History of Hard Disk Drives: Marlene A. Caliste Cse111L/Rc7: Hard Drives Part 1 BSIT, CSE111L/IT41P1-COMTECH LAB, S 1-5

Marlene A.
Caliste CSE111L/RC7: HARD DRIVES PART 1 BSIT, CSE111L/IT41P1-COMTECH LAB, S 1-5
History of Hard disk Drives

IBM in 1953 recognized the immediate application for what it termed a "Random Access File" having high capacity, rapid random access at a relatively low cost. After considering several alternative technologies such as wire matrices, rod arrays, drums, drum arrays, etc., the engineers at IBM San Jose invented the disk drive. The disk drive created a new level in the computer data hierarchy, then termed Random Access Storage but today known as secondary storage, less expensive and slower than main memory (then typically drums) but faster and more expensive than tape drives. The commercial usage of hard disk drives began in 1956 with the shipment of an IBM 305 RAMAC system including IBM Model 350 disk storage. Compared to modern disk drives, early hard disk drives were large, sensitive and cumbersome devices, more suited to use in the protected environment of a data center than in factories, offices or homes where they are found today. Disk media diameter was nominally 14 or 8 inches and were typically mounted in standalone boxes (resembling washing machines or even pizza ovens) or large equipment rack enclosures. Individual drives often required high-current ac power due to the large motors they required to turn the large disks. Hard disk drives were not commonly used with microcomputers until after 1980, when Seagate Technology introduced the ST-506, the first 5.25-inch hard disk drive. The capacity of hard drives has grown exponentially over time. With early personal computers, a drive with a 20 megabyte capacity was considered large. During the mid-1990s the typical hard disk drive for a PC had a capacity of about 1 GB. As of July 2010, desktop hard disk drives typically have a capacity of 500 to 1000 gigabytes, while the largest-capacity drives are 3 terabytes.
1950s 1970s
The IBM 350 Disk File, invented by Reynold Johnson, was introduced in 1956 with the IBM 305 RAMAC computer. This drive had fifty 24 inch platters, with a total capacity of five million characters.A single head assembly having two heads was used for access to all the platters, making the average access time very slow (just under 1 second). The IBM 1301 Disk Storage Unit, announced in 1961, introduced the usage of a head for each data surface with the heads having self acting air bearings (flying heads). Also in 1961, Bryant Computer Products introduced its 4000 series disk drives. These massive units stood 52 inches (1.3 m) tall, 70 inches (1.8 m) wide, and had up to 26 platters, each 39 inches (0.99 m) in diameter, rotating at up to 1200 rpm. Access times were from 50 to 205 ms. The drive's total capacity, depending on the number of platters installed, was up to 205,377,600 bytes, or 196 MiB. The first disk drive to use removable media was the IBM 1311 drive, which used the IBM 1316 disk pack to store two million characters. In 1973, IBM introduced the IBM 3340 "Winchester" disk drive, the first significant commercial use of low mass and low load heads with lubricated media. All modern disk drives now use this technology and/or derivatives thereof. Project head Kenneth Haughton named it after the Winchester 30-30 rifle because it was planned to have two 30 MB spindles; however, the actual product shipped with two spindles for data modules of either 35 MB or 70 MB.[10] Also in 1973, Control Data Corporation introduced the first of its series of SMD disk drives using conventional disk pack technology. The SMD family became the predominant disk drive in the minicomputer market into the 1980s.
1980s, the PC era

