Hard disk drive definitions
A
A-cable
Access arm
Access light
Active partition
Actuator
ADSM
Allocation unit
Anti vibration mount
AT attachment packet interface
ATAPI
B
BIT
Bad sector
Block
Boot partition
BPB
Bus mastering
Byte
C
C:
Cable select
Capacity
CHS
Cluster
Contiguous
Cross-linked files
Current drive
Cylinder
D
Daisy chain
DASD
Data buffer
DDO
Deceleration time
Defragmentation
Direct access
Disk
Disk access time
Disk Drive Overlay
Disk capacity
Disk controller
Disk crash
Disk density
Disk drive
Disk driver
Disk duplexing
Disk optimizer
Disk partition
Disk partition table
Disk platter
Disk thrashing
DOS partition
DriveTrust
DS
E
EB
ECHS
EIDE
Exabyte
Extended partition
External storage
F
FAT
FAT12
FAT16
FAT32
FDISK
FFS
File size
Fixed disk
Fixed storage
Floating defects
FM
FNR
Format
Fsck
G
GB
Gigabyte
H
Hard disk
Hard drive
Head
Head positioning
Head switching
High-level format
Housekeeping
I
IDC
IDE
Index mark
Index track
Interblock gap
Interleave
Interrecord gap
IRG
J
Jump drive
K
Keyed
Kilobit
Kilobyte
L
LBA
Low-level format
Lzone
M
Mass storage
Master
Master Boot Record
MB
MBR
Media
Megabit
Megabyte
MFM encoding
N
NON-DOS partition
NTFS
O
Currently no listings
P
Park
Partition
Permanent storage
PIO
PK
Platter
Preformatted
Primary partition
Q
Currently no listings
R
RAID
RAM disk
Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks
Removable hard drive
Ribbon cable
Rigid disk
RLL encoding
RPM
S
SATA
SCSI
Secondary storage device
Sector
Seek time
Selector channel
Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology
Servo motor
Settling time
Slave
Soft-sectored disk
Source data disk
Step motor
Storage
Storage devices
Store
Super block
System partition
T
TB
Terabyte
Thrashing
TPI
Track
U
UDMA
Unpark
V
Voice coil
Volume label
Volume name
W
Winchester disk
Wpcomp
Write Precomp
X
Currently no listings
Y
Currently no listings
Z
ZBR
Zoned recording
A-cable
Term used to describe a standard SCSI Cable.
Access arm
Also known as a head arm or actuator arm, the access arm is similar to an arm on a record player and is found inside all computer hard disk drives. The access arm allows the hard drive to move the read/write heads to the locations where information needs to be read or written to. Below is a basic illustration of the inside of a hard disk drive as well as an example of the access arm.
Access light
Also known as the activity light, the access light is a LED on the front of a computer and/or disk drive that indicates when the computer or disk drive is being used.
Active partition
Partition on a hard disk drive that is set as the bootable partition and generally contains the operating system to be used on the computer. Only one partition on a computer can be set as an active or bootable partition on a hard disk drive.
Actuator
An actuator is an electronic device controlled by a motor that moves the head arm to where it needs to go. In the past the actuator within a hard disk drive was controlled by a stepper motor. However, today the actuator is commonly controlled by a servo motor.
ADSM
Short for ADSTAR Distributed Storage Management, ADSM is IBM's software that helps clients manage storage devices.
Allocation unit
1. Group of reserved sectors on a computer hard disk drive.
2. When referring to memory, an allocation is a process preformed by the computer that assigns a block of memory for a program to store its data or information in.
Anti vibration mount
Drive bay mount that locks the hard drive or other 3.5-inch device in one place so that the read/write heads and other mechanisms are protected from movement.
This mount is highly recommended when installing any 3.5-inch device in a 5.25-inch drive bay in a computer.
ATAPI
Short for AT Attachment Packet Interface, ATAPI is an extension to ATA which allows support for devices such as CD-ROM drives, Tape drives and other computer peripherals and not just hard disk drives. Before the release of ATA-4 or ATAPI-4, ATAPI was a separate standard from ATA.
BIT
Sometimes abbreviated as b, a bit is short for Binary digIT and is a single unit of information that can have a value of either ON or OFF.
When attempting to determine the amount of colors in a bit color depth, this can be calculated by: 2 to the power of the bit color. In other words, an 8-bit color would be 2^8 = 256 colors.
Bad sector
Refers to a flaw with the hard disk drive disk or a manufacturer defect. When bad sectors are encountered it is generally a defective disk or hard disk drive and it will need to be replaced. Below is an example of what a sector is.
Block
1. When referring to a hard disk drive or other storage medium a block is a segment of a large area that can be assigned to store data.
2. When referring to computer programming a block is a conditional statement or loop in code. Below is an example of a conditional statement block.
if (conditional statement) {
print "Computer Hope";
}
Partition
When referring to a computer hard disk drive, a partition is a segment of the hard drive that is separated from other portions of the hard disk drive. Partitions help enable users easily divide a computer hard disk drive into different drives and/or into different portions for multiple operating systems to run on the same drive.
With older file allocation tables, such as FAT16, creating smaller partitions allows a computer hard disk drive to run more efficiently and save more disk space. However, with new file allocation tables, such as FAT32, this is no longer the case.
There are various types of utilities used to create and manage partitions on hard disk drives, one of the most commonly used and known utilities is Microsoft fdisk.
Partition FAQ:
1. Information about creating, deleting (unpartition), or otherwise using fdisk to manipulate partitions can be found on our fdisk page.
2. Information about creating partitions and setting up a drive in Windows 2000 and above can be found on document CH000588.
3. If you wish to extend a partition, shrink a partition, combine partitions, or otherwise manipulate a partition that can be done through a standard partition program, we would recommend you look into Partition Magic.
In addition to the utilities to create hard disk drive partitions, there are hundreds of different types of partitions; below is a listing of some of these types of partitions as well as a brief description about these partitions. While all of these partitions are available, it is very likely that not all of these partitions will be listed in your partition utility.
Type of Partition
Description
AIX Partition (Boot)
Partition used with the AIX operating system.
