To Slave or Not to Slave

This is a manually set designation done on an IDe hard drive that tells the computer system whether the drive is the boot drive or primary or secondary. This is vital for it tells your CPU where the boot drive is that contains the Operating system(usually windows). This can be determined with a quick check on the label of the drive where the pin designations are shown.

Setting this, you take a look at the IDE hard drive(preferably when it is still not installed on the computer system) in between the IDE cable and the power supply. There are normally three pairs of pins, one for master another for secondary or slave and the last one is for auto-detect with the computer system determining on it’s own which is which.

IDE Drive cables

There are basically two cables that come with hard drives may they be SATA or IDE, the power and bus cable. The ribbon cable as it is known due it’s resemblance to one in an IDE drive is usually colored grey but it can come in many colors depending on the motherboard manufacturer. Should you ask if they do fail, yes they do and it may bring about a myriad of mysterious events such as disappearing drives or intermittent connection to one. Simply replace the flat cable and re-seat the power supply chord to diagnose it properly and check for the usual humming(no clicking) of the drive as it spins up to proper operating speed and you’re good to go…

Data Transfer Rates

Data written on a hard drive is encoded not as human readable language but rather a series of 1s and 0s that represent a Bit or Binary Digit. This is the only language that the computer understands that is why it is commonly referred to as machine language. Commonly, files have a property size of xx KB (kilobytes) or xx Byte, a byte consists of eight bits which represents a character. Data transfer rates is the velocity at which data is transmitted from one device to another.

In IDE hard disk specifications, it is commonly seen that a data transfer rate is xx ms (microsecond). Essential, the lower the data transfer rate, the faster the hard disk can read and write on the media and retrieve data that is requested by the user or a software application. The data transfer rate allows for faster execution of tasks sent by the user to the computer system.

Hard Disk Role in Computer System

The hard disk possesses a major role in the various aspects relative to the operation of a computer system that includes:
• Performance – hard disk is important in determining overall computer system performance because the speed of boot up and loading of software applications are directly affected by the speed of the hard disk. It is equally vital during multi-tasking operations or processing large amounts of data;
• Storage Capacity – obviously, being the main storage device, a higher capacity allows for storage of more data and programs;
• Software Support – with inflated operating system files and software applications, the hard disk provides critical support to their stable performance;
• Reliability – good quality coupled with smart maintenance and back up will help protect your data.

Secure Erase

Identity theft and data loss may leave the company at stake being liable under federal law. HIPPA, Sarbanes-Oxley, Graham-Leach-Bliley and other state laws are example of the federal laws. Penalties include fines and imprison of 20 years plus results of civil suits if any.

Secure Erase makes it safe to avoid the crimes. It is a set of command mostly incorporated in ATA drives. This technology is available since 2001. But it was disabled by most of motherboard BIOS. That’s why many of users don’t know it besides Murphy’s Law was still enforced. Secure Erase is a gun aimed right to all of the data in the PC.

How Much is Enough

The ability to connect a specific hard drive is generally limited but he architecture of the motherboard and bios as a matter of fact with most today limited to 500GB in capacity. Attach a larger drive and you may not be able to utilize the full capacity of the drive which you may find out in the detected drive displayed within the BIOS setup screen. Though most motherboards now use auto detect, detecting and getting the information about the hard drive from the internal electronics, there was actually a time when you had to know the parameters of the drive for one to mount it and use it properly. IDE today has become an older standard, replaced by SATA which has faster transfer rates and other speedy attributes. They also have a slimmer connector that lessens the restrictive effect the former 80-wire flat cable had on the overall computer system. Continue reading »

Hard Drive – Size does matter

Hard drives come in many forms and shapes, the most common are the 5 1/4″ and the 2 1/2″ the first appearing on desktops and the later on laptops. As of this year, the highest capacity hard drive has topped the 2TB capacity and is set to improve further as data storage technologies improve. The smallest hard drive ever made was a 0.85″ hard drive developed by Toshiba for use as if it were an SD/MMC card for data storage on a computer or mobile devices. The two forms of hard drives have stood the test of time due to the fact that flash memory has experienced such a boom prices have fallen making them a more viable storage solution for smaller needs. The speed at which these drives spin can range from 5,400 to 7,200 rpm the later of which was the long standing standard for server-type SCSI hard drives that were very expensive. Most mobile computers (laptops) come with a 5,400 rpm drive due to the sound considerations when using the device, the faster the device the louder the sound (the spinning sound or hum you hear). You can in theory use faster hard drives on mobile computers but they would reduce battery life and make it noisier defeating the overall design of the laptop. Continue reading »

S.M.A.R.T. – Saving your data before you know it!

SMART is a monitoring technology build into the electronics of hard drives as a way of the computer monitoring it’s performance and may give warning of pending failure. Though the system is generally one that works without a hitch, it cannot protect you from sudden hardware failure which leaves the drive non-operational. Sudden hardware failure is estimated to account for 60% of all drive failures, and is attributed to rough handling or drops and knocks say a laptop falling onto the floor from your desk. They are designed to withstand specific amount of impact force (measured in G’s) that means a hard drive may survive a fall from a 3-foot desk. Continue reading »

MTBF – Meaure of Reliability

Mean-Time-Between-Failure or MTBF is a term used to describe the reliability of the parts of a computer system from a technical standpoint describing reliability and is measured in hours. The higher this number the more reliable a computer part is. with respect to hard disk drives, particularly IDE drives this denotes the number of hours before it fails or parts of the electronics, motors and bearings can last without any failure. This is an older measure used by the computing industry when hard drives were still quite steeply priced with the best ones reserved fro use on servers and other high demand uses. Ide has long been replaced by the SATA standard which eliminates the thick IDE cable that blocks airflow within a computer’s casing preventing proper cooling.
Continue reading »

The IDE Hardisk

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Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) hard disks have been around for quite a few years.  Prior to these drives, hard disks were interfaced to a PC motherboard via an extension board known as a hard disk controller.  The drive did most of the mechanical stuff and performed essential electronic/servo functions; the controller told it in detail what to do.  The development of the IDE hard moved most of the electronics and firmware (low-level software on a chip) from the controller to a printed circuit board on the drive itself.  In the process, a buffer/cache’ memory was added to the electronics to speed-up the process of reading and writing hard disk drive data.  The drive got “smarter.”  Overall costs went down and performance went up.
A much simpler board, usually identified as an IDE Controller, interfaced the IDE hard disk to the motherboard bus.  The term IDE Controller is a misnomer.  It is really nothing more than a bus interface and an interface and connector for the IDE cable going to the drive.  The actual controller is on the drive.