HARD DISK GLOSSARY.

JARGON BUSTER

Areal Density: Areal density tells how densely packed data is on a disk surface. Areal
density is the bit density (bits per inch-BPI) multiplied by track density (tracks per inch-
TPI), or bits per square inch of the disk surface. Bit density is measured around the
outside (circumference) of a track, and track density is measured from the center to the
outside (radius ) of a track .

Average latency: Latency is the time lag between a request for information to the disk
and its supply. Average latency is the measurement of how long a drive must wait before
a specified bit of data rotates under the heads.

BIOS: Short for Basic Input / Output System. The BIOS is the interpreter that sets up a
specific computer to allow the operating system (such as DOS ) to communicate with
peripherals. The BIOS can be thought of as the glue that holds together hardware made
by a variety of manufacturers. The BIOS is firmware, that is the instructions are
permanently written on a Read Only Memory (ROM) chip that resides on the main logic
board. The BIOS contains the parameters required to boot the computer and performs a
Power On Self Test (POST) during the boot sequence.

Bit Density: Expressed as bpi (bits per inch), bit density defines how many bits can be
written onto one inch of a track on a disk surface. Bit density is measured around the
cirumference of a track. It is usually specified for ‘worst case’, which is the inner tracks
where track where track circumferences are the smallest.

Block: A group of bytes handled, stored and accessed as a logical data unit, such as an
individual file record. Typically, one physical sector of data on a hard drive.

Buffer: All modern hard drives have some amount of on-board memory, which is termed
the buffer. The buffer is a way station for requested data after it is read fro a location on
disk. The advantage of a disk buffer is that it decreases system delays due to the physical
limitations of the drive speed. Read sequences can be sped up by having the buffer hold
information that it anticipates the system will request.

Bus: An electrical pathway between devices that carries power, data and other signals.
Hard drive buses typically transfer data in parallel along 8-bit or 16-bit data paths.

Cluster: An operating system term describing the number of sectors that the operating
system allocates every tie disk space is needed. For example, if the cluster size is 16K
(Thirty-two 512-byte sectors per cluster) then every file will use a multiple of 26K of
disk space. Even if a complete file is less than 16K, the operating system allocates an
entire cluster for it. Clusters are sometimes called allocation units.
Controller: A controller is the printed circuit board required ot interpret data access
commands from host computer [ via the bus ] , and send track seeking, read / write and
other control signals to and from a hard drive.

Cylinder: The combination of identical track numbers on vertically stacked disks. At any
location of the head-positioning arm, all tracks under all heads compose the cylinder.
Cylinder number is one of the three address components required to find a specific
physical address on the disk, the other two being head number and sector number.

DTR: Short for Data Transfer Rate. The amount of time it takes for a unit of information
to be transmitted between source and destination. Typical units are bits per second or
bytes per second.

ECC: Short for Error Correction Code. The ECC hardware in the controller used to
interface the drive to the system can typically correct a single burst error of 11 bits or
less. This Maximum error burst correction length is a function of the controllers the user
is allowed to select this length.

FAT: Short for File Allocation Table. This is the table used by the operating system to
keep track of how clusters are currently allocated in a logical volume.

Form factor: This is the hard drive’s physical external size and the mounting space it
will take up. Usually 3½ inch or 5¼ inch for desktop computers and 2.5 inch for
portables and laptops.

HDA: Short for Head Disk Assembly. The mechanical components of the drive
underneath the casing, such as platters, actuator and heads.

High-level format: The process of creating a logical volume for a specific operating
system out of a partition of logical drive. For DOS, the high-level format creates the DOS
Boot Record FATs and Root Directory.

Low-level format: The purpose of a low-level format is to record the header data that
organize the tracks into sequential sectors on the disk surface. This information is never
altered during normal read-write operations. Header information identifies the sector
number and also contains the head and cylinder address.

MTBF: Short for ‘mean time between failures’. MTBF ratings are measured in hours and
indicate the sturdiness of hard disk drives.
Typical disk drives for personal computers have MTBF ratings of about 3,00,000 hours.
This means that of all the drives tested, one failure occurred every 3,00,000 hours of
testing. However, this is rather meaningless since most disk drives are tested only a few
hours, so it would be unlikely for a failure to occur during this short testing period. A
more useful gauge of a warranty the manufacturer offers.
Rotational speed: The speed at which the media spins. On a 5¼ inch or 3½ inch drive it
usually is 3,600 rotations per minute (RPM) and above.

RAID: Short for Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks. A relatively
inexpensive way to increase the performance and reliability in mass storage by making a
modular array of hard drives appears as a single storage unit. Files are segmented and the
segments are distributed over the drive units so multiple heads can simultaneously access
the file/s, thereby increasing performance. Increased reliability is achieved by storing
files in storing files in duplicate or with parity information that permits reconstruction.
High-end units consist of standard hard drives installed as modules in a central cabinet.
Low-end units run off RAID controllers installed in the host system.

Root directory: The root directory is the master (highest level) directory of the drive
from which all the sub-sectors will branch out. It is located immediately after the second
FAT on a DOS volume.

Sector: A track is divided into sectors. Each sector is defined with magnetic markings
and an identification number from 0 to 65,535 (this identification number is contained in
the sector header). All versions of DOS contain 512 bytes of data per sector (in the data
section). All tracks have the same amount of sectors, even though the tracks are much
larger near the outside of the platter than the inside. This is only done by DOS to avoid
extra complications and as a result, gives up much valuable disk space.
More advanced recording methods have been introduced such as multiple zone recording,
in which tracks on the outside cylinders have more sectors per track than the inside
cylinders, but each sector still contains 512 bytes of data.

SMART: short for Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology. This is a
technique that allows hard disks to test themselves for certain types of errors and warns
the system in advance for impending failure. Just about every new hard disk is SMART-
ready, but in many cases the capability is disabled by PC manufacturers to save money.

Seek time: This usually refers to the average time it takes the heads to move between one
track to another. There is also the track-to-track seek time that reflects how long it takes
the heads to move between adjacent tracks.

Track: A division of the surface of a disk platter. A track is composed of a complete

circle of magnetic flux changes. Each track is divided into sectors.

Track density: Track density is measured in tracks per inch and defines how many tracks
can be written onto a disk surface. Tracks density is measured from the center to the
outside (radius) of a track.