Boot Partition
As defined by Microsoft a boot partition is a partition that contains the files required for a system startup. Also see: System Partition
BSD/OS Partition (OpenBSD)
Partition used with the BSD operating system.
DOS (12-bit, 16-bit) Partition
Partition used with older versions of MS-DOS.
DOS Extended Partition
Partition that is extended from one or more of the original MS-DOS partitions.
DRDOS (Hidden, Secured)
Partition used with the DR. DOS operating system.
Extended Partition
Partition that is extended from one or more of the primary partitions.
Hibernation Partition
Partition used with older hibernation programs.
HPFS Partition (OS/2 IFS)
Partition used with IBM OS/2 and Microsoft NT 3.x
Linux (Linux native, Linux swap, Linux extended, ext2fs)
Partition used with various variants of the Linux operating systems.
MINIX
Partition used with the MINIX operating system.
NON-DOS Partition
When using Microsoft fdisk a NON-DOS partition indicates a partition that is not native to the Microsoft operating system. For example, this could be a Linux partition.
NEC DOS
Partition used with the old NEC DOS variant.
NEXTSTEP
Partition used with the Nextstep operating system.
Novell Netware
Partition used with the Novell Netware operating system.
NTFS
Partition used with Microsoft Windows NT 4.x, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Partition Magic (PowerQuest)
Partition created using the Partition Magic utility by PowerQuest.
PC-ARMOUR
Partition created by the PC ARMOUR security utility. When created this partition is commonly protected by a password.
Primary
In a Microsoft operating system the Primary Partition commonly refers to the main partition used for the Microsoft operating system.
Solaris X86
Partition used with the Sun Solaris X86 platform operating system.
System Partition
As defined by Microsoft a system partition is a partition that contains the system32 directory. Also see: Boot Partition
Tandy DOS
Partition used with the old Tandy DOS variant.
Unix System V (SCO, IRIX, ISC, Unix, UnixWare, etc...)
Partition used with various Unix operating systems.
VMWare (VMWare Swap)
Partition used by VMWare.
XENIX (XENIX /usr)
Partition used with the XENIX operating system.
Also see: Delpart, FAT, Hard disk drive definitions
BPB
Short for BIOS Pattern Block, BPB is the first section of the boot sector that defines the settings and layout of a hard disk drive's partitions.
Bus mastering
Also sometimes referred to as BSIDE (Bus Mastering Integrated Drive Electronics) on IDE, bus mastering is a method of transferring data without having to use the CPU.
Byte
Byte is data equal to either 7/8 bits depending if it needs error correction (parity). A byte is spelled as byte and not bite.
C:
Drive letter of the first or primary hard disk drive installed in a PC or IBM compatible computer.
Cable select
Often abbreviated as CS, cable select is a disk drive setting that will allow a cable select compatible cable to determine what drive is the master and slave based off where the drives are connected to the cable. For cable select to work the both IDE / EIDE drives must have their jumpers set to CS and be connected to a cable that supports cable select.
Users can easily identify if the flat ribbon cable supports cable select by examining the cable for any of the below characteristics.
1. Cable is an 80-connector UltraATA cable.
2. Cable has master and slave printed on the cable or on the cable connectors.
Capacity
The maximum amount of data that a device such as a hard drive can hold. If and when the device reaches its capacity it will no longer be able to hold more information.
CHS
Short for Cylinder-Head-Sector, CHS is the access mode used by computers to assign addresses to data on computer hard disk drives. This access mode was used with early hard disk drives (hard disk drives below 550MB before 1990). Today, this mode has been replaced with ECHS and LBA.
Cluster
1. When referring to a hard disk drive, a cluster is a managed section by the computer's Operating System that changes size depending upon the size of the hard disk drive.
Because each file and even directories take up one or more clusters depending on their size, earlier types of FAT potentially wasted hard disk drive space. For example, if the cluster size was 8k and a 2k file is stored on the computer, 6k of that cluster will go to waste.
This issue has been reduced with new versions of FAT have been made available such as FAT32 that help resolve this issue. Additional information about FAT32 can be found on our FAT32 page.
2. A cluster may also be used to define a group of computers and/or servers that share the work as one. Making one big computer instead of multiple smaller computers.
Contiguous
1. In general, refers to an object that is adjacent to another object.
2. When referring to a computer hard disk drive, contiguous means sectors on a disk that are by each other.
3. When referring to computer memory, contiguous means sections of memory that are next to one another.
Cross-linked files
Cross-linked files are FAT entries that point to the same cluster. Cross-linked files are generally created when the computer is improperly shut down or an application abnormally aborts. Cross-linked files can be corrected using CHKDSK, or, more commonly, Scandisk.
Current drive
Term used to describe the hard disk drive that is currently being accessed or used by the operating system or software program.
Cylinder
Two corresponding tracks on a fixed disk. Below is an example of a cylinder.
Computer Hope
Daisy Chain
A number of hardware devices that are connected together with cables that resemble a chain. Generally, a SCSI device or devices are daisy chained; this allows for multiple devices to work off of one card.
DASD
Short for Direct Access Storage Device, DASD is used as another name for a disk drive.
Data buffer
An alternate, generally temporary, location to store data while being moved from one location to another.
DDO
Short for Disk Drive Overlay, DDO is a TSR that loads onto sector two of the hard drive and is used for computers that do not support LBA mode. DDO allows the computer to support and see larger than 520 MB.
Deceleration Time
Term used to describe the amount of time for the hard drive head to slowdown as it moves to a portion of the disk to retrieve information.
Defragmentation
Term used to describe the process of reorganizing a hard disk drive's data to help increase the proficiency of accessing the data. Hard disk drives that are severely fragmented will take longer to access the data because it is spread across the drive and not located in a central area.
* An example of a utility that organizes the disk drive is Microsoft's defrag utility. Additional information on the Windows program defrag can be found on our defrag page.
* Another great defrag utility is Diskeeper by Diskeeper.
Direct access
1. Sometimes known as machine access or random access, direct access is a term used to describe the ability of a computer to locate and retrieve data immediately from a storage device without having to start at the beginning and read all information until the requested data is found.
