Chapter 9 | Hard Drive Technology

Disk Management in Windows Vista can only do one type of RAID. What is it?

RAID 0

Disk Striping - Disk Stripping requires at least two drives. It does not provide redundancy to data. If any one drives fails, all data is lose. What RAID config is this?

RAID 0

Nested, Mirrored Stripes - The opposite of RAID 10. Pairs of stripped drives, then they are mirrored. Need 4 to do this. What RAID config is this?

RAID 0+1

Disk Mirroring/Duplexing - Arrays require at least two hard drives, although they also work with any even number of drives. This is ultimate in safety, but you lose storage space because the data is duplicated; you need two 2-TB drives to store 2TB of data. What RAID config is this?

RAID 1

Nested, Striped Mirrors - Needs 4 drives. A pair of drives is configured as a mirror. The same is done to the other pair. Then they are block stripped between the two pairs. To upgrade, you need another pair of drives. What RAID config is this?

RAID 10

ATA drives come in two basic types. What are they?

PATA and SATA

SSDs can be installed as add-on ________ cards?

PCIe

SATAe are capable drives that directly connect to the ______ bus on the motherboard.

PCIe (PCI Express)

The older Parallel ATA (PATA) drives send data in ______, on a wide 40 or 80-wire data cable called a ribbon cable.

Parallel

The older ______ drives send data in parallel, on a wide 40 or 80-wire data cable called a ribbon cable.

Parallel ATA (PATA)

A traditional Hard Disk Drive is composed of individual disk, or ______, with read/write heads on actuator arms controlled by a servo motor.

Platters

SATA created a ______ connection between the SATA device - hard disk, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc.

Point to Point

Windows 7/8/8.1/10 Disk Management can do what type of RAID?

0 and 1

What are the different RAID configurations?

0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 0+1

The Disk Management program in Windows Server versions can configure drives for RAID...?

0, 1, or 5

What is the max length of a SATA cable?

1 meter

SSD form factors are typically what sizes?

1.8, 2.5, and 3.5 inches

Specialized RAID controller cards support RAID arrays of up to what?

15 Drives

SATA 1 maximum throughput

150MBps

What was the max length of a ATA ribbon cable?

18 in

You can connect up to ______ PATA drives - including hard drives, optical drives, and tape drives - to a single ATA controller.

2

eSATA cable length is?

2 meters

SATA runs how much faster than PATA?

30 times

SATA 2 Maximum throughput

300MBps

The older Parallel ATA (PATA) drives send data in parallel, wide ______ wire data cable called a ribbon cable.

40 or 80

What are common speeds for HDD?

5400, 7200, 10,000, 15,000 RPM

SATA 3 Maximum throughput

600MBps

How many wires did the SATA interface needed? The PATA drives needed 40 or 80.

7

This is an efficient way to work with SATA HABs. Using this unlocks some of the advance features of SATA, such as hot-swapping and native command queuing.

Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)

Starting around 1990, an interface called ______, appeared that now virtually monopolized the hard drive market.

Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA)

An ______ describes two or more drives working as a unit.

Array

SATAe is fully ______ with earlier versions of SATA.

Backward Compatible

You can assign ______ priority to drives and devices in CMOS

Boot order

RAID controllers have their own ______ and _____ built into them.

Processor and memory

Advanced Host Controller Interface (ACHI) mode is enabled at the ______ level (Quick Note: You need to activate this before you install a OS or else you will be rewarded with a BSoD)?

CMOS

Many PATA hard drives use a jumper setting called ______ rather than master or slave.

Cable select

First generation SSDs only deleted (Or stayed on the SDD) data when ALL cells were filled with data. Why?

Cells can wear out after too much use.

One common numbering method uses the term ______ for each controller.

Channels

Solid-state technology is commonly used in?

Desktop and laptop, memory cards, cameras, USBs, and other handheld.

You can 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 upper-drive mirroring technique is called ______?

Disk Duplexing

Connecting two drives to a RAID controller where one drive would be the primary drive and the other drive, called the mirror drive, would not be used unless the primary drive failed. This process is called ______?

