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Lesson 2.3 - Hardware Architecture For Von Neumann Machines - Disk Hardware

Hard disks are non-volatile secondary storage devices that use magnetic media for data storage and retrieval, consisting of rigid rotating platters and various components like read/write heads and actuator arms. They can experience failures categorized into electrical, mechanical, logical, bad sector, firmware, and multiple unknown failures, each affecting the drive's functionality in different ways. The architecture includes platters, spindles, tracks, and sectors, with data organized in concentric tracks and sectors on the platter surfaces.

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6 views4 pages

Lesson 2.3 - Hardware Architecture For Von Neumann Machines - Disk Hardware

Hard disks are non-volatile secondary storage devices that use magnetic media for data storage and retrieval, consisting of rigid rotating platters and various components like read/write heads and actuator arms. They can experience failures categorized into electrical, mechanical, logical, bad sector, firmware, and multiple unknown failures, each affecting the drive's functionality in different ways. The architecture includes platters, spindles, tracks, and sectors, with data organized in concentric tracks and sectors on the platter surfaces.

Uploaded by

MusaManganda
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DISK HARDWARE

Hard disks are secondary storage devices used for permanent storage. Hard disk drives are
magnetic media that are used for storage and retrieval of digital data. The drive architecture is
rigid rapidly rotating disks, or platters, held in place by spindles. The platters are not
magnetic but are coated with magnetic material.

Magnetic heads on actuator arms move over the platter surface to read and write binary data
bits by detecting changes in magnetization on the platter. This is random access storage that
does not require sequential blocks to work. Disks are of course non-volatile and will not lose
stored data when the drive powers off.

The architecture of a hard disk consists of several physical components that include:

● Platters
● Spindle
● Read/write heads
● Actuator arm
● Tracks
● Sectors

Platters

Hard disks are organised as a concentric stack of disks. An individual disk is referred to as a
platter. Each platter consists of two surfaces: a lower and an upper surface.

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Spindle

The platters within the hard disk are connected by a spindle that runs through the middle of
the platters.The spindle moves in a unidirectional manner along its axis (either clockwise or
counterclockwise).The movement of the spindle causes the platters to rotate as well.

Read/write head

Each surface on a platter contains a read/write head that is used to read or write data onto
the disk. The read/write heads can move back and forth along the surface of a platter.
Read/write heads are in turn connected to a single actuator arm.

Tracks

Each surface of a platter consists of a fixed number of tracks. These are circular areas on the
surface of a platter that decrease in circumference as we move towards the centre of the
platter. Data is first written to the outermost track.Outer tracks are bigger in size than the
inner tracks but they contain the same number of sectors and have equal storage capacity.
This is because the storage density is high in sectors of the inner tracks whereas the bits are
sparsely arranged in sectors of the outer tracks.

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Sectors

Each track is divided into a fixed number of sectors. Sectors divide track sections and store
data. Some space of every sector is used for formatting. So, the actual capacity of a sector is
less than the given capacity.

Disk Interleaving

RESEARCH

Common hard disk errors

Hard disks can fail for all sorts of reasons. However, failures generally fall into the following
six broad categories.

● Electrical failure occurs when, for example, a power surge damages a hard disk's
electronic circuitry, causing the read/write head or circuit board to fail. If a hard
disk powers on but cannot read and write data or boot, it is likely that one or more
of its components has suffered an electrical failure.
● Mechanical failure can be caused by wear and tear, as well as by a hard impact,
like a hard drop. This may cause, among other things, the read/write drive head to
hit a rotating platter, causing irreversible physical damage.
● Logical failure results when the hard disk's software is compromised or ceases to
run properly. All sorts of data corruption can lead to a logical failure. This

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includes corrupted files, malware and viruses, improperly closing an application
or shutting down a computer, human error or accidentally deleting files that are
critical to hard disk functionality.
● Bad sector failure can occur when the magnetic media on a hard disk's rotating
platter is misaligned, resulting in a specific area on the platter becoming
inaccessible. Bad sectors are common and often limited when they occur. Over
time, however, the number of bad sectors can increase, eventually leading to a
system crash, inaccessible files or the hanging or lagging of the operation of a
hard disk.
● Firmware failure happens when the software that performs the maintenance
tasks on a drive and enables the hard disk to communicate with a computer
becomes corrupted or stops working properly. This type of failure can lead to the
disk freezing during bootup or the computer a hard disk is connected to not
recognizing or misidentifying it.
● Multiple unknown failures that accumulate over time can also occur. For
example, an electrical problem could lead to a mechanical failure, such as a
read/write head crash. It might also lead to a logical failure, resulting in several
bad sectors developing on the hard disk platters.

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