For example, a hard disk drive is capable of directly accessing data. However, a tape drive must access all information before the requested data is retrieved, which is referred to as linear access.
2. When referring to a type of telephone call, please see local bypass.
Disk
Hard or floppy round flat magnetic data storage platter that is capable of having information saved to it. It is more appropriate to refer to a floppy disk as a floppy diskette.
* Refer to floppy disk help for information about floppy disks and the different types.
* See our hard disk drive help page for additional help on hard disk drives.
DDO
Short for Disk Drive Overlay, DDO is a TSR that loads onto sector two of the hard drive and is used for computers that do not support LBA mode. DDO allows the computer to support and see larger than 520 MB.
Disk capacity
The complete number of bytes that a disk drive is capable of holding.
Disk controller
Printed circuitry that contains the necessary instructions of diskette drives. The disk controller is responsible for such drives as the hard disk drive, floppy disk drive, CD-ROM drive, etc...
Disk crash
Physical failure of a diskette or hard drive that is generally not recoverable.
Disk density
Also known as areal density, disk density is the measurement of the amount of data a disk can hold. The disk density is generally measured by the tracks per inch and/or bits per inch. A good example of disk density is high-density floppy diskettes that are capable of holding more information than a low density diskette.
Disk drive
Physical drive capable of holding information and/or retrieving information. A good example of a disk drive is the computer floppy disk drive.
* Additional help and information with floppy disk drives can be found on our floppy disk drive help page.
* Additional information and help with hard disk drives can be found on our hard disk drive help page.
* Additional help and information with computer CD-ROM drives can be found on our CD-ROM help page.
Disk driver
Device driver that allows a specific disk drive to communicate with the remainder of the computer. A good example of this type of driver is a floppy disk driver.
Listing of all computer related drivers can be found on our driver page.
Disk duplexing
Method of how information is written to the hard disk drive. With disk duplexing, when information is needed to be written to a hard disk drive, instead of only one disk drive, it is copied to both drives, generally on different disk controllers.
Disk optimizer
Also known as disk compression, a disk optimizer is a software program designed to organize data and/or compress data allowing the disk drive to contain the maximum amount of information as possible.
A good example of a disk compression software program is a Microsoft Windows utility known as double space.
With today's large hard disk drives, disk compression utilities are no longer used and no longer recommended. Generally, a disk compression utility should be used on hard disk drives of 1 gig and smaller.
The Microsoft Windows utility defrag can be considered a disk optimizer and is still commonly used and recommended even on large hard disk drives.
Disk partition
Portion of a disk capable of holding data. This allows for a hard disk drive to be split into multiple segments allowing the computer to have multiple disk drives.
Additional help and information about fdisk, a utility used with PC computers to create partitions, can be found on fdisk help page.
Disk partition table
Permanent structure which indicates to the operating system or boot record how information on a hard disk drive is to be laid out.
Disk platter
Magnetic metal or ceramic disk located inside the computer hard disk drive that holds the actual data. Below is an illustration of a disk platter.
Thrashing
When referring to a computer, thrashing or disk thrashing is a term used to describe when the hard disk drive is being overworked by moving information between the system memory and virtual memory excessively. Thrashing is often caused when the system does not have enough memory, the system swap file is not properly configured, and/or too much is running on the computer and it has low system resources.
When thrashing occurs, a user will notice the computer hard disk drive always working and a decrease in system performance. Thrashing is bad on a hard disk drive because of the amount of work the hard disk drive has to do and if is left unfixed will likely cause an early failure of the hard disk drive.
To resolve hard disk drive thrashing, a user can do any of the below.
1. Increase the amount of RAM in the computer.
2. Decrease the amount of programs being run on the computer.
3. Adjust the size of the swap file.
Partition
When referring to a computer hard disk drive, a partition is a segment of the hard drive that is separated from other portions of the hard disk drive. Partitions help enable users easily divide a computer hard disk drive into different drives and/or into different portions for multiple operating systems to run on the same drive.
With older file allocation tables, such as FAT16, creating smaller partitions allows a computer hard disk drive to run more efficiently and save more disk space. However, with new file allocation tables, such as FAT32, this is no longer the case.
There are various types of utilities used to create and manage partitions on hard disk drives, one of the most commonly used and known utilities is Microsoft fdisk.
Partition FAQ:
1. Information about creating, deleting (unpartition), or otherwise using fdisk to manipulate partitions can be found on our fdisk page.
2. Information about creating partitions and setting up a drive in Windows 2000 and above can be found on document CH000588.
3. If you wish to extend a partition, shrink a partition, combine partitions, or otherwise manipulate a partition that can be done through a standard partition program, we would recommend you look into Partition Magic.
In addition to the utilities to create hard disk drive partitions, there are hundreds of different types of partitions; below is a listing of some of these types of partitions as well as a brief description about these partitions. While all of these partitions are available, it is very likely that not all of these partitions will be listed in your partition utility.
Type of Partition
Description
AIX Partition (Boot)
Partition used with the AIX operating system.
Boot Partition
As defined by Microsoft a boot partition is a partition that contains the files required for a system startup. Also see: System Partition
BSD/OS Partition (OpenBSD)
Partition used with the BSD operating system.
DOS (12-bit, 16-bit) Partition
Partition used with older versions of MS-DOS.
DOS Extended Partition
Partition that is extended from one or more of the original MS-DOS partitions.
DRDOS (Hidden, Secured)
Partition used with the DR. DOS operating system.
Extended Partition
Partition that is extended from one or more of the primary partitions.
Hibernation Partition
Partition used with older hibernation programs.
HPFS Partition (OS/2 IFS)
Partition used with IBM OS/2 and Microsoft NT 3.x
Linux (Linux native, Linux swap, Linux extended, ext2fs)
Partition used with various variants of the Linux operating systems.
MINIX
Partition used with the MINIX operating system.
NON-DOS Partition
When using Microsoft fdisk a NON-DOS partition indicates a partition that is not native to the Microsoft operating system. For example, this could be a Linux partition.
NEC DOS
Partition used with the old NEC DOS variant.
NEXTSTEP
Partition used with the Nextstep operating system.
Novell Netware
Partition used with the Novell Netware operating system.