Disk Mirroring

Without parity (spreading the data among multiple drives (At least two)). This by itself provides no redundancy but if one drive fails. All data is lost.

Disk Striping

This is a specification that assists with communication connection between the operating system and the SSD directly through a PCIe bus lane. Reducing latency and taking full advantage of the fast speeds of high end SSDs.

Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe)

Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) Drives come in a couple of formats. What are they?

Expansion card and a 2.5in drive

This extends the SATA bus to external devices.

External SATA (eSATA)

A traditional hard ______ is composed of individual disk, or platters, with read/write heads on actuator arms controlled by a servo motor.

Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

RAID that is configured by a controller?

Hardware RAID

______ can cut the life of hard drives dramatically.

Heat

What is the SATA controller called?

Host Bus Adapter (HBA)

Plugging a device into the computer without harming either and once the device is safely attached, it will automatically have recognized the part as a fully functional component is what?

Hot-swapping

Windows supports ______, drives that combine flash memory and spinning platters to provide fast and reliable storage.

Hybrid Dard Drives (HHDs)

ATA hard drives are often referred to as ______ drives.

Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE)

What was the third reason ATA had a problem in its longevity as the mass storage interface of choice?

Lacked hot-swap capabilities

What is a more traditional name for HDDs?

Magnetic Hard Drives

If you have two hard drives. Set the drive's jumpers to?

Master and slave

If you have only one hard drive. Set the drive's jumpers to?

Master or standalone

SATA did away with the entire ______ concept. PATA used this to communicate HDDs to one another.

Master/slave

All PATA drives use a standard ______ power connector.

Molex

Current SSDs use nonvolatile flash memory such as ______ that retains data when power is turned off or disconnected.

NAND

This is a disk-optimization feature of SAT drives that enable faster read and write speeds.

Native command Queuing (NCQ)

Current SSDs use ______ flash memory such as NAND that retains data when power is turned off or disconnected.

Nonvolatile

Disk Striping with Distributed Parity - Distributes data and parity information evenly across all drives. This is the most common RAID and requires 3 drives. What RAID config is this?

RAID 5

Disk Striping with Extra Parity - RAID 5 with extra parity information, but you need at least five drives. But two drives can go down and the system will continue to run. What RAID config is this?

RAID 6

What was the last reason ATA had a problem in its longevity as the mass storage interface of choice?

Reached the limit of what it could do

What does RAID stand for?

Redundant Array of Independent (or inexpensive) disks

Hard drives run at a set spindle speed, with spinning platters measured in ______.

Revolutions Per Minute (RPM).

What was the first reason ATA had a problem in its longevity as the mass storage interface of choice?

Ribbon cables impeded airflow

ATA-3 introduced ______, and internal drive program that tacks errors and error conditions within the drive.

S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology)

The lastest version of SATA is?

SATAe (SATA 3.2)

SATA drives send data in a _____ format. Using only one wire for data transfers.

Serial

PATA drives dominated the industry for more than a decade but have been replaced by?

Serial ATA (SATA)

RAID that is configured by the OS?

Software RAID

Why is Hardware RAID controllers better than Software ones?

Software RAID will overwork your operating system and create slowdowns.

Based on the combination of semiconductors and transistors used to create electrical components with no moving parts.

Solid-State Drives

eSATA ports run at the same ______ as internal SATA ports?

Speed

Hard drives run at a set ______, with spinning platters measured in revolutions per minute (RPM).

Spindle speed

What was the first reason ATA had a problem in its longevity as the mass storage interface of choice?

The cables had a limited length

What happens if you plug a SATA drive into a running windows computer without AHCI enabled?

The drive doesn't appear

If you have Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) disabled. You have to go the Control Panel and run the Add New Hardware to make the hot-swappable drive appear. In what operating system is this required?

Vista

Early SSDs used SDRAM cache that was ______ and lost data when powered off.

Volatile

If you have Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) disabled. You need to run the "hdwwiz.exe from the start menu search car, OR open the Disk Management console and run "Rescan Disks" under the action menu. In what operating system is this required?

Windows 7 and later

What type form factor of SSDs are used in portable devices?

mSATA and M.2