As the 1980s began, hard disk drives were a rare and very expensive additional feature on personal computers (PCs); however by the late '80s, hard disk drives were standard on all but the cheapest PC. Most hard disk drives in the early 1980s were sold to PC end users as an add on subsystem, not under the drive manufacturer's name but by Systems Integrators such as the Corvus Disk
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Marlene A. Caliste CSE111L/RC7: HARD DRIVES PART1 BSIT, CSE111L/IT41P1-COMTECH LAB, S 1-5
System or the systems manufacturer such as the Apple ProFile. The IBM PC/XT in 1983 included an internal standard 10MB hard disk drive, and soon thereafter internal hard disk drives proliferated on personal computers. External hard disk drives remained popular for much longer on the Apple Macintosh. Every Mac made between 1986 and 1998 has a SCSI port on the back, making external expansion easy; also, "toaster" Compact Macs did not have easily accessible hard drive bays (or, in the case of the Mac Plus, any hard drive bay at all), so on those models, external SCSI disks were the only reasonable option.
Timeline
1956 - IBM 350, first commercial disk drive, 5 million characters 1961 - IBM 1301 Disk Storage Unit introduced with one head per surface and aerodynamic flying heads, 28 million characters per module 1962 - IBM 1311 introduced removable disk packs containing 6 disks, storing 2 million characters per pack 1964 - IBM 2311 with 7.25 megabytes per disk pack 1964 - IBM 2310 removable cartridge disk drive with 1.02 MB on one disk 1965 - IBM 2314 with 11 disks and 29 MB per disk pack 1968 - Memorex is first to ship an IBM-plug-compatible disk drive 1970 - IBM 3330 Merlin, introduced error correction, 100 MB per disk pack 1973 - IBM 3340 Winchester introduced removable sealed disk packs that included head and arm assembly, 35 or 70 MB per pack 1973 - CDC SMD announced and shipped, 40 MB disk pack 1979 - IBM 3370 introduced thin film heads, 571 MB, non-removable 1980 - The world's first gigabyte-capacity disk drive, the IBM 3380, was the size of a refrigerator, weighed 550 pounds (about 250 kg), and had a price tag of $40,000, 2.52 GB 1980 - ST-506 first 5 1/4 inch drive released with capacity of 5 megabytes, cost $1500 1986 - Standardization of SCSI 1989 - Jimmy Zhu and H. Neal Bertram from UCSD proposed exchange decoupled granular microstructure for thin film disk storage media, still used today. 1991 - 2.5-inch 100 megabyte hard drive 1991 - PRML Technology (Digital Read Channel with 'Partial Response Maximum Likelihood' algorithm) 1992 - first 1.3-inch hard disk drive - HP Kittyhawk 1993 - IBM 3390 model 9, the last Single Large Expensive Disk drive announced by IBM 1994 - IBM introduces Laser Textured Landing Zones (LZT) 1996 - IBM introduces GMR (Giant MR) Technology for read sensors 1998 - UltraDMA/33 and ATAPI standardized 1999 - IBM releases the Microdrive in 170 MB and 340 MB capacities 2002 - 137 GB addressing space barrier broken 2003 - Serial ATA introduced 2003 - IBM sells disk drive division to Hitachi 2005 - First 500 GB hard drive shipping (Hitachi GST) 2005 - Serial ATA 3Gbps standardized 2005 - Seagate introduces Tunnel MagnetoResistive Read Sensor (TMR) and Thermal Spacing Control 2005 - Introduction of faster SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) 2005 - First Perpendicular recording HDD shipped: Toshiba 1.8-inch 40/80 GB 2006 - First 750 GB hard drive (Seagate)
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2006 - First 200 GB 2.5" hard drive utilizing Perpendicular recording (Toshiba) 2006 - Fujitsu develops heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) that could one day achieve one terabit per square inch densities.[12] 2007 - First 1 terabyte hard drive (Hitachi GST) 2008 - First 1.5 terabyte hard drive (Seagate) 2009 - First 2.0 terabyte hard drive] (Western Digital) 2010 - First 3.0 terabyte hard drive (Seagate, Western Digital) 2010 - First Hard Drive Manufactured by using the Advanced Format of 4 KiB a block instead of 512 bytes a block 2011 - First 4.0 terabyte hard drive prototype (denied by Samsung)
Manufacturing history
The technological resources and know-how required for modern drive development and production mean that as of 2011, virtually all of the world's HDDs are manufactured by just five large companies: Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba, Samsung[20] and HGST[21]; the latter two may be acquired in 2011 resulting in only three manufacturers of HDDs. Dozens of former HDD manufacturers have gone out of business, merged, or closed their HDD divisions; as capacities and demand for products increased, profits became hard to find, and the market underwent significant consolidation in the late 1980s and late 1990s. The first notable casualty of the business in the PC era was Computer Memories Inc. or CMI; after an incident with faulty 20MB AT disks in 1985,[22] CMI's reputation never recovered, and they exited the HDD business in 1987. Another notable failure was MiniScribe, which went bankrupt in 1990 after it was found that they had engaged in accounting fraud and inflated sales numbers for several years. Many other smaller companies (like Kalok, Microscience, LaPine, Areal, Priam, and PrairieTek) also did not survive the shakeout, and had disappeared by 1993; Micropolis was able to hold on until 1997, and JTS, a relative latecomer to the scene, lasted only a few years and was gone by 1999, after attempting to manufacture HDDs in India. Their claim to fame was creating a new 3 form factor drive for use in laptops. Quantum and Integral also invested in the 3 form factor; but eventually ceased support as this form factor failed to catch on. Rodime was also an important manufacturer during the 1980s, but stopped making disks in the early 1990s amid the shakeout and now concentrates on technology licensing; they hold a number of patents related to 3.5-inch form factor HDDs. The following is the genealogy of the current HDD companies: 1967: Hitachi enters the HDD business. 1967: Toshiba enters the HDD business. 1979: Seagate Technology founded. 1988: Western Digital, then a well-known controller designer, enters the HDD business by acquiring Tandon Corporation's disk manufacturing division. 1988: Samsung enters the worldwide HDD market, previously having manufactured Comport disk drives for the Korean market. 1989: Seagate Technology purchases Control Data's HDD business. 1990: Maxtor purchases MiniScribe out of bankruptcy, making it the core of its low-end HDDs. 1994: Quantum purchases DEC's storage division, giving it a high-end disk range to go with its more consumer-oriented ProDrive range. 1996: Seagate acquires Conner Peripherals in a merger.
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2000: Maxtor acquires Quantum's HDD business; Quantum remains in the tape business. 2003: Hitachi acquires the majority of IBM's disk division, renaming it Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST). 2006: Seagate acquires Maxtor. 2009: Toshiba acquires Fujitsu's HDD division. 2011: Western Digital proposes acquiring Hitachi's HDD division. 2011: Seagate proposes acquiring Samsung's HDD division.
Hard Disk Form Factors

Most hard disks are designed to be installed on the inside of the PC, and are produced in one of a dozen or so standard sizes and shapes. These standards are called hard disk form factors and refer primarily to its external dimensions. The reason for standardizing on form factors is compatibility. Without these standards, hard disks would have to be custom-made to fit different PCs. By agreeing on standards shapes and sizes for hard disks--as well as standardinterfaces of course--it is possible for any of the thousands of PC makers to purchase units from any hard disk manufacturer and know that there won't be problems with fit or form during installation. Over the life of the PC there have only been a few different hard disk form factors. Since changing a form factor standard requires coordination from the makers of other components (such as the makers of system cases) there is resistance in the industry to change the standard sizes unless there is a compelling reason to do so. (For example, when laptop PCs became popular new, smaller drives were created to save space and power, important goals in the world of mobile computing.) Form factors are generally described by a single metric. For example, the most common form factors today are "3.5-inch" and "2.5-inch". These numbers generally refer to the width of the drive, but they can be both vague and misleading (nice, huh? :^) ) They usually were chosen for historical reasons and in typically were based on either the platter size of drives that use the form factor, or the width of drives using that form factor. Obviously a single number cannot represent both, and in some cases, it represents neither! For example, 3.5" hard disks are generally 4" wide and use 3.74" platters. :^) (The name in this case comes from the fact that the drives fit in the same space as a 3.5" floppy disk drive!) Much more about the relationship between form factors and platters can be found in the discussion of platter size in the media section. You will also find there a detailed description of the trend towards smaller platters in modern hard disks.
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The five most popular internal form factors for PC hard disks. Clockwise from the left: 5.25", 3.5", 2.5", PC Card and CompactFlash. In this section I examine the major form factors that have been used for internal hard drives in PCs. This includes details on the dimensions of the form factor, especially the different heights associated with each. (Most form factors are actually a family of form factors, with different drives varying in the height dimension). In addition to the standard internal drive form factors, I briefly discuss external drives and also removable drive trays, which are sort of a "hybrid" of internal and external designs.
5.25" Form Factor

