Hard Disk Error – Hard Disk Not Found
This is an error message we all hate we’d never see but these small yet terrible precision storage devices are electro-mechanical and they will eventually wear out. Before you consider burying the darned thing, try getting hold of a new IDE cable and replacing that. The cable is made up of several dozen wires that tends to cook up in the PC’s case especially if you don’t have ample cooling and you love to over-clock the system that makes it hot enough to cook and egg on.
Another thing you might want to try is to unplug the IDE cable at both ends and try re-seating them. The heat within your PC causes thermal expansion which can loosen cables(though very rare), but they can happen. check the power connector and switch with another one or a free one you may have. Of course you’re doing this all after you’ve shut it down and pulled out the plug from the wall socket, waiting a few minutes for the residual charge in the power supply to dissipate. you should also touch the power supply to get rid of the very nasty static charge you maight have picked up walking on your carpeted floors.
ハードディスクはどうやって動いているのか
画像元: windowsitlibrary.com
ハードディスクには磁気を帯びた数枚のプロッターがあります。 プロッターがついている軸がこれらを高速に回転させ、リード/ライトヘッドが読み/書きする情報をプロッター上で探します。 ハードドライブの有効性はどれ程の量が未使用であるか、フラグメントの割合やデータ転送率により、それはコネクションの種類とドライブの回転数によって変わってきます。ハードドライブを購入する際に、二つの製品、例えば一つの160GBドライブと 二つの80GBドライブの値段を比べるとします。二つのハードドライブがあれば、一つが悪くなっても全てが無くなる訳ではありません。しかし今日のハードドライブは、乱用しなければ、長持ちするハードウェアで、 面倒な事の無い長期に渡るデータ保管を約束します。
Hard Disk Failure
Image Source: img.tomshardware.com
Hard Disk failure is one big factor in loss of important data stored inside your computer. We lose at an average, 44 percent, of our data stored due to our hard disk’s malfunction. It is important to know that hard drives are mechanical equipments or hardwares. It is prone to wear and tear. It has a specified life cycle. If you use them correctly and with its normal operating conditions, you can fully utilize it. But if you abuse its use, usage can further be shortened. Here are some reasons why hard disk failure occurs;
Head Crash accounts for the majority of the percentage if hard disk failure.
Sudden Temperature can influence directly the occurrence of data loss
Electro Static Discharge during installation can lead to electrical failure
Adtron Hard Disks
Image Source: technabob.com
Solid state hard disks can now replace the rotating drives and parts that have comprised the hard disk market for the last decade. The latest technology in hard disk production is currently being used in a number of industrial and defense applications. Solid state provides the highest possible degree of performance and reliability. The moving parts of the ordinary IDE hard disks are virtually the weakest link of the entire medium because it is prone to tremendous strain and friction. The solid state hard disk is basically lightweight, it needs less power to run than the common 2.5″ and 3.5″ hard drives, and it has no acoustic signature. While the latest technology is enjoying great support from the market, it is not without its weak points too. The only major flaw that needs to be taken care of a solid state hard disk when used into the everyday stresses of computing, is its durability. Thats why, Adtron Hard Disks came up with their latest product release. The latest in solid state hard disk technology. It is capable of withstanding the strain of pressure. It offers exceptional write durability in I/O applications, it can sustain the best read and write rates without using up precious cache memory as a buffer of the host and media.
How Hard Disk Works
Image Source: windowsitlibrary.com
Your hard drive has a number of magnetized platters. The spindle spins the platters at a very fast speed while a read/write head scans over them both looking for reading and writing information. The effectiveness of your hard drive depends on how much of its capacity remains unused, fragmentation and its data transfer rate, which in turn is dependent on its connection type and the drive’s spin rate. In buying a hard drive, you may want to compare the prices of say a 160GB drive against two 80 GB drives. The thing with 2 hard drives is that, If one drive fails all is not lost. Although today’s hard disks are durable pieces of hardware, so long as you do not abuse them, it can provide you a long time of hassle free data storage.
The IDE Hardisk
Image source: www.flickr.com
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.
Secure Erase Program
If the user is smart enough to go through the Storage Bits it is safe to them to play along with the Secure Erase program safe. In this program, secure erase, it overwrites ivery single block on the hard drive. Even those data on the bad blocks are being overwritten. The information left at the end is partly overwritten directories and blocks. Remember there is no data recovery from Secure Erase!
The National Security Agency together with the National Institue for Standards and Testing gave the Secure Erase, complying with legal requirements, a higher Security rating than external block overwrite software that is available anywhere in the market.
Know the Measurement Jargon
Somebody once told me that a mans thing is proportional to the size of his hard disk. Thats totally untrue but it is definitely true that size does matter. Sometimes, during some intellectual boastful conversation, one may actually say a quarter of terabyte instead of 250 gigabytes to make it sound more size-monster.
The capacity of early hard disks is quoted as megabytes. A megabyte can store up to 1,048,576 or 220 bytes. Today, hard disks are commonly in gigabytes. Gigabytes is equal to 1,073,741,824 or 230 bytes of computer storage. Byte, on the other hand is equal to eight bits. A bit is a binary digit, taking up the values of either 1 or 0.
A hard drive and media player in one?
Have you ever thought of bringing a portable video player on the road? Of course, you may think I might be talking about portable DVDs, but no. If you have a wide collection of movies at home, will you bring your CDs with you to your destination? Of course not! That would be too much of a hassle.
To the movie buffs, here’s a treat for you. Chinavasion is again trying to catch up with the big names in the hard drive industry as they have come up with a portable external hard drive that can be used a media player. The player has a 120GB capacity and a 2.5 inches wide screen for viewing. It also has an earphone jack, so you can basically bring it everywhere you go—even in places that value silence.
Photo taken from http://chinavasion.manufacturer.globalsources.com
Hard drive dock and more.
Look at your workplace. Have you ever wondered how you can get rid of all those wires hanging around? No, I am not saying that you must go wireless with all your things as you might spend a lot of money on buying new gadgets when in fact the old ones are still working. You just have to be a little organized about your home wiring system as this may cause a lot of accidents. But believe me, even if you decided not to go wireless, your workplace can still be as organized as you can imagine.
How about getting some of those docks made by Unitek? They are currently selling in the market a dock wherein a lot of computer gadgets can be connected. Aside from the 4 card reader slots and the 2 USB ports available, you can even insert an external hard drive in it.
Photo taken from http://usb.brando.com.hk