Hey Hubber's, last week we took a look at Memory and what it does, this week were looking at a different type of memory or more specifically storage for your PC, this is where you Operating System and files that yo create and save are stored so that - unlike the System memory wiping itself after the PC is turned off - it's still there when you boot the PC back up. Think as the Hard Disk Drive or Solid State Drive as being your brains long term memory as opposed to your System Memory being your short term memory.
Hard
Disk Drives and Solid State Drives are two types of main storage used
inside computer systems today but they vary greatly in physical
appearance and how they function, but both perform the same task of
storing data. We'll go through this in more detail now starting with
HDDs
Hard Disk Drives(HDDs)
A
hard drives primary function it to permanently store system data and
files for use, therefore a HDD needs to quickly access this data for
the computer to run efficiently. To do this three main systems are
used; the Controller, the Hard Disk and the Host Bus Adapter(HBA).
The
Controller controls the drive, the controller chip controls
how the drive operates and encodes the data stored on the platters,
it also controls how the data sends and receives signals to the
various motors and sensors inside the drive. Most Hard Drives
incorporate this technology commonly into PATA and SATA drives;
The
Hard Disk is the physical storage medium. Data is stored onto
small discs known as platters which are internal to the drive itself,
they are stacked together and placed inside a hermetically sealed
drive casing; The Host Bus Adapter(HBA) is
the translator, this converts signals from the controller to signals
the computer can understand, most modern motherboards incorporate
this technology into it's circuitry, offering headers for drive-cable
connection.
 |
| Internal Components |
In
conjunction to the three Hard Drive Systems there physical elements
that make up a Hard Drives internal structure using several
components. But you don't need to know all that, to help understand
though you do probably need to know that all the data you read and
write to the hard disc is stored on discs called platters; the read
and write heads are what reads and writes the data to the platters on
both surfaces of each platter. There is so much more I can tell you
about sectors, cylinders and tracks but all you really need to know
that the more capacity a hard drive has the more data can be stored
on it, also the faster the rpm of a hard drive the faster the data
can be written or read.
HDDs
are connected to the computer using 2 styles of connectors IDE/PATA
for older models or SATA for the modern models.
Solid State Drives(SSDs)
HDDs are commonly referred to as
Mechanical or Conventional Hard Disk Drives, this is to differentiate
between newer and more modern drives such as Solid State Drives that
have no moving parts at all. Which we will talk about now.
Solid State Drives are much
smaller in size than your conventional HDD, this is largely due to
SSDs having no moving parts like a HDD does. Solid State Drives use
SATA connectors to connect the drive to the PC.
Solid State Drives use the same
type of flash memory found in other forms of flash memory storage
such as memory cards or USB sticks. The advantages of SSDs are they
read data at a higher rate than what HDDs can this make them
particularly useful for storing your Operating System on for a faster
boot time, they are also less susceptible to drops and consume less
power and generate less heat. SSDs however do have one huge
disadvantage over HDDs and that is they have a limited read and write
usage meaning there life span is shorter than a HDDs. At the moment
the prices for SSDs are higher than an average HDD and have only just
matched the capacity of a conventional HDD.RAID
RAID
stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, this is the ability
to use 2 or more hard drives together in tandem to boost performance
or create backups of your computers system. There are a number of
different methods used and have different uses for them.
RAID0,
also known as Disk Striping, this means that you can store an equal
amount of data and stripe(separate) the data across both drives
increasing the size of the drive, for example you take 2, 1 terra
byte drives, enable them as RAID0 through your bios and then you can
save data to both of them, but what ever data you save is split
between the 2 drives equally. This type of RAID set-up is great for
boosting the performance of your PC, but has no redundancy or no back
up, so if one drive fails you lose the data on both drives because
the second drive can't rebuild the missing data.
RAID1,
also known as Disk Mirroring, this means that your computer saves
your data to one drive but copies that data exactly to another drive
mirroring the data. This provides good redundancy because if one
drive fails you have a copy of the data on the second drive.
These are just two of the most
common RAID set-ups used there are more, such as RAID5 and RAID10(or
RAID1+0).
It is recommended that for RAID
arrays you use the same Hard Drives with the same capacity and RPM
speeds.
Your old PC should already have a
HDD installed, depending on how old though depends on whether you
need to upgrade, you might want to upgrade the capacity because you
need to save more data or a lot of big data, for example a film or Tv
show for your Home Theatre PC; if you edit music or video you might
want to install a RAID1 set-up so that all your hard work is backed
up; you might want to set-up a RAID0 for faster performance in a
gaming rig, you can also install an SSD for faster boot times along
side your RAID0 for storing the massive game files that games have
today. Or you might not have to if you have a decent sized HDD you
might keep it if all your doing is creating files and documents.
Installing a HDD/SSD
Don't
forget your ESD protection!
Installing
a HDD or an SSD is pretty much the same in most respects, I think the
only difference will be how the drive is mounted internally cause of
the obvious size difference between a HDD and an SSD.
Switch
off your PC and ground yourself using the ESD protection, then remove
the side panel so you can get inside the computer. Decide where you
drive is going to be seated and put it in position, then using the
mounting screws screw it into place.
This
is where the difference between a HDD and an SSD will come in, some
cases cater for the smaller SSD drives and some don't so for this you
might need an expansion bay to attach the SSD so you can mount it to
regular HDD bay.
Once this is done you will need to locate the power
cable and data transfer cable, the power will be attached to the PSU
and the Data cable will be loose and you will have to connect it to
the drive and the corresponding interface on the Motherboard.
Because
older IDE technology isn't as widely used as it used to be we will
assume that your drives HDD or SSD have SATA connections. These
connectors typically look like L shapes, the power connector being
slightly longer in width than the Data cable. The data cable will
slot into the rear of the drive next to the power connector and then
the other end is connected to the SATA connection on the motherboard
using the numbered slots to plug into the correct connection, the
numbers go in a sequential order so logically plug it into the next
available slot in the sequence depending on how many drives are
currently installed, if this is the first one then slot 0 should do.
There
you go, you should now know some of the basic characteristics of
modern Hard Disk Drives and Solid State Drives and tell the
difference. You should even have an idea on how they work and how to
install them.
Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.
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