NTFS
Partition used with Microsoft Windows NT 4.x, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Partition Magic (PowerQuest)
Partition created using the Partition Magic utility by PowerQuest.
PC-ARMOUR
Partition created by the PC ARMOUR security utility. When created this partition is commonly protected by a password.
Primary
In a Microsoft operating system the Primary Partition commonly refers to the main partition used for the Microsoft operating system.
Solaris X86
Partition used with the Sun Solaris X86 platform operating system.
System Partition
As defined by Microsoft a system partition is a partition that contains the system32 directory. Also see: Boot Partition
Tandy DOS
Partition used with the old Tandy DOS variant.
Unix System V (SCO, IRIX, ISC, Unix, UnixWare, etc...)
Partition used with various Unix operating systems.
VMWare (VMWare Swap)
Partition used by VMWare.
XENIX (XENIX /usr)
Partition used with the XENIX operating system.
DriveTrust
A hard disk drive technology developed by Seagate that was first widely used with DVR's and later introduced to personal computers with the Seagate Momentus 5400 FDE.2. This technology encrypts the data on the hard disk drive and only allows that data to be read by the device or computer the drive is installed in.
Because this new innovation is built onto the hard disk drive computers can have these drives installed with no additional software or patches. In addition the drives have a feature that allow them to be instantly erased, which helps prevent any sensitive data being read when the drive is sold or used in another computer.
DS
Short for Drive Select, DS is a jumper setting found on disk drives that is similar to the more commonly used master jumper setting. When a disk drive such as a computer hard disk drive has its jumper set to DS this tells the computer that it's the only drive connected to the cable or should be used as the primary drive (master drive) on the cable.
EB
1. Short for Exabyte, an EB is 1018 or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes.
2. Exabyte is also a computer company.
ECHS
Also known as Large mode, ECHS is short for Extended CHS and is an access mode used by computers to assign addresses to data on computer hard disk drives that are larger than 504MB. Although this mode does allow for computers to have larger hard disk drives, today this mode has been replaced with other modes such as LBA.
EIDE
Short for Enhanced IDE, EIDE is the next generation of IDE interface that was developed by Western Digital and an interface commonly used on IBM compatible computers. EIDE supports data rates from 4 and 16.6 MBps. In addition to being faster than IDE drives, EIDE supports drives up to 8.4GB.
Supports faster PIO modes 3 and 4 as well as multiword DMA modes 1 and 2. ATA-2 also adds additional support for LBA drives which allows support for drives larger than 528 MB. EIDE is also referred to as ATA-2, Fast ATA or Fast IDE.
EB
1. Short for Exabyte, an EB is 1018 or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes.
2. Exabyte is also a computer company.
Partition
When referring to a computer hard disk drive, a partition is a segment of the hard drive that is separated from other portions of the hard disk drive. Partitions help enable users easily divide a computer hard disk drive into different drives and/or into different portions for multiple operating systems to run on the same drive.
With older file allocation tables, such as FAT16, creating smaller partitions allows a computer hard disk drive to run more efficiently and save more disk space. However, with new file allocation tables, such as FAT32, this is no longer the case.
There are various types of utilities used to create and manage partitions on hard disk drives, one of the most commonly used and known utilities is Microsoft fdisk.
Partition FAQ:
1. Information about creating, deleting (unpartition), or otherwise using fdisk to manipulate partitions can be found on our fdisk page.
2. Information about creating partitions and setting up a drive in Windows 2000 and above can be found on document CH000588.
3. If you wish to extend a partition, shrink a partition, combine partitions, or otherwise manipulate a partition that can be done through a standard partition program, we would recommend you look into Partition Magic.
In addition to the utilities to create hard disk drive partitions, there are hundreds of different types of partitions; below is a listing of some of these types of partitions as well as a brief description about these partitions. While all of these partitions are available, it is very likely that not all of these partitions will be listed in your partition utility.
Type of Partition
Description
AIX Partition (Boot)
Partition used with the AIX operating system.
Boot Partition
As defined by Microsoft a boot partition is a partition that contains the files required for a system startup. Also see: System Partition
BSD/OS Partition (OpenBSD)
Partition used with the BSD operating system.
DOS (12-bit, 16-bit) Partition
Partition used with older versions of MS-DOS.
DOS Extended Partition
Partition that is extended from one or more of the original MS-DOS partitions.
DRDOS (Hidden, Secured)
Partition used with the DR. DOS operating system.
Extended Partition
Partition that is extended from one or more of the primary partitions.
Hibernation Partition
Partition used with older hibernation programs.
HPFS Partition (OS/2 IFS)
Partition used with IBM OS/2 and Microsoft NT 3.x
Linux (Linux native, Linux swap, Linux extended, ext2fs)
Partition used with various variants of the Linux operating systems.
MINIX
Partition used with the MINIX operating system.
NON-DOS Partition
When using Microsoft fdisk a NON-DOS partition indicates a partition that is not native to the Microsoft operating system. For example, this could be a Linux partition.
NEC DOS
Partition used with the old NEC DOS variant.
NEXTSTEP
Partition used with the Nextstep operating system.
Novell Netware
Partition used with the Novell Netware operating system.
NTFS
Partition used with Microsoft Windows NT 4.x, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Partition Magic (PowerQuest)
Partition created using the Partition Magic utility by PowerQuest.
PC-ARMOUR
Partition created by the PC ARMOUR security utility. When created this partition is commonly protected by a password.
Primary
In a Microsoft operating system the Primary Partition commonly refers to the main partition used for the Microsoft operating system.
Solaris X86
Partition used with the Sun Solaris X86 platform operating system.
System Partition
As defined by Microsoft a system partition is a partition that contains the system32 directory. Also see: Boot Partition
Tandy DOS
Partition used with the old Tandy DOS variant.
Unix System V (SCO, IRIX, ISC, Unix, UnixWare, etc...)
Partition used with various Unix operating systems.
VMWare (VMWare Swap)
Partition used by VMWare.
XENIX (XENIX /usr)
Partition used with the XENIX operating system.
External storage
Type of storage that is not part of the computer's memory. Examples of external storage are floppy disk drives, hard disk drives, tape drives, etc.
