Secondary Storage and Media

Prepared by: O. Hibbert

Disc storage

 One of the fundaments of computing

technology is its ability to copy data
 Repeatable.
 Flawlessly.

Disc storage is the main facet of such

systems that preserves copied files 'at
rest', that is, even when the power to them
is disconnected.
Describing Storage Devices

 Store data when computer is off

 Two processes
 Writing data
 Reading data
Describing Storage Devices

 Storage terms
 Media is the material storing data
 Storage devices manage the media
 Magnetic devices use a magnet
 Optical devices use lasers
Magnetic Storage Devices

 Most common form of storage

 Hard drives, floppy drives, tape
 All magnetic drives work the same
Magnetic Storage Devices
Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

Tape
Magnetic Storage Devices

 Data storage and retrieval

 Media is covered with iron oxide
 Read/write head is a magnet
 Magnet writes charges on the media
 Positive charge is a 1
 Negative charge is a 0
 Magnet reads charges
 Drive converts charges into binary
The floppy
The floppy

A floppy disk is a thin, circular, flexible

plastic disk with a magnetic coating
enclosed in a square-shaped plastic shell.

A Floppy did (and still does) perform its

storage function admirably within the
bounds of the very cheap materials
employed, but it suffers from some severe
disadvantages:
Disadvantages of floppy disks include

 Floppy disk is not durable (due to dust and

dirt) and can be destroyed by magnetic
field.

 Access time of floppy disk is slow (about

84 ms).

 Storage capacity of floppy disk is limited

(only 1.44 MB).
Advantages of floppy disks include

 Floppy disk is portable and inexpensive.

 Data on a floppy disk can be accessed

randomly.

 Data on a floppy disk can be write-

protected from being changed accidentally.

 Floppy disk can be used to transfer data

from one computer to another.
THE HARD DRIVE
Illustrated Hard Disk
Hard drives

 consist of a series of round metal plates

called platters, also called cylinders.
 coated with an electromagnetic material
which can support magnetic states that are
capable of being electrically altered.
 There are several platters mounted on a hard
drive.
 Each platter can hold large amounts of data.
 Between each platter is a head which is used
to sense and modify the states of the platter.
There are two heads on each platter
Cross Section

 Platter is divided
into tracks and
sectors

 Tracks are
divided into
blocks (minimum
read size)
Tracks and Sectors
Cross Section
How does the hard disk store data?

 On each of the platters there is a thin layer

of magnetic film.

 Data is stored in digitally (1's and 0's). These

binary digits are arranged in different ways
to represent different characters.

 When these are read back by the head the

data is retrieved and processed
Magnetic Storage Devices

 Finding data on disk

 Each track and sector is labeled
 Some are reserved
 Listing of where files are stored
 File Allocation Table (FAT)
 FAT32
 NTFS
 Data is organized in clusters
 Size of data the OS handles
 Measuring the Speed of a Hard Disk

The main ways of measuring the speed of a HD are maximum data

transfer rate, the spindle rotation speed and the seek time.

 Maximum Transfer Rate - This is the highest amount of data

that can be transferred per second.

 Spindle Rotation Speed - The rotation speed of the disk really

is the basis of the other two factors of hard disk speed. The
faster the rotation speed, the more data can be written per
second and the quicker it is to find the correct data on the
platter. RPM stands for revolutions per minute. It indicates the
number of complete revolutions made by the spindle in one
minute.

 Seek Time - The seek time of a hard disk is the average time it
takes for the disk to find the data you need on the platters. A
fast spinning, highly accurate and responsive disk will have a
shorter seek time and will perform much better, especially when
the data is scattered around the disk.
 How it adds up

 A disc is divided into sectors

(one shown in green), each one
generally holding 512 Bytes and
also into concentric tracks (one
shown in red).

 By projecting a single track

down through the multiple
platters (the red rings), the
result is a cylinder shape.
Hence the symbol that still
appears on the front of your
computer today representing
the hard drive is actually that
of a cylinder.
 How it adds up

 Once we know that platters

have a read/write head on
either side, we can multiply
all these factors together to
give the capacity of the disc.
Thus:
512 bytes x 63 sectors x
1024 cylinders x 16 heads =
528,482,304 bytes (about
528MB).

 Compare this with

512 bytes x 18 sectors x 80
tracks x 2 sides = 1,474,560
bytes for a floppy disc.
How it adds up

 For drives over 8.4 GB, many

manufacturers switched to using just the
Logical Block Addressing (LBA) number.

 This number can sometimes be found in the

form "LBA 78165360" on the drive label
and in this case signifies a 40GB drive
78,165,360 sectors x 512 Bytes).
Drive sizes

 From the 8.4GB point, drives now often

step up by doubling in size, thus we
commonly see: 10, 20, 40, 80 GigaBytes.

 120 GB is also a widely-available size

before reaching 160Gb and similarly 200GB
drives are appearing in advance of an
expected 320GB.
 What is formatting a hard drive? 

 Formatting is the process of writing marks on the magnetic

media that are used to mark tracks and sectors.

 Before a disk is formatted, its magnetic surface is a complete

mess of magnetic signals. When it is formatted, some order is
brought into the chaos by essentially drawing lines where the
tracks go, and where they are divided into sectors.

 Simply put, when you format a hard drive, you wipe off any
existing information and files from that drive in order to
prepare it for either an operating system, or to store files.
 
 It creates the organization for the drive. 
Formatting a storage medium

 prepares the medium, for reading and writing.

 Erases all data and information on the disk
 tests the disk to make sure all sectors are
reliable
 marks bad sectors (that is, those that are
scratched), and creates internal address tables
that it later uses to locate information.
 You must format a disk before you can use it.
Recordable Optical Technologies

 CD Regrettable (CD-RW)
 Create a reusable CD
 Cannot be read in all CD players
 Can reuse about 100 times
Recordable Optical Technologies

 Photo CD
 Developed by Kodak
 Provides for photo storage
 Photos added to CD until full
 Original pictures cannot be changed
Recordable Optical Technologies

 DVD Recordable
 Several different formats exist
 None are standardized
 Allows home users to create DVDs
 Cannot be read in all players
Recordable Optical Technologies

 DVD-RAM
 Allow reusing of DVD media
 Not standardized
 Cannot be read in all players
Advantages of CDs and DVDs

 Easy to handle and more durable than

floppy

 Suitable for MM since they have large

Capacity

 Can handle text, sounds and graphics

 Environmentally friendly
 On your own
 Zip Disk
 Jaz disk
 USB