What is Hard Disk

Details of Hard Disk Drive.

What is a Hard Disk Drive:

Definition: –
Hard Disk is a Secondary storage device used to store data and instruction.

Characteristics: –
It is a non-volatile storage device.
It’s stored the data permanently.
It’s made-up of Magnetic material.
It stores all the application that are installed in the system, program files & folder for long time.

Components of Hard Disk:


Platter
Spindle
Spindle Motor
Stepper motor
Head
Arm Actuator (motor)
Power Connector
Data Connector
Front Bezel
Logic Card

Components of Hard Disk Drive.
Image Source – Google

Types of Hard Disk:

• External Hard Disk:


An External Hard Disk is a hard Disk that comes in a case that connects to your computer with a USB cable.

Types of External Hard Disk:

Firewire:


Firewire is a cable used to connect external Firewire hard disk and device that can high data transfer rate as compared to a USB cable.

Firewire HDD.
Image Source – Google
USB:


USB is a cable used to connect external USB Hard disk and other devices.

USB HDD.
Image Source – Google

• Internal Hard Disk:


An Internal Hard disk is coming inside the computer that connect particular cable like PATA or SATA cable.

Types of Internal Hard Disk:

PATA:


Parallel ATA (Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment) is a standard for connecting hard drive in a computer system.

Characteristics:
It is also known as IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics).
It is 2 types of pin model – 40 pin model hard disk & 80 pin model hard disk.
It has 40 pins for Data connector & 4 pins for Power connector.
Speed of PATA – 6 is 100 Mbps and Speed of PATA – 7 is 133 Mbps.

PATA HDD.
Image Source – Google
SATA:


Serial ATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) is a default interface for connecting hard disk drive in a computer system.

Characteristics:
It has data connector 7 pins and power connector 15 pins.
Speed of SATA-1 is 150 Mbps, SATA-2 is 300 Mbps and SATA-3 is 600 Mbps.

SATA HDD.
Image Source – Google

Others Hard Disk:

SCSI:


It’s full from Small Computer System Interface. It is allowing for the connection of different types of peripheral devices such as Hard Drive, Printers, Scanners, CD-Drives etc.

SCSI HDD.
Image Source – Google

SSD:


It’s full from Solid State Drive. It is the fastest types of Hard drive computer system. It is a non-volatile storage media used to store file, folder etc.

SSD.
Image Source – Google

Different between Hard Disk Drive & SSD?

HDDHDD
HDD stands for Hard Disk Drive.SSD stands for Solid State Drive.
HDD used magnetic storage data.SSD used solid state flash memory to store data.
Maximum storage capacity 10 TB for desktop computer system.Maximum storage capacity 4 TB for desktop computer system.
It is slower than SSD.It is mote then 30% faster than HDD.
It is made-up of magnetic medium, so here more heat generate.It is made-up of solid state, so here little bit heat generates.
It is more power consumption (12 watts).It is less power consumption (2watts).

Different between SATA & PATA?

SATAPATA
It’s full from Serial Advanced Technology Attachment.It’s stands for Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment.
It has 7 pins for data connector and 15 pins for power connector.It has 40 pins for data connector and 4 pins for power connector.
The speed of data transfer rate is faster as compare to PATA (600 MB/s).The speed of data transfer is slower as compare to SATA (133 MB/s).
Its data communication in Parallel.Its data communication is Serial.
Its power connector is SATA power connector.Its power connector is Molex.

Computer Hard Disk Interview Questions

Q. What is Formatting?
Ans: –
Making the Hard disk as usable is called as Formatting. It is 2 type –

Q. Low-Level Formatting:
Ans: –
Creating tracks and sectors is called as Low-Level Formatting. It is done by motherboard at the time of manufacturing.

Q. High-Level Formatting:
Ans: –
Defining file system to a Hard disk is called as High-Level Formatting.

Example-
• FAT 32 – FDD
• FAT 16 – HDD
• NTFS – HDD
• CDFS – CD/DVD
• FFS – Linux

Q. What is Partition?
Ans: –
Hard disk storage space is divided into small storage units which are called as Partition. It is 2 types –

• Primary Partition:
The Primary Partition is used store the operating system and which is used to operate the whole computer system.

• Secondary Partition:
The Secondary Partition is used to store the other type of data but except the computer Operating System.

Q. Why do computer drives start at ‘C’?
Ans: –
On a computer system running Windows or MS-Dos, the hard derive is started with ‘C’ because is the first available drive letter for the hard drive. The computer reserves ‘A’ and ‘B’ drive letters for the floppy disk drive.

Q. What is MBR?
Ans: –
The Master Boot Record is the first sector of the computer hard drive and it is identifying the computer how to the hard drive is partitioned and how to load the operating system into the computer’s main memory or RAM.

Q. What is GPT?
Ans: –
GUID Partition Table is used to define the hard disk partition in computers as well as MBR with the UEFI firmware program.

Q. Which is better GPT or MBR?
Ans: –
It is determined to your requirement you can only use 2 TB hard disk you can use MBR but you can use more than 2 TB its better to use GPT.

Q. Different between MBR & GPT?
Ans: –

MBR (Master Boot Record)GPT (Guid Partition Table)
MBR used legacy OS standard BIOS partition table.GPT creates multiple partitions & 128 primary partitions.
MBR supports up to 2 TB Hard Disk.GPT also supports more than 2 TB Hard Disk.
In MBR disk the boot data is store in one place, so sometimes data is corrupted, it is difficult to recover.GPT is more secure because of primary GPT stores data at the beginning and secondary GPT stores data at the end.

Q. How to know my computer is working GPT or MBR?
Ans: –
Go to computer => right click => manage => click on Disk Management => right click on Hard disk drive => select the properties => select ‘Volumes’ tab => check the ‘Partition Style’ => you can see MBR or GPT.

Also Read: –
Top 160 Networking Interview Questions & Answers
Top 115 CCNA Interview Questions & Answers
Top 60 Linux System Administrator Interview Questions
Top 50 Linux Interview Questions & Answers
Computer basic Troubleshooting Interview Questions with Answers
Computer Hardware MCQ Questions & Answers
Computer Network MCQ Questions & Answers
Network-Devices-Hub-Repeater-Bridge-Switch-Router-Gateways
Computer-network-transmission-mode
Describe straight-through and a cross-over cable
What is Transmission Media & Types of Transmission Media
Types of Computer Network
What is Operating System
Network Topology
Describe OSI model
Describe TCP IP model
Processor (CPU) in Computer
What is BIOS
RAM (Random Access Memory) definition
CMOS Definition
Basic Parts of a Computer
Motherboard Definition Types Components Ports
Components of switched-mode power supply
Components of computer system
Computer Input-Output Devices
Different between Intel i-series processor Generation
Microsoft Windows History

—O—

2 thoughts on “What is Hard Disk”

Leave a Reply