FAT
Short for File Allocation Table, FAT is a method used by Microsoft operating systems to keep track of the contents of a disk; the table is a chart of numbers that correspond to cluster addresses on the hard drive.
FAT12: The oldest type of File Allocation Table that uses 12-bit binary system. A hard disk drive formatted using FAT12 can use a maximum of approximately 16,736,256 volume size and today is no longer used. If your computer is running Windows 95 or above and your FAT within FDISK is being displayed as FAT12 it is likely that your hard disk drive is corrupted, bad or has a computer virus.
FAT16: FAT utilizing a 16-bit binary system. Commonly found with Windows 3.x through Windows 95. FAT16, while becoming obsolete by FAT32, is still commonly found.
FAT32: Enhanced File Allocation Table utilizing a 28-bit binary system, first used in Windows 95 OSR2 and more so in Windows 98, that saves disk space by using 4k Cluster. See FAT32 Page for extended information about FAT32.
FDISK
FDISK (pronounced eff-disk) is an external MS-DOS utility that is used to configure the fixed disk. The FDISK program allows you to delete, create, and partition different portions of the hard drive. FDISK is also used in Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME; however, after the release of FAT32, there are different versions of FDISK available.
FFS
1. Short for For F*(% Sakes, FFS is slang commonly used in gaming and chat communications.
2. When talking about computer hard disk drives FFS is short for freefall sensor and is a technology found in Fujitsu hard disk drives to help protect the hard disk drive when it is dropped. The technology works by moving the read/write head within the hard disk drive up a ramp to prevent it crashing against the magnetic medium.
File size
The measure of space a file takes on a storage medium such as a computer hard disk drive. File sizes can be measured in bytes (B), kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), terabytes (TB), and beyond.
Fixed disk
Term used to describe hard disk drives because these drive are almost always internal and cannot be easily removed from the computer.
Fixed storage
Medium not easily removed, for example, a hard disk drive. Fixed storage is often represented on a computer network as a drive capable of storing data.
Floating defects
Type of physical defect encountered on a hard disk drive where the disk drive heads become out of alignment causing random read/write errors.
FM
1. Short for Frequency Modulation, FM encoding is a method of recording data to a floppy disk and/or hard disk drive platter. This method of encoding is no longer used today and has been replaced with MFM.
2. When referring to the radio or an audio signal , FM is short for Frequency Modulation. FM is a method of transmitting a signal of greater quality at ranges of 80 MHz to 108 MHz at a shorter distance when compared to AM.
FNR
Short for Format and Restore, FNR is a term often used by technicians to refer to proceeding with a format and restore of a computer system.
Format
1. The overall layout of a document. For example, the formatting of text on many English documents are aligned to the left of a page.
2. Format is also a MS-DOS command that prepares a blank diskette or hard disk by first formatting the disk to hold data.
Fsck
1. Short for File System Check, fsck is a program run on Linux, Unix and their variants that checks the file system for any errors. For users who are familiar with Microsoft Windows, this command is similar to Microsoft's scandisk command.
See our fsck command page for additional information about this command.
2. Also a common misspelling for the fu*k swearword.
GB
Short for Gigabyte, GB is equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes, however the IEC defines a GB equal to 109 or 1,000,000,000 bytes. Therefore, a GB could be either of these values; many hard disk drive manufacturers and computer manufacturers will define what they consider a Gigabyte to equal in the fine print.
A Gb, or Gigabit, is different from a GB;
Hard disk
Rigid circular disk located inside a computer hard disk drive. The term hard disk is often used as an abbreviation to hard disk drive.
Hard drive
Computer's main storage media device, also called a hard disk drive or abbreviated as HD or HDD. The hard drive was first introduced on September 13, 1956 and consists of one or more hard disks inside of air sealed casing. Most hard drives are permanently stored in an internal drive bay at the front of the computer and are connected with one ATA / SCSI cable and power cable. Below is an illustration of the inside of a hard disk drive.
Below is a graphic illustration of laptop computer hard drive. In the below graphic you can see the hard disk drive's back, bottom and top.
Head
Device found on the arm of a hard disk drive that is used to read data from the hard disk drive's disk platter.
Head positioning
Action performed by a computer hard disk drive that moves the hard disk drive head into its proper position and verifies nothing is malfunctioning with the head arm.
Head switching
Action taken by the hard disk drive head that moves the current action being performed on one read / write head to another.
High-level format
Method of formatting a hard disk drive that initializes portions of the hard disk drive and creates important file system areas on the disk. A good example of a high-level format is using the format command in MS-DOS.
A high-level format is commonly done if a user wishes to erase the hard disk drive and reinstall the operating system back onto the hard disk drive. If errors are present on the hard disk drive, or a high-level format is unable to be completed, a low-level format may need to be done first.
Housekeeping
When referring to computers, housekeeping is a term used to describe the optimization of a hard disk drive. Housekeeping commonly involves removing old or unused files, removing programs no longer being used, backing up data, and/or running disk utilities such as a scandisk, defrag, or a virus scan. Housekeeping is meant as a way to help keep the computer organized and running properly and should be performed at least once a year.
IDC
1. Short for Insulation Displacement Contact or Insulation Displacement Connector, IDC is a type of connector found at the end of many cables. For example, an IDE disk drive or floppy disk drive cables have IDCs at the ends of the ribbon cable. In the below illustration you can see three Insulated Displacement Connectors on the floppy cable.
2. Shorthand for I don't care, IDC is sometimes used in chat and other text-based communications as letting others know you don't care about what is being discussed.
IDE
1. Short for Integrated Drive Electronics or IBM Disc Electronics, IDE is more commonly known as ATA and is a standard interface for IBM compatible hard drives. IDE is different from the Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) and Enhanced Small Device Interface (ESDI) because its controllers are on each drive, meaning the drive can connect directly to the motherboard or controller. IDE and its updated successor, Enhanced IDE (EIDE), are the most common drive interfaces found in IBM compatible computers today. Below is a picture of the actual IDE connector and cable.
Additional information about IDE and other computer interfaces can be found here.