The 5.25" form factor is the oldest in the PC world. Used for the first hard disks on the original IBM PC/XT back in the early 1980s, this form factor has been used for most of the PC's life span, but is now obsolete. The basis of the form factor is the 5.25" drive bay used in the first PCs for 5.25" floppy disk drives (themselves obsolete today). These bays still exist today in modern PCs, but are now used primarily for CD-ROM/DVD drives and similar devices, not hard disks. The 5.25" form factor was replaced by the 3.5" form factor for two main reason: first, 5.25" drives are big and take up a lot of space; second, 3.5" drives offer better performance; see the discussion in the section on platter sizes for an explanation. The use of 5.25" drives continued as late as the mid-1990s for high-end drives used in servers and other applications where the large size of the platters in these drive was needed to allow drives with high capacities to be created. They mostly disappeared from consumer PC many years prior to that.
A 3.5" form factor hard disk piggybacked on a 5.25" form factor hard disk to contrast their dimensions. The 5.25" drive here is a Quantum Bigfoot and is the same height as a regular 3.5" low profile drive. 5.25" drives generally use 5.12" platters and have a width of 5.75" and depth of 8.0". For many years they were found in only two different height profiles: full-height, meaning the same height as the floppy drive on the original PC and the bay it used (3.25"); and half-height, which is of course half that number. In the 1990s, Quantum launched a new line of 5.25" drives named theBigfoot family, which reintroduced 5.25" drives to the consumer marketplace. These were sold as "economy" drives and due to the larger platter size, offered a lot of capacity--but due to slower spindle speeds and a "value line" design, not much performance. They were popular with many PC manufacturers but eventually were phased out. These drives used what had up to that point been non-standard heights for 5.25" drives, typically 1" high or less. Quantum calls these
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drives low-profile or ultra-low-profile. Here are the statistics and applications of the different profiles used in the 5.25" form factor: Width (in) 5.75 Depth (in) 8.0 Height (in) 3.25
Form Factor 5.25" Height Full-
Application All drives in early 1980s; Large capacity drives with many platters as late as the mid-1990s Early 1980s through early 1990s Quantum Bigfoot, mid-to-late 1990s Quantum Bigfoot, mid-to-late 1990s
5.25" Half5.75 Height 5.25" Profile Low5.75
8.0 8.0 8.0
1.63 1.0 0.75 0.80
5.25" Ultra5.75 Low-Profile
Interestingly, despite the general trend to smaller drives, the drives that continued to use the 5.25" form factor through the late 1980s and early 1990s were more often found as full-height devices than half-height ones. This may be due to the fact that their niche became applications where a lot of storage was needed, so the ability to fit many more platters in that nice, roomy 3.25" high package was attractive.
3.5" Form Factor

The 3.5" form factor is the standard in the PC world today, and has been for about the last decade. Drives of this size are found almost exclusively now in modern desktop PCs, and even in servers and larger machines. The only major market where other form factors hold sway over 3.5" is that for laptops and other portable devices, where the reduced size of 2.5" and smaller form factors is important. Like the 5.25" form factor before it, the 3.5" form factor is named not for any dimension of the drives themselves, but rather for the fact that they were designed to fit into the same drive bay as 3.5" floppy disk drives. 3.5" form factor drives traditionally have used 3.74" platters with an overall drive width of 4.0" and depth of about 5.75". In recent years, 3.5" form factor drives with platters smaller than 3.74"--in some cases much smaller--have appeared on the market. Most 10,000 RPM spindle speed drives reduce the size of the platters to 3", and the new 15,000 RPM Seagate drive has platters just 2.5" in diameter. The shrinking media size is done for performance reasons, but the 3.5" form factor is maintained for compatibility (these high-end drives are designed to go into expensive servers, not laptops!) For this reason, it is no longer the case that you can tell the size of a drive's platters by its form factor. See the discussion of platter size for more details. 3.5" form factor drives come in two general profiles: the larger is the so-called half-height drive, which is 1.63" in height. This name is kind of funny, since it is "half" of a height that never existed for 3.5" form factor drives. The name was derived from the fact that these drives are the same height as half-height 5.25" form factor drives, which are half the height of full-height 3.25" high drives in that form factor. Half-height 3.5" form factor drives are still used today, but only in servers and other high-end platforms. The standard for 3.5" is 1" height, which is commonly called slimline or low-profile, but just as commonly given no name at all and assumed as the
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default. The reason for the smaller size being the standard is that 1" is the height of a standard 3.5" floppy disk drive and 3.5" drive bay. In addition, there are some drives that are reduced in size from the 1" standard, using for example 0.75" height. Here are the standard profiles for 3.5" form factor drives: Width (in) Depth (in) 5.75 5.75 Height (in) 1.63 1.0
Form Factor
Application High-end, high-capacity drives Industry standard, most common form factor for PC hard disks
3.5" Half4.0 Height 3.5" Profile Low4.0
It is likely that the 3.5" form factor will continue to be the industry standard in PCs for years to come, due to the enormous installed base of systems that use this size, and no real compelling reason to change the form factor or the typical desktop machine Unlike its larger, older siblings, the 2.5" form factor actually is named for the platter size of drives that use it. The width of a 2.5" drive is 2.75", and depth is 3.94". These drives originally came in just one height (0.75" or 19 mm). Since for any storage technology level there is a tradeoff between size and capacity, over time several different heights were created in this form factor as standards for mobile PC users with different requirements. They are usually specified in metric (mm) and to my knowledge have no fancy names: Form Factor 2.5" 19 Height 2.5" 17 Height 2.5" 12.5 Height 2.5" 9.5 Height mm mm mm mm Width (in) 2.75 2.75 2.75 2.75 Depth (in) 3.94 3.94 3.94 3.94 Height Application (in) 0.75 0.67 0.49 0.37 Highest-capacity 2.5" drives, used in fullfeatured laptop systems Mid-range capacity drives used in some laptop systems Low-capacity drives used laptops (subnotebooks) in small very
Lowest-capacity drives used in small laptops (mini-subnotebooks)
2.5" drives are pretty much entrenched as the standard for laptop machines. They are also used occasionally in industrial applications, where the smaller size and increased ruggedness of portable drives is important.
PC Card (PCMCIA) Form Factor

