system crashes under heavy use. What can she do to address this problem? a.Enable AHCI in the CMOS setup utility. b.Install drive bay fans to cool the new drives. c.Enable NCQ in the CMOS setup utility. d.There's nothing she can do; additional crashes are the trade-off with faster drives.

b.Install drive bay fans to cool the new drives.

Which form factor was design for laptops + mobile devices? a. 5 1/4 inch b. 3 1/2 inch c. 2 1/2 inch d. 1.8 inch

c. 2 1/2 inch

What is a standard command and connection standard for mass storage devices? a. LBA b. 3.5" form factor c. ATA d. 2.5" form factor

c. ATA

Mass storage is organized into _____. a. pages b. gibibytes c. LBAs d. gigabytes

c. LBAs Storage is organized into Logical Blocks (LBAs).

Alex discovered a bunch of SATA drives in a box at the office and needs to check the contents. What can he do so that Windows automatically recognizes each new drive? a.He needs to disable RAID in CMOS setup. b.He needs to disable HBA in CMOS setup. c.He needs to enable AHCI in CMOS setup. d.He needs to enable NCQ in CMOS setup.

c.He needs to enable AHCI in CMOS setup.

Jeff installs a pair of 250-GB SSDs into his computer and wants to run them in a fast RAID array to speed up his gaming experience. The motherboard SATA controller supports RAID 1, 2, and 5. When he boots his computer, however, Windows sees the drives as individual 250-GB drives. What's up? a.Jeff needs to change the HBA configuration from AHCI to SATA. b.Jeff needs to change the HBA configuration from SATA to AHCI. c.Jeff needs to change the HBA configuration from AHCI to RAID. d.Jeff needs to install a RAID controller card. The RAID built into motherboards is always inferior.

c.Jeff needs to change the HBA configuration from AHCI to RAID.

Of the following RAID types, which offers the best redundancy with the fewest number of drives? a.RAID 10 b.RAID 0 c.RAID 1 d.RAID 5

c.RAID 1

André wants to install the fastest SATA drive he can into his new system. The clerk at the office store threw a bunch of numbers and letters at him. Given such a scenario, which should he choose? a.3 Gbps b.6 Gbps c.SATAe d.NVMe

c.SATAe

Running SCSI commands over Ethernet is called _____. a. SCSIe b. SCSIi c. eSCSI d. iSCSI

d. iSCSI

Josephine discovers an old PATA drive sitting in the closet and wants to view the contents. What does she need to make that possible? a.NCQ controller, ribbon cable, Molex power connector b.AHCI controller, ribbon cable, Molex power connector c.ATA controller, ribbon cable, PCIe power connector d.ATA controller, ribbon cable, Molex power connector

d.ATA controller, ribbon cable, Molex power connector

Which of the following techniques provides redundancy by using two disks and two controllers? a.Disk striping with parity b.Disk mirroring c.Disk striping d.Disk duplexing

d.Disk duplexing

Jill wants to add an additional drive to her portable computer. She has a spare 1-TB SATA HDD. Given such scenario, what would enable her to accomplish her goal? a.Put the drive into an external enclosure and plug it into an AHCI socket on the back of the portable. b.Put the drive into an external enclosure and plug it into a SATAe socket on the back of the portable. c.It can't be done. Portable computers can only use internal drives. d.Put the drive into an external enclosure and plug it into a USB 3.0 socket on the back of the portable.

d.Put the drive into an external enclosure and plug it into a USB 3.0 socket on the back of the portable.

Which level of RAID is disk striping? a.RAID 5 b.RAID 1 c.RAID 6 d.RAID 0

d.RAID 0

Which version of Windows enables you to set up software RAID 0+1? Select the best answer. a.Windows 8 and later. b.Only Windows 10. c.Windows 7 and later. d.Windows does not support RAID 0+1.

d.Windows does not support RAID 0+1.

You can also use a separate controller for each drive. With two drives, each on a separate controller, the system will continue to operate even if the primary drive's controller stops working. This super-drive mirroring technique is called [---------------].

disk duplexing

SSDs are storing data using [-----------] in blocks and pages.

electronic chips

true/ false: •Older drives ran at 5400 revolutions per minute (RPM).

false. 3600 RPM

True/False: You can mix HDD and SDD in RAID 1

false. In this case, you can't actually mix the drives.

True/false: With an ATA controller I can insert 1 PATA drive only.

false. Up to two PATA drives can be connected on a single ATA controller.

What's UEFI

it's a mode to boot the mass storage devices.

Jumpers and cabling on PATA drives: If you have only one hard drive, set the drive's jumpers to [------] or standalone. If you have two drives, set one to [-------] and the other to [--------].

master master slave

In RAID 1, The data on each drive would always be identical. One drive would be the primary drive and the other drive, called the [----------], would not be used unless the primary drive failed.

mirror drive

HDDs are referred to as magnetic hard drives or [-------------------].

platter-based hard drives

Hard drives run at a set spindle speed, measured in [--------------].

revolutions per minute (RPM)

True/False: AHCI allows hot swapping

true

True/False: Each block in the hard drive is around 4096 bytes.

true

True/False: SATA has a point-to-point connections with the host bus adapter (HBA)

true

true/false: LBA is the device driver for all storage devices in our systems.

true

true/false: one thousand mega is called Giga

true

•If device is not supported by the motherboard:

•Flash the BIOS with an upgraded BIOS. •Get a hard drive controller that goes into an expansion slot.

•If a device is not recognized, work though steps to figure out what went wrong:

•Make sure the BIOS recognizes your hard drive. •Check physical connections. •Run through issues in CMOS.

•Drive recognition by a PC requires:

•Power •Proper connection •CMOS setup recognition

[-------------------]: Ties capable drives directly into the PCI Express bus on motherboards. Lack of overhead enhances the speed of throughput.

•SATA Express (SATAe) or SATA 3.2

There are 2 ways to implement RAID:

•Software RAID •Hardware RAID