2. Short for Integrated Development Environment, IDE also sometimes referred to as IDLE, IDEs are visual tools that allow programmers to develop programs better. Commonly, an IDE may have a compiler, debugger, text editor, and other integrated tools. Smalltalk was the first programming language to have a first true IDE.
Index mark
Also known as the index track, the index mark is a mark used to indicate the starting point of a track on a hard disk drive. This mark is commonly a small hole, gap or magnetic strip. The index mark allows a hard disk drive head to move quickly to various portions of the hard disk drive.
Interrecord gap
Also known as an Interblock gap and abbreviated as IBG or IRG, an Interrecord gap is a break between data records on hard drive and magnetic tape that serves as a safety margin for data overwrites. Interrecord gaps are also used as a marker for the end of data.
Interleave
1. When referring to a computer hard disk drive, interleaving is a method of making the read of data more efficient. Interleaving is a method of organizing the sectors on a computer hard disk drive, allowing data to be arranged so the read/write head can access information easier, making data read off the hard disk drive faster.
Types of interleaving:
One-to-one = Sectors are placed on a track
Two-to-one = Sectors are spread out by other sectors.
2. When referring to computer memory, interleaved memory is system memory divided into two or more sections. This allows for memory to be accessed faster because each section of memory is capable of being utilized at once.
3. See our AVI definition for additional information about Audio Video Interleave.
Interrecord gap
Also known as an Interblock gap and abbreviated as IBG or IRG, an Interrecord gap is a break between data records on hard drive and magnetic tape that serves as a safety margin for data overwrites. Interrecord gaps are also used as a marker for the end of data.
Jump drive
Also known as a USB flash drive, a jump drive is a portable memory disk, a jump drive is a small device (about the size of your index finger) that connects to a computer's USB port and often is capable of storing 256MB, 512MB, or more. Jump drives are used by users who need an easy and small way to transfer or store information from their computer.
Key
1. When referring to a computer keyboard, a key is a single button on the keyboard. Letters, numbers, functions, and symbols are all represented on keys.
2. A key is also a tool used to lock and unlock a computer, computer drive or other computer related device. If you have lost the key to your computer device, Computer Hope cannot assist you with obtaining a new one. Please contact the manufacturer of the product that is locked.
3. When referring to the computer Microsoft Windows registry, a registry key, or key for short, is a term used to identify an item in the registry, such as HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
4. The term key or keyed may also be used to describe a cable with physical dimensions that causes a cable such as a ribbon cable to be connected only one direction. In some rare cases this may prevent a cable from being properly connected to a drive. For example, the manufacturer of a floppy disk drive may have keyed their connection differently than the cable manufacturer has. In this situation, the user may either be required to purchase a different brand of cable or floppy drive, or modify the key on the cable.
Kilobit
A value of measurement a kilobit or Kb is equal to 1,000 bits.
* When the b is uppercase (KB), this refers to a kilobyte. See our kilobyte page for definition of a kilobyte.
Kilobyte
Abbreviated as K or KB, a kilobyte is equal to 1,024 bytes; however, the IEC defines that one KB is equal to 1,000 bytes. Therefore, a KB could really equal either of these values.
* With a lowercase b (Kb), this refers to a kilobit. See our kilobit page for definition of a kilobit.
LBA
Short for Large Block Addressing, LBA allows a PC computer to access hard disk drives larger than 528MB.
* Additional information and issues with detecting the full amount of a hard disk drive can be found on document CHSIZE.
Low-level format
An initial formatting of a hard drive that initializes the physical tracks on the surface or the internal disks. The drive manufacturer usually performs a low-level format on the hard disk drive before it is released and is not something a user needs to do once they've purchased the drive.
If a high-level format (e.g. running the MS-DOS format command) is unable to be completed on a hard disk drive and/or you're looking for information about how to do a low-level format because of a MBR virus or being unable to delete partitions, a debug routine can be performed on the computer that is often referred to as a low-level format. This debug routine can be found on our debug routine page.
Lzone
Short for Landing Zone, lzone or LZ is a setting used to specify the Landing Zone of the heads on a computer hard disk drive. Today, with new computers, the lzone is no longer required as most computer hard disk drives autopark. Setting the CMOS values to Auto will automatically allow the computer to define the Landing Zone.
However, for older computers and devices that require the Landing Zone to be defined or only have a "custom" or "user-defined" option that requires a numerical value defining the Landing Zone you can define the value as the number of cylinders plus one. For example, if you had 3924 cylinders for your hard drive you would set both the Landing Zone and the Write Precomp as 3925.
Mass storage
Term used to describe a location with large quantities of data.
Master
A setting commonly adjusted using a jumper found on a computer peripheral, such as a hard disk drive or CD-ROM drive. This setting sets the drive to be the primary drive and allows for multiple devices to be connected to a single connection. Computers can only have one master per channel, this means there can only be one master drive on a single IDE/EIDE cable.
MBR
Short for Master Boot Record, MBR is also sometimes referred to as the master boot block and is the first sector of the computer hard disk drive used to determine from which partition a computer will boot. The MBR tells the computer where to find and how to load the operating system. It also tells the computer how the hard drive is organized and provides information about the drive's partitions.
The master boot record is located on the first sector of the hard drive; it's the first program the computer runs after performing a memory check and looking for a bootable disk (if set in CMOS). The MBR is also susceptible to boot sector viruses that can corrupt or delete the MBR, which can leave the hard drive unusable and prevent the computer from booting up. A well-known MBR virus is the Monkey Virus.
Mb / MB
1. Mb is short for megabit and is 1,000,000 bits, or 106, Mb commonly usually expresses the rate at which data is transferred, for example, "10/100 Mbps" represents 10 or 100 megabits per second, the common speed of a standard network card.
2. Also abbreviated as meg, MB is short for megabyte. A MB is a common measurement used with computer storage media. A Megabyte is equal to 1,048,576 bytes; however, the IEC defines that one MB is equal to 1,000,000 bytes, or 106. Therefore, a MB could really equal either of these values.
3. mb or MB is also short for Motherboard, see our motherboard definition for additional information.