One of the most popular interfaces used in the notebook PC world is the PC Card interface, also sometimes called PCMCIA after the group that created it in the late 1980s. This interface standard was created to allow for easier expansion of notebook systems, which at that time had very few options for adding hardware at all. For information on the PC Card interface as it relates to hard disks, see this page. Despite the relatively small size of cards that adhere to the PC Card standard, hard disk engineers have managed to create hard disks to fit. There are actually three PC Card form factor sizes, defined by the PCMCIA in 1995. The width and depth of these devices is exactly the same as that
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of a credit card, which I am sure is not a coincidence! They are all 2.13" wide and 3.37" deep. The three sizes differ only in their height. Type I devices are 3.3 mm thick; Type II devices are 5.0 mm thick, and Type III devices are 10.5 mm thick. Originally, the intention was for solid state devices like memory, modems and the like to use the Type I and Type II devices, while the Type III devices were for hard disks. Due to the extreme height limits of PC Cards, it is difficult to make hard disks that will fit into the allowed space, and most PC Card hard disks are Type III. However, advances in miniaturization have allowed some companies to now make hard disks that actually fit into the Type II PC Card form factor as well. Since most laptops can only accept either two Type I/II cards or a single Type III, this is a significant advantage. Here's a summary table of the different sizes: Width (in) 2.13 2.13 Depth (in) 3.37 3.37 3.37 Height Application (in/mm) 0.13 3.3 0.20 5.0 0.41 10.5 / Not used for hard disks (yet?)
Form Factor PC Card Type I PC Card Type II
/ Smaller-capacity expansion hard disks for laptops and consumer electronics / Higher-capacity expansion hard disks for laptops
PC Card Type III 2.13
The 2.13" width of this form factor puts a hard limit on the platter size of these drives--even 2.5" platters are too large. Most PC Card drives today use 1.8" platters. Interestingly, the first hard drive to use the PC Card form factor was probably the Hewlett PackardKittyhawk drive, with much smaller 1.3" platters. This drive is a good example of a technology being "ahead of its time". It was actually introduced way back in 1992, very early on for such miniaturized technology. Unfortunately, at the time the market may not have been big enough to provide HP with sufficient revenues to keep making it. The Kittyhawk was used in early hand-helds and other small consumer electronic devices (even printers!) for a while, but was eventually discontinued, and HP is no longer making hard disk drives of any sort. If this technology had been introduced five years later, it may have been a runaway success; certainly IBM is having great success with its slightlysmaller Microdrive.
A CompactFlash card (left) and a PC Card (right). The quarter is included for size context. Neither of these is a hard disk (though the SanDisk is a solidstate flash card "hard disk") but are the same size and shape as hard drives of their respective form
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factor. Interestingly, with a couple of exceptions, most of the smaller PC Card hard disks are not made by the bigger, well-known hard disk companies, but rather smaller niche companies. I am not sure what the reason is for this. I suspect that there just may not be enough profit potential there for the big names to bother with this market, which is small compared to the market for mainstream PC drives.
CompactFlash Form Factor

In much the same way that the need for expansion capabilities in laptops led to the creation of the PCMCIA and PC Card devices, a consortium of electronics and computer industry companies in 1995 formed the CompactFlash Association to promote a new form factor called, of course, CompactFlash (abbreviated CF or CF+). This form factor is similar to the PC Card form factor, but amazingly enough, even smaller. CF cards are intended to be used not in laptop PCs but smaller electronic devices such as hand-held computers, digital cameras and communications devices (including cellular phones). Unlike the PC Card standard, which is used for a wide variety of devices, CompactFlash is primarily designed around permanent storage. The "flash" in "CompactFlash" is from the primary technology used in these cards: flash memory. Flash memory is really electrically-erasable readonly memory, typically used in regular PCs only for holding the motherboard's BIOS code. The word "flash" refers to the ability to write and erase these ROMs electrically. Much the way you can "flash" your motherboard BIOS to update it, these flash memory storage cards have controllers in them that do this as part of their normal operation. Unlike regular memory, flash memory is of course non-volatile and retained when the power is removed. The intention of the CompactFlash form factor was to allow consumer electronic devices to use these CompactFlash cards for their equivalent of a hard disk. Since the flash memory is not volatile, it does perform the same general function as a hard disk. Like PCMCIA devices, variants of the form factor were developed, differing only in thickness; the thicker cards provide more space to pack in additional flash memory chips for greater capacity. Here are the dimensions of the two types of CompactFlash cards: Width (in) Depth (in) Height Application (in/mm) 0.13 3.3 Smaller-capacity flash cards for digital / cameras, hand-held computers and consumer electronics; not used for hard disks (yet) / Larger-capacity flash cards and hard disks for digital cameras, hand-held computers and consumer electronics
Form Factor
CF+ Type I
1.69
1.42
CF+ Type II
1.69
1.42
0.20 5.0
As you can see, the CF form factors are very small: so small that they were probably never designed with the thought that anyone would make a true hard disk using them. The engineers at IBM however had a different idea! In 1999, while the makers of regular flash memory cards were struggling to reach 64 MB capacity, IBM introduced the Microdrive, a true hard disk that fits into the small confines of the CF form factor. The original Microdrive was available in either 170 MB or 340 MB capacities, which is pretty impressive considering that the drive uses a single 1" platter... even more impressive is the new Microdrive released in 2000 with a whopping 1 GB capacity! The Microdrive uses the CF Type II format, which is 5.0 mm thick. No current hard disks are made for
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the even smaller Type I size (only 3.3 mm thick) but I have heard rumors that at least one company is working on it, and I'd be surprised if IBM themselves didn't have something brewing in this regard also. Pretty cool.
IBM's amazing Microdrive.
Smaller drives generally have less performance than full-sized ones and the Microdrive is no exception; it certainly doesn't compete with the newest 2.5" or 3.5" form factor drives for performance (though in many ways it is superior to flash memory chips). For its size it is certainly no slouch, though: it has a 3,600 RPM spindle speed, and very decent maximum areal density of as much as 15.2 Gbits/in2. (The original generation actually used a faster 4,500 RPM spindle; this was probably lowered to reduce power consumption and heat, both very serious issues for this form factor... however, the first Microdrives also had only one-third the areal density of the 1 GB model.) The extremely small size of the drive allows it to spin up to full speed in only half a second, a fraction of the time required by most large drives. This lets the Microdrive power down often when idle to save power, an essential feature for devices that use small batteries.
Form factor
Mainframe and minicomputer hard disks were of widely varying dimensions, typically in free standing cabinets the size of washing machines (e.g. HP 7935 and DEC RP06 Disk Drives) or designed so that dimensions enabled placement in a 19" rack (e.g. Diablo Model 31). In 1962, IBM introduced its model disk, which used 14 inch (nominal size) platters. This became a standard size for mainframe and minicomputer drives for many years, but such large platters were never used with microprocessor-based systems. With increasing sales of microcomputers having built in floppy-disk drives (FDDs), HDDs that would fit to the FDD mountings became desirable, and this led to the evolution of the market towards drives with certain Form factors, initially derived from the sizes of 8-inch, 5.25-inch, and 3.5-inch floppy disk drives. Smaller sizes than 3.5 inches have emerged as popular in the marketplace and/or been decided by various industry groups. 8 inch: 9.5 in 4.624 in 14.25 in (241.3 mm 117.5 mm 362 mm) In 1979, Shugart Associates' SA1000 was the first form factor compatible HDD, having the same dimensions and a compatible interface to the 8 FDD. 5.25 inch: 5.75 in 3.25 in 8 in (146.1 mm 82.55 mm 203 mm) This smaller form factor, first used in an HDD by Seagate in 1980, was the same size as full-height 514-inch-diameter (130 mm) FDD, 3.25-inches high. This is twice as high as "half height"; i.e., 1.63 in (41.4 mm). Most desktop models of drives for optical 120 mm disks (DVD, CD) use the half height 5 dimension, but it fell out of fashion for HDDs.
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The Quantum Bigfoot HDD was the last to use it in the late 1990s, with "low-profile" (25 mm) and "ultra-low-profile" (20 mm) high versions. 3.5 inch: 4 in 1 in 5.75 in (101.6 mm 25.4 mm 146 mm) = 376.77344 cm This smaller form factor, first used in an HDD by Rodime in 1983, was the same size as the "half height" 3 FDD, i.e., 1.63 inches high. Today it has been largely superseded by 1inch high "slimline" or "low-profile" versions of this form factor which is used by most desktop HDDs. 2.5 inch: 2.75 in 0.2750.59 in 3.945 in (69.85 mm 715 mm 100 mm) = 48.895104.775 cm3 This smaller form factor was introduced by PrairieTek in 1988; there is no corresponding FDD. It is widely used today for solid-state drives and for hard-disk drives in mobile devices (laptops, music players, etc.) and as of 2008 replacing 3.5 inch enterprise-class drives. It is also used in thePlaystation 3[50] and Xbox 360 video game consoles. Today, the dominant height of this form factor is 9.5 mm for laptop drives (usually having two platters inside), but higher capacity drives have a height of 12.5 mm (usually having three platters). Enterprise-class drives can have a height up to 15 mm. Seagate has released a 7mm drive aimed at entry level laptops and high end netbooks in December 2009. 1.8 inch: 54 mm 8 mm 71 mm = 30.672 cm This form factor, originally introduced by Integral Peripherals in 1993, has evolved into the ATA-7 LIF with dimensions as stated. It was increasingly used in digital audio players and subnotebooks, but is rarely used today. An original variant exists for 25GB sized HDDs that fit directly into a PC cardexpansion slot. These became popular for their use in iPods and other HDD based MP3 players. 1 inch: 42.8 mm 5 mm 36.4 mm This form factor was introduced in 1999 as IBM's Microdrive to fit inside a CF Type II slot. Samsung calls the same form factor "1.3 inch" drive in its product literature. 0.85 inch: 24 mm 5 mm 32 mm Toshiba announced this form factor in January 2004[54] for use in mobile phones and similar applications, including SD/MMC slot compatible HDDs optimized for video storage on 4G handsets. Toshiba currently sells a 4 GB (MK4001MTD) and 8 GB (MK8003MTD) version and holds the Guinness World Record for the smallest hard disk drive
3.5-inch and 2.5-inch hard disks currently dominate the market. By 2009 all manufacturers had discontinued the development of new products for the 1.3-inch, 1inch and 0.85-inch form factors due to falling prices of flash memory, which is slightly more stable and resistant to damage from impact and/or dropping. The inch-based nickname of all these form factors usually do not indicate any actual product dimension (which are specified in millimeters for more recent form factors), but just roughly indicate a size relative to disk diameters, in the interest of historic continuity.
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5 full height 110 MB HDD, 2 (8.5 mm) 6495 MB HDD, US/UK pennies for comparison
2.5
inch SATA hard
drive
from a Sony Vaio E series laptop.
Six hard drives with 8, 5.25, 3.5, 2.5, 1.8, and 1 disks, partially disassembled to show platters and read-write heads, with a ruler showing inches.
Types of Hard Drive Connections

There are two categories of hard drive connections. The first type are power connections which supply device specific voltages to power the hard drive, both electronically and mechanically. The second type are data connections, which serve to connect the hard drive to the motherboard's
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chipset through a data bus. There are also hard drive planes which combine both for various reasons.
Molex Connectors
The established power connector for PATA, Parallel ATA or EIDE, and some budget SCSI, Small Computer System Interface, drives is the Molex connector. This connector was first pioneered by the Molex corporation, and remained the standard for device power connectors until the advent of the SATA specification. These connectors provide two voltage rails, 12 Volt and 5 Volt, and two ground rails. These connectors are keyed to prevent improper insertion, and are virtually always a translucent white color.
Parallel ATA Data Connector

PATA drives use a flat ribbon style connector to interface between the computer's motherboard and physical disk. This ribbon contains 80 wires, as of the current 2009 specification revision, which support up to two devices per cable. This interface is also used widely with most non-SATA optical drives. The PATA ribbon cables are usually grey with one blue connector for the motherboard interface, one grey connector that provides secondary device connections, and one black connector for primary device connection. The ribbons may be up to 18 inches in length.
SATA Power Connector

The SATA, Serial ATA, power connector, is the successor to the Molex power connector ever since its release in 2003. The SATA power cable is a 15 pin connector that is built on a slim wafer design to prevent improper installation. The SATA power connector does not, unlike the Molex connector, rely on friction to stay securely attached. Rather, it has a quick release push lever to hold it in place and facilitate quick release. This was seen by the market as a welcome improvement, as Molex connectors were often difficult to remove from their sockets.
SATA Data Connector

The SATA data connector is also a wafer connector which calls for seven connective wires, three for ground and four for data. Unlike Molex connectors, the SATA cables can only support one device per channel. However, these cables are much smaller in size and cylindrical in shape. These connectors are also keyed for device damage prevention, and can be in lengths of up to 3.3 feet. These connectors also have a push button lock-in holding system. The most common colors for these cables are red cords with black connectors.
Plane Connectors
Plane connectors are solid state connectors which combine the power and data interfaces into one physical connector. This can be advantageous in an area with tight space, as it allows for cables to be more easily directed away from hot components. The most common applications for plane connectors is within enterprise server chassis and laptop computers. Both of these computing solutions have very little free space available, and require hard drive maintenance to be as streamlined as possible. Plane connectors require that a drive merely be pushed against it in the correct orientation to be operational.
Types of Hard Drive Cables

There are several types of hard drives, and they all require different data cables. To connect a hard drive to a computer, one must have the proper cables and plug the cables into the appropriate places.
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There are three main types of hard drive data cables: IDE/PATA, SATA and SCSI. IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) drives, also known as PATA (Parallel AT Attachment) drives, are commonly found in personal computers. However, manufacturers rarely install IDE/PATA drives in new personal computers as of early 2009: These drives usually are found only in older computers. The IDE/PATA technology was designed in 1986 and has mostly been superseded by the SATA technology in new personal computers. SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) drives are also commonly found in personal computers; its technology was developed in 2003. SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) drives usually are found only in high-end server/mainframe computers. Although the SCSI technology has existed since 1981, it has been revised numerous times since then; SCSI drives are still used today.
IDE/PATA Cable
IDE/PATA data cable. An IDE/PATA hard drive cable is a ribbon cable containing 40 pins. Either one or two devices may be connected to an IDE/PATA cable, and the devices need not be of the same type. For example, an IDE/PATA DVD-R drive may be connected along with an IDE/PATA hard drive on the same cable.
SATA Cable
SATA data cable. A SATA hard drive cable has seven conductors and is smaller than an IDE/PATA cable. A SATA cable connects a single hard drive to a single connector on the SATA controller, which is usually found on the computer's motherboard.
SCSI Cable
SCSI 50-pin cable - by Smial on Wikimedia, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 Germany.
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SCSI cables look similar to IDE/PATA cables in that both drives use ribbon cables. However, SCSI cables have more pins than IDE cables. Depending on the SCSI interface, a SCSI cable may have 50 or 68 pins (IDE/PATA drives have 40). Like IDE, multiple SCSI devices can be connected to a single channel through "daisy chaining." Depending on the SCSI interface, as many as 7 or 15 devices may be connected to a single SCSI channel.
Form Factor Comparison

For ease of comparison, the summary table below lists all of the standard internal hard disk form factors with their dimensions, typical platter sizes found in hard disks that use the form factor, and common applications: Platter Width Depth Height Size Application (in) (in) (in) (in) All drives in early 1980s; Large capacity drives with many platters as late as the mid-1990s Early 1980s early 1990s through
Form Factor
Profile
FullHeight
5.12
5.75
8.0
3.25
5.25"
HalfHeight LowProfile UltraLowProfile HalfHeight
5.12 5.12
5.75 5.75
8.0 8.0
1.63 1.0 0.75 0.80
Quantum Bigfoot, midto-late 1990s - Quantum Bigfoot, midto-late 1990s High-end, high-capacity drives Industry standard, most common form factor for PC hard disks Highest-capacity 2.5" drives, used in fullfeatured laptop systems Mid-range capacity drives used in some laptop systems Low-capacity drives used in small laptops (subnotebooks) Lowest-capacity drives used in very small laptops (mini-
5.12 2.5, 3.0, 3.74 2.5, 3.0, 3.74
5.75
8.0
4.0
5.75
1.63
3.5" LowProfile 2.5"
4.0
5.75
1.0
19 mm 2.5 Height
2.75
3.94
0.75
17 mm 2.5 Height 12.5 mm 2.5 Height 9.5 mm 2.5 Height
2.75
3.94
0.67
2.75 2.75
3.94 3.94
0.49 0.37
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subnotebooks) Type I 1.8 2.13 3.37 0.13 Not used for hard disks (yet?) Smaller-capacity expansion hard disks for laptops and consumer electronics Higher-capacity expansion hard for laptops disks
PC Card
Type II
1.8
2.13
3.37
0.20
Type III
1.8
2.13
3.37
0.41
Type I Compact Flash
1.0
1.69
1.42
0.13
Smaller-capacity flash cards for digital cameras, hand-held computers and consumer electronics; not used for hard disks (yet) Larger-capacity flash cards and hard disks for digital cameras, hand-held computers and consumer electronics
Type II
1.0
1.69
1.42
0.20
Internal Parts of Computer Hard Drive

Hard drives store the operating system, application, and much of the user data. Hard drives are one of the computer components that suffer from mechanical failures due to wear on the parts. These failures affect the internal portions of the hard drive.
The Platters
The platters are the discs of the hard drive where the computer information gets stored. Both sides of the platters store data.
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Marlene A. Caliste CSE111L/RC7: HARD DRIVES PART1 BSIT, CSE111L/IT41P1-COMTECH LAB, S 1-5 Read/Write Heads
The read/write heads write data to the hard disk platters and retrieve information from them. The read/write heads work in a manner similar to the needle on record players or the laser on CDs and DVDs.
Arm Assembly
The arms contain the read/write heads. The hard drive controller moves the arms to the correct position on the disk. The arm assembly is comprised of the head sliders, head arms, sliders and actuator.
The Spindle
The platters of a hard drive rest on the spindle. The spindle of the hard drive serves the same function as the spindle on a record player---it causes the disks to rotate.
The Spindle Motor

The spindle motor causes the spindle to spin and allows the arm actuators to move the arms to the correct position on the hard disk drive.
HDD from inside: Main parts

The goal of this article is to show you how a modern Hard Disk Drive or HDD built. What are its main parts, how do they look and what are these parts names and abbreviations. As an example we are going to disassemble 3.5" SATA drive. To make it more fun we going to tear to pieces pretty new 1TB Seagate ST31000333AS drive. Let's take a look on our "Guinea pig".
The fancy piece of green woven glass and copper with SATA and power connectors called Printed Circuit Board or PCB. PCB holds on place and wires electronic components of HDD. The black painted aluminum case with all stuff inside called Head and Disk Assembly or HDA. The case itself called Base. Now let's remove PCB and see electronic components on the other side.
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The heart of PCB is the biggest chip in the middle called Micro Controller Unit or MCU. On modern HDDs MCU usually consists of Central Processor Unit or CPU which makes all calculations and Read/Write channel - special unit which converts analog signals from heads into digital information during read process and encodes digital information into analog signals when drive needs to write. MCU also has IO ports to control everything on PCB and transmit data through SATA interface. The Memory chip is DDR SDRAM memory type chip. Size of the memory defines size of the cache of HDD. This PCB has Samsung 32MB DDR memory chip which theoretically means HDD has 32MB cache (and you can find such information in data sheet on this HDD) but it's not quite true. Because memory logically divided on buffer or cache memory and firmware memory. CPU eats some memory to store some firmware modules and as far as we know only Hitachi/IBM drives show real cache size in data sheets for the other drives you can just guess how big is the real cache size. Next chip is Voice Coil Motor controller or VCM controller. This fellow is the most power consumption chip on PCB. It controls spindle motor rotation and heads movements. The core of VCM controller can stand working temperature of 100C/212F. Flash chip stores part of the drive's firmware. When you apply power on a drive, MCU chip reads content of the flash chip into the memory and starts the code. Without such code drive wouldn't even spin up. Sometimes there is no flash chip on PCB that means content of the flash located inside MCU. Shock sensor can detect excessive shock applied on a drive and send signal to VCM controller. VCM controller immediately parks heads and sometimes spins down the drive. It theoretically should protect the driver from further damage but practically it doesn't, so don't drop you drive it wouldn't survive. On some drives shock sensors used for detection even light vibrations and signals from such sensors help VCM controller tune up heads movements. Such drives should have at least two shock sensors. Another protection device called Transient Voltage Suppression diode or TVS diode. It protects PCB from power surges from external power supply. When TVS diode detects power surge it fries itself and creates short circuit between power connector and ground. There are two TVS diodes on this PCB for 5V and 12V protection. Let's take a quick look on HDA
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You can see motor and heads contacts which were hiding under the PCB. There is also small almost unnoticeable hole on HDA. This hole called Breath hole. You maybe heard old rumor which says that HDD has vacuum inside, well that is not true. HDD uses Breath hole to equalize pressure inside and outside HDA. From the inside Breath hole closed by Breath filter to make air clean and dry. Now it is time to take a look under the hood. We are going to remove the drive's lid.
The lid itself is nothing interesting. Just a piece of steel with rubber cord for dust protection. Finally we are going to see HDA from inside.
Precious information stored on platters, you can see top platter on the picture. Platters made of polished aluminum or glass and covered with several layers of different compounds including ferromagnetic layer which actually stores all the data. As you can see part of the platter covered with the Dumper. Dumpers sometimes called as Separators located between platters, they reduce air fluctuations and acoustic noise. Usually dumpers made of aluminum or plastic. Aluminum dumpers better for cooling air inside HDA.
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Next picture shows platters and dumpers from the side
Heads mounted on Head Stack Assembly or HSA. This drive has parking area closer to the spindle and if power is not applied on a drive, HSA normally parked like on the picture.
HDD is a precision mechanism and in order to work it requires very clean air inside. During work HDD may create some very small particles of metal and oil inside. To clean air immediately a drive uses Recirculation filter. This hi-tech filter permanently collects and absorbs even finest particles. The filter located on the way of air motion created by platters rotation.
Now we are going to remove top magnet to see what is under.
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HDDs use very strong Neodymium magnets. Such a magnet is so strong it could lift up to 1300 times its own weight, so don't put your fingers between magnet and steel or another magnet - it can develop great impact. You can see on this picture there is a HSA stopper on the magnet. HSA stoppers limit HSA movements, so heads wouldn't bang on the platters clamp and on the other side they wouldn't just fly off the platters. HSA stoppers may have different construction but there are always two of them and they always present on modern HDDs. On this drive the second HSA stopper located on HDA under the top magnet. And here is what you may see under the top magnet.
There is the other HSA stopper. And you also can the second magnet. The Voice coil is a part of HSA, Voice coil and the magnets form Voice Coil Motor or VCM. VCM and HSA form the Actuator a device which moves the heads. Tricky black plastic thingy called Actuator latch is a protection device - it will release HSA when drive un-parking (loading) heads normally and it should block HSA movements in the moment of impact if drive was dropped. Basically it protects (should, at least) heads from unwanted movements when HSA is in parking area. On the next step we going to take out HSA
HSA has precision bearing to make movements nice and smooth. The biggest part of HSA milled from piece of aluminum called the Arm. Heads Gimbal Assembly or HGA attached to the Arm.
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HGAs and Arms usually produced on different factories. Flexible orange widget called Flexible Printed Circuit or FPC joins HSA and plate with heads contacts. Let's take closer look on each part of HSA.
Voice coil connected to FPC
Here is the bearing On the next picture you can see HSA contacts
The gasket makes connection airtight. The only way for air to go inside HDA is through the breathing hole. On this drive contacts covered with thin layer of gold, for better conductivity.
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This is the classic definition of the arm. Sometimes by the arm imply the whole metal piece of HSA.
The black small things at the end of HGAs called Sliders. In many sources you can find that sliders claimed as actual heads but a slider itself is not a head it's a wing which helps read and write elements fly under the platter's surface. Heads flying height on modern HDDs is about 5-10 nanometers. For example: an average human's hair is about 25000 nanometers in diameter. If any particle goes under the slider it could immediately overheat (because of friction) the heads and kill them that's why clean air inside HDA is so important. The actual read and write elements located at the end of the slider and they are so small that can only be seen under a good microscope.
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As you can see slider's surface is not flat, it has aerodynamical grooves. These grooves help a slider fly on the certain height. Air under the slider forms Air Bearing Surface or ABS. ABS makes slider fly almost parallel to the platter's surface. Here is another picture of the slider
You can clearly see heads contacts. There is very important part of HSA which we haven't discussed yet. It called the preamplifier or preamp. The preamp is a chip, which controls heads and amplifies signals from/to them.
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The reason why the preamp located inside HDA is simple - signals from heads are very weak and on modern HDDs have more than 1GHz frequency, if take the preamp out of HDA such weak signals wouldn't survive, they will disappear on the way to PCB. The preamp has much more tracks going to the heads (right side) than to the HDA (left side), it's because HDD can work only with one "head" (pair of read an write elements) at a time. HDD sends control signals to the preamp and the preamp selects the head which HDD needs at the current moment. This HDD has six contacts per "head", why so many? One contact is for ground, other two for read and write elements. Other two for microactuators - special piezoelectric or magnetic devices which can move or rotate slider, it helps tune up heads position under a track. And finally the last contact is for a heater. The heater can help adjust heads flying height. The heater can heat the gimbal - special joint which connects slider to HGA, the gimbal made from two stripes of different alloys with different thermal expansion. Once gimbal got heated it bents itself toward platter's surface and this action reduces flying height. After cooling down the gimbal straights itself. Enough about heads, let's continue disassembling. We going to remove top dumper. That's how it looks
And next picture shows HDA without the top dumper and HSA
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Now the top platter is not covered, you also can see the bottom magnet Let's move further and remove the platters clamp
The platters clamp squeezing platters into the platters packet, so they wouldn't move. Platters sitting on the spindle hub, the platters clamp creates enough friction to hold platters on the hub when spindle rotates.
Now when nothing holding platters on the hub we are going to remove the top platter and next picture shows what we may see under.
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Now you see how platters packet has room for heads - platters laying on spacer rings. You can see the second platter and the second dumper. The spacer ring is a precision detail made of non-magnetic alloy or polymer. Let's take it out.
Finally we are going to shake out the rest of the stuff from HDA and see the base
That's how the breath filter looks. And the breath hole located right under the breath filter. Let's see the breath filter closer.
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Because air from outside definitely has dust the breath filter has several layers of filtration and it's much thicker than recirculation filter, it also may have some silica gel inside to reduce air moisture.
References
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5192626_internal-parts-computer-hard-drive.html http://hddscan.com/doc/HDD_from_inside.html http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2002/InsideHardDrive.asp http://www.ehow.com/about_5070595_types-hard-drive-cables.html http://www.ehow.com/about_5426236_types-hard-drive-connections.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_hard_disk_drives http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/form.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/form.htm http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/form.htm http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/form.htm
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History of Hard Disk Drives: Marlene A. Caliste Cse111L/Rc7: Hard Drives Part 1 BSIT, CSE111L/IT41P1-COMTECH LAB, S 1-5

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Marlene A.

Caliste CSE111L/RC7: HARD DRIVES PART 1 BSIT, CSE111L/IT41P1-COMTECH LAB, S 1-5

History of Hard disk Drives

1980s, the PC era

HARDWARE & SOFTWARE INTERFACING

HARDWARE & SOFTWARE INTERFACING

Hard Disk Form Factors

HARDWARE & SOFTWARE INTERFACING

5.25" Form Factor

Form Factor 5.25" Height Full-

5.25" Half5.75 Height 5.25" Profile Low5.75

8.0 8.0 8.0

1.63 1.0 0.75 0.80

5.25" Ultra5.75 Low-Profile

3.5" Form Factor

HARDWARE & SOFTWARE INTERFACING

3.5" Half4.0 Height 3.5" Profile Low4.0

Lowest-capacity drives used in small laptops (mini-subnotebooks)

PC Card (PCMCIA) Form Factor

HARDWARE & SOFTWARE INTERFACING

Form Factor PC Card Type I PC Card Type II

PC Card Type III 2.13

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CompactFlash Form Factor

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IBM's amazing Microdrive.

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HARDWARE & SOFTWARE INTERFACING

inch SATA hard

from a Sony Vaio E series laptop.

Types of Hard Drive Connections

Parallel ATA Data Connector

SATA Power Connector

SATA Data Connector

Types of Hard Drive Cables

HARDWARE & SOFTWARE INTERFACING

HARDWARE & SOFTWARE INTERFACING

Form Factor Comparison

HalfHeight LowProfile UltraLowProfile HalfHeight

1.63 1.0 0.75 0.80

5.12 2.5, 3.0, 3.74 2.5, 3.0, 3.74

3.5" LowProfile 2.5"

17 mm 2.5 Height 12.5 mm 2.5 Height 9.5 mm 2.5 Height

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Type I Compact Flash

Internal Parts of Computer Hard Drive

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The Spindle Motor

HDD from inside: Main parts

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HARDWARE & SOFTWARE INTERFACING

Now we are going to remove top magnet to see what is under.

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Voice coil connected to FPC

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HARDWARE & SOFTWARE INTERFACING

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HARDWARE & SOFTWARE INTERFACING

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