7 HARD DRIVES PROJECTS Project 7.1 Examining Drive Geometry Project 7.2 Removing an IDE Hard Drive Project 7.3 Installing an IDE Hard Drive Project 7.4 Installing a SATA Hard Drive Project 7.5 Installing a SCSI Host Adapter Card and Device Driver Project 7.6 Replacing a SCSI Hard Drive Project 7.7 Partitioning and Formatting a Hard Disk Drive Project 7.
112 PC Hardware Essentials Project Manual Project 7.1 Examining Drive Geometry Overview To understand how disks store data, you need to understand disk geometry, which refers to the electronic organization of the disk drive. The components of disk geometry include the physical number of read/write heads (usually one for each side of the platter), and the number of cylinders, tracks, and sectors of the disk. You can use this information to determine the storage capacity of a hard drive.
Hard Drives s113 Figure 7-1: Locating the Parameters section on a hard drive 2. Enter the information you find: Cylinders: _________________________________________________________________ Heads: ____________________________________________________________________ Sectors: ___________________________________________________________________ 3. Calculate drive geometry using the formula: Cylinders x Heads x Sectors x 512 = Drive Capacity.
114 PC Hardware Essentials Project Manual 6. What is the storage capacity of a drive with the following drive geometry: 15690 cylinders, 16 heads and 63 sectors per track. ___________________________________________________________________________ Project 7.2 Removing an IDE Hard Drive Overview IDE (Integrated Device Electronics) is an interface for connecting storage devices such as hard drives, tape drives and optical (CD/DVD) drives. IDE is a specification that was originally written in 1988.
Hard Drives s115 ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ Figure 7-2: Accessing the CMOS setup routine 2. When you have finished recording the information, press the key and allow the computer to finish booting. 3. Shut down the computer and disconnect the power cable, along with any external peripheral cables. 4.
116 PC Hardware Essentials Project Manual 6. If any of the expansion cards are obstructing your access to the hard drive, you will need to remove them. Disconnect the wires and cables that are connected to the expansion card, remove the mounting screw, grasp the expansion card with both hands, and pull upward while gently rocking the board from front to back (Figure 7-3). Note: As soon as the expansion card is out, place it on an antistatic mat to protect against ESD.
Hard Drives s117 Project 7.3 Installing an IDE Hard Drive Overview Before installing a new IDE hard drive, you will need to plan how it will be configured. IDE drives are connected to the motherboard using an IDE ribbon cable. Motherboards typically have two connectors for IDE ribbon cables, called the primary IDE channel and the secondary IDE channel. The IDE ribbon cables themselves have a connector for attaching to the motherboard and one or two connectors for the IDE drives.
118 PC Hardware Essentials Project Manual Cylinders: __________________________________________________________________ Heads: ____________________________________________________________________ Sectors: ____________________________________________________________________ Note: Newer hard drives have diagrams of their jumper blocks on their labels. 2. If necessary, shut down the computer. Remove the power cable from the computer and carefully open the computer case.
Hard Drives s119 13. If the C: prompt is displayed, the installation is a success. Project 7.4 Installing a SATA Hard Drive Overview SATA drives are a faster alternative to IDE drives. They support greater storage capacities and higher data transfer speed. SATA drives use a narrower, and longer data cable that allows for better airflow and more flexibility in mounting a hard disk inside the PC case. The SATA power cable has a new type of 15-pin power connector.
120 PC Hardware Essentials Project Manual 5. Attach the 4-pin side of a Molex-to-SATA power cable to a Molex cable from your power supply and attach the 15-pin side to the SATA power connector on the SATA drive (Figure 7-5). (A PC that includes direct SATA support may include a power supply with a native 15pin power cable.) Figure 7-5: SATA power cable 6. Connect the 7-pin data cable to the SATA connector on the drive and to the SATA-1 header on the motherboard or PCI expansion card.
Hard Drives s121 Project 7.5 Installing a SCSI Host Adapter Card and Device Driver Overview SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) is an interface standard that supports a variety of internal and external peripheral devices, including hard drives. SCSI technology is typically found in server computers, but is also available for PCs Before you can install a SCSI hard drive into a computer system, the computer must be able to support it.
2 PC Hardware Essentials Project Manual required settings. Most modern host adapters (Figure 7-7) are Plug and Play, however, so this is likely to be unnecessary. Figure 7-7: A typical host adapter card 5. Remove the slot cover from the back of the computer, and carefully insert the card into the available slot. 6. Secure the card in the slot with the case screw. 7. Reconnect the power cable and any other peripheral cables you disconnected. 8. Turn on the computer.
Hard Drives s123 9. If there is an option to enter the SCSI setup system, type the prompt. In the SCSI setup, review and record the options offered. Refer to the host adapter card’s manual for any details about the SCSI setup options. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ Part B: Confirm installation of the SCSI host adapter device driver 1. Most host adapter cards today are Plug and Play.
124 PC Hardware Essentials Project Manual Outcomes After completing this project, you will know how to: remove a SCSI hard drive install a SCSI hard drive What you’ll need To complete this project, you will need: a computer with a SCSI hard drive and host adapter installed a bootable floppy start-up disk a new internal SCSI hard drive to install (alternatively, you can reinstall the SCSI hard drive that you removed in Part A of the project) a power connector inside the computer that matches the plug on
Hard Drives s125 5. Prepare a sketch that shows where each expansion card goes in the motherboard expansion slots and where any cables or wires are connected to the expansion card. On this sketch, note the pin 1 edge (the edge that has a stripe) on the cables and the colors of individual wires attached to the expansion card. __________________________________________________________________________ 6.
126 PC Hardware Essentials Project Manual Part B: Install a SCSI drive 1. Verify the hard-drive CMOS settings. The CMOS should be set to SCSI or NO DRIVE. Record the information. ___________________________________________________________________________ Note: Newer hard drives have diagrams of their jumper blocks on their labels. 2. Set the jumpers on the new hard drive to have the same SCSI ID number as the drive you removed from the computer.
Hard Drives s127 10. When the format is complete, type A:\>C: to access the hard drive. 11. If the computer shows a C: prompt, the installation was a success. Project 7.7 Partitioning and Formatting a Hard Disk Drive Overview For a hard disk to be able to hold files and programs, it has to be partitioned and formatted. Partitioning is the process of creating logical divisions on a hard drive. A hard drive can have one or more partitions, represented by different drive letters.
128 PC Hardware Essentials Project Manual 5. Right-click an area of unpartitioned space, and choose New Partition on the shortcut menu. Figure 7-9: Disk Management 6. The Welcome screen of the New Partition Wizard appears, with information on creating button to continue. a partition. Click the 7. The Select Partition Type screen appears. You have the option of selecting either a primary partition or an extended partition. The Primary Partition option button should be selected by default. 8.
Hard Drives s129 11. Click the button to open the Assign Drive Letter or Path screen. Here, you can assign a drive letter or path for the partition. (Note: You can always change the drive letter and path at a later date.) Typically, the computer’s initial hard drive will be assigned the letter C, with D: assigned to a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. Here, accept the default assignment. button to open the Format Partition screen. Here, a file system for the 12. Click the drive must be selected.
130 PC Hardware Essentials Project Manual Project 7.8 Defragmenting a Hard Drive Overview When you create a file, it normally occupies contiguous hard-drive space (the clusters used to store the file are adjacent to each other). Over time, as the file size increases, there may not be enough contiguous space for the file. So, the file gets broken up. This process is called fragmentation. When enough files become fragmented, the hard drive wastes time going to different clusters to retrieve them.
Hard Drives s131 5. Click the button to open the Disk Defragmenter window (Figure 7-10). Figure 7-10: Disk Defragmenter window 6. Click the button. 7. The computer will now analyze the fragmentation of the hard disk drive. A message box will appear when the analysis is complete, with a recommendation as to whether the volume should be defragmented (Figure 7-11).
132 PC Hardware Essentials Project Manual 8. Click the button. An Analysis Report dialog box opens (Figure 7-12). Figure 7-12: Analysis Report dialog box 9.
Hard Drives s133 10. Record the following information about the most fragmented file: Fragments: _________________________________________________________________ File size: ___________________________________________________________________ File name:__________________________________________________________________ button to start the defragmenting 11. If defragmenting is recommended, click the process. You can follow the process in the Disk Defragmenter window. button to close the 12.
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