MBR
Short for Master Boot Record, MBR is also sometimes referred to as the master boot block and is the first sector of the computer hard disk drive used to determine from which partition a computer will boot. The MBR tells the computer where to find and how to load the operating system. It also tells the computer how the hard drive is organized and provides information about the drive's partitions.
The master boot record is located on the first sector of the hard drive; it's the first program the computer runs after performing a memory check and looking for a bootable disk (if set in CMOS). The MBR is also susceptible to boot sector viruses that can corrupt or delete the MBR, which can leave the hard drive unusable and prevent the computer from booting up. A well-known MBR virus is the Monkey Virus.
Media
1. More commonly known as medium, media is a term used to describe a type of computer storage. For example, a floppy diskette is a type of media used to store data.
2. This term is also commonly used to describe multimedia data. For example, audio and video are two different examples of storable media.
Mb / MB
1. Mb is short for megabit and is 1,000,000 bits, or 106, Mb commonly usually expresses the rate at which data is transferred, for example, "10/100 Mbps" represents 10 or 100 megabits per second, the common speed of a standard network card.
2. Also abbreviated as meg, MB is short for megabyte. A MB is a common measurement used with computer storage media. A Megabyte is equal to 1,048,576 bytes; however, the IEC defines that one MB is equal to 1,000,000 bytes, or 106. Therefore, a MB could really equal either of these values.
3. mb or MB is also short for Motherboard, see our motherboard definition for additional information.
MFM encoding
Short for Modified Frequency Modification encoding, MFM encoding is a method of how a disk controller records information onto a floppy disk and/or hard disk drive platter that replaced FM.
Partition
When referring to a computer hard disk drive, a partition is a segment of the hard drive that is separated from other portions of the hard disk drive. Partitions help enable users easily divide a computer hard disk drive into different drives and/or into different portions for multiple operating systems to run on the same drive.
With older file allocation tables, such as FAT16, creating smaller partitions allows a computer hard disk drive to run more efficiently and save more disk space. However, with new file allocation tables, such as FAT32, this is no longer the case.
There are various types of utilities used to create and manage partitions on hard disk drives, one of the most commonly used and known utilities is Microsoft fdisk.
Partition FAQ:
1. Information about creating, deleting (unpartition), or otherwise using fdisk to manipulate partitions can be found on our fdisk page.
2. Information about creating partitions and setting up a drive in Windows 2000 and above can be found on document CH000588.
3. If you wish to extend a partition, shrink a partition, combine partitions, or otherwise manipulate a partition that can be done through a standard partition program, we would recommend you look into Partition Magic.
In addition to the utilities to create hard disk drive partitions, there are hundreds of different types of partitions; below is a listing of some of these types of partitions as well as a brief description about these partitions. While all of these partitions are available, it is very likely that not all of these partitions will be listed in your partition utility.
Type of Partition
Description
AIX Partition (Boot)
Partition used with the AIX operating system.
Boot Partition
As defined by Microsoft a boot partition is a partition that contains the files required for a system startup. Also see: System Partition
BSD/OS Partition (OpenBSD)
Partition used with the BSD operating system.
DOS (12-bit, 16-bit) Partition
Partition used with older versions of MS-DOS.
DOS Extended Partition
Partition that is extended from one or more of the original MS-DOS partitions.
DRDOS (Hidden, Secured)
Partition used with the DR. DOS operating system.
Extended Partition
Partition that is extended from one or more of the primary partitions.
Hibernation Partition
Partition used with older hibernation programs.
HPFS Partition (OS/2 IFS)
Partition used with IBM OS/2 and Microsoft NT 3.x
Linux (Linux native, Linux swap, Linux extended, ext2fs)
Partition used with various variants of the Linux operating systems.
MINIX
Partition used with the MINIX operating system.
NON-DOS Partition
When using Microsoft fdisk a NON-DOS partition indicates a partition that is not native to the Microsoft operating system. For example, this could be a Linux partition.
NEC DOS
Partition used with the old NEC DOS variant.
NEXTSTEP
Partition used with the Nextstep operating system.
Novell Netware
Partition used with the Novell Netware operating system.
NTFS
Partition used with Microsoft Windows NT 4.x, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Partition Magic (PowerQuest)
Partition created using the Partition Magic utility by PowerQuest.
PC-ARMOUR
Partition created by the PC ARMOUR security utility. When created this partition is commonly protected by a password.
Primary
In a Microsoft operating system the Primary Partition commonly refers to the main partition used for the Microsoft operating system.
Solaris X86
Partition used with the Sun Solaris X86 platform operating system.
System Partition
As defined by Microsoft a system partition is a partition that contains the system32 directory. Also see: Boot Partition
Tandy DOS
Partition used with the old Tandy DOS variant.
Unix System V (SCO, IRIX, ISC, Unix, UnixWare, etc...)
Partition used with various Unix operating systems.
VMWare (VMWare Swap)
Partition used by VMWare.
XENIX (XENIX /usr)
Partition used with the XENIX operating system.
NTFS
Short for New Technology File System, NTFS is a file organizational system that stores and accesses information located on Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP operating system. NTFS offers better methods of data protection and file recovery than previous versions of FAT.
Park
When referring to a computer hard disk drive, park refers to a process of moving a computer hard disk drive head away from the disk platters to prevent the head from mistakenly damaging the disk platter when the computer or hard disk drive is being moved.
In the past, older hard disk drives and operating systems required the user to manually park and unpark the hard disk drive using a software utility or program. However, today's hard disk drives automatically park and unpark.
Permanent storage
Type of computer storage that keeps the data or its contents regardless if the power is turned off or if the storage device is moved to another computer. The most commonly used permanent storage is the computer hard disk drive.
PIO
PIO, or Programmed Input/Output, is a method of transferring data from a device to another device, utilizing the computer processor and not the memory or DMA. Because PIO modes utilize the computer processor, using PIO is slower than DMA.
PIO Mode
Max Transfer Rate
ATA Standard
Mode 0
3.3 MB
ATA
Mode 1
5.2 MB
ATA
Mode 2
8.3 MB
ATA
Mode 3
11.1 MB
ATA-2
Mode 4
16.6 MB
ATA-2
Note: There are no plans, and likely will never be plans, for a PIO Mode 5 (or anything beyond Mode 4), although some computer and hardware manufacturers have advertised computer or hardware with acceptance to PIO Mode 5.
PK
1. Short for jumper park, PK is a disk drive setting that is similar to the more common slave setting found on most drives. When a drive is set to this setting it is configured as the secondary drive (slave drive).
2. Also known as a pker, pk or pking is an act in an online game such as a MMORPG where a player kills another real player.
Platter
An aluminum, glass, or ceramic disk that is coated in a magnetic media that is located within a hard disk drive and used to permanently store all your computer's data. When the computer is turned on, these platters will begin to rotate at so many rotations per minute (RPM). This rate varies depending upon the model of hard drive you have; an example of how fast a hard drive may spin is 7200 RPM. As the disk platters are rotating, the read/write head accesses information on one of the platters. It is not uncommon for a computer hard disk drive to have multiple platters. To help store and retrieve the data from the platter, data is stored in tracks, sectors and cylinders on each platter.
Preformatted
Computer diskette, tape, hard disk drive, or other medium that has already been formatted and does not require the user to format the disk before using it.
RAID
Short for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, RAID is an assortment of hard disk drives connected and setup in ways to help protect and/or speed up the performance of a computer's disk storage. RAID is commonly used on servers and high performance computers
RAM disk
1. Also known as a RAM drive, a RAM disk is a software-generated disk drive that stores information in the computer memory instead of on a physical disk drive. Because information is stored and accessed directly from the computer memory, RAM disk drives are faster; however, they are much more expensive than a standard hard disk drive.
2. RamDisk is also a software product by SuperSpeed that enables Microsoft Windows computers to increase the overall performance of the computer by creating a virtual drive in memory.
RAID
Short for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, RAID is an assortment of hard disk drives connected and setup in ways to help protect and/or speed up the performance of a computer's disk storage. RAID is commonly used on servers and high performance computers
See our RAID help page for additional information and help with RAID.
Removable hard drive
A computer hard drive that has been placed within a plastic or metal cartridge that enables it to be removed easily and placed into other computers with similar removable bays.
Ribbon cable
A thin cable that resembles a car seat belt or duct tape. These cables are commonly the data cables used for devices such as a CD-ROM drive or a Hard disk drive. It is common for most ribbon cables found within a computer to contain a dotted stripe or line along one side of the cable, this line indicates which edge of the cable is pin one, helping the user connect the cable properly.
In addition to one edge of the cable being marked, most ribbon cables used today are also keyed, making it possible to only connect the cable one way.
Rigid disk
The name of a disk or disc that is not flimsy like tape. A good example of rigid disks are the disk platters found in a hard disk drive; floppy diskettes, CDs, and Zip diskettes are also all considered rigid disks.
RLL encoding
Short for Run-Length Limited encoding, RLL encoding is a method of storing information on computer hard disk drives, floppy disk drives, CDs, DVD, and Blu-Ray that was originally invented by IBM. This method of storage is carried out by hardware in the disk controller and is less prevalent than the modified frequency modulation (MFM) encoding scheme.
ARLL, or Advanced Run-Length Limited, is a more advanced version of RLL.
RPM
Short for Revolutions Per Minute, RPM is used to help determine the access time on computer hard disk drives. RPM is a measurement of how many complete revolutions a computer's hard disk drive makes in a single minute. The higher the RPM, the faster the data will be accessed; for example, if you were comparing two hard disk drives, one with 5400 RPM and another with 7200 RPM, the hard disk drive with a 7200 RPM will be capable of accessing data much faster than the 5400 RPM drive. However, it is also important to note that a 5400 RPM drive will be much cheaper than a 7200 RPM drive.
While it may not be a noticeable speed difference when loading small files, the RPM of a hard disk drive can make a dramatic difference when loading large files and/or several hundred or thousand files. We always recommend users get at least a 7200 RPM drive.
Additional hard disk drive buying tips and help can be found here.
RPM can also refer to the revolutions per minute a computer fan spins at. Generally, with higher RPM, the fan will move more air and/or remove more heat from the computer or processor. However, as you increase the RPM of a fan, you will also notice an increase in noise or decibel (dBa).
SATA
Short for SerialATA, SATA 1.0 was first released in August 2001 and is a replacement for the Parallel ATA interface used in IBM compatible computers. SerialATA is capable of delivering 1.5Gbps (150MBps) of performance to each drive within a disk array, offers backwards compatibility for existing ATA and ATAPI devices, and offers a thin, small cable solution as seen in the picture to the left. This cable helps make a much easier cable routing and offers better airflow in the computer when compared to the earlier ribbon cables used with ATA drives.
In addition to being an internal solution SATA also supports external drives through External SATA more commonly known as eSATA. eSATA offers many more advantages when compared to to other solutions, for example it is hot-swappable, supports faster transfer speeds and no bottleneck issues when compared with other popular external solutions such as USB and Firewire, and supports disk drive technologies such as S.M.A.R.T..
Unfortunately however eSATA does have some disadvantages such as not distributing power through the cable like USB, which means drives will require an external power source and it only supports a maximum cable lengths of up to 2 m. Because of these disadvantages don't plan on eSATA becoming the only external solution for computers.
The official SerialATA web page can be located at http://www.serialata.org
SCSI
Short for Small Computer System Interface, SCSI, pronounced as "Scuzzy", is the second most commonly used interface for disk drives. Unlike competing standards, SCSI is capable of supporting eight devices, or sixteen devices with Wide SCSI.
SCSI-1 is the original SCSI standard developed back in 1986 as ANSI X3.131-1986. SCSI-1 is capable of transferring up to eight bits a second.
SCSI-2, approved in 1990, added new features such as Fast and Wide SCSI, and support for additional devices.
SCSI-3 was approved in 1996 as ANSI X3.270-1996.
SCSI, pronounced as Scuz-zee, is a standard for parallel interfaces that transfers information at a rate of eight bits per second and faster, which is faster than the average parallel interface. SCSI-2 and above supports up to seven peripheral devices, such as a hard drive, CD-ROM, and scanner, that can attach to a single SCSI port on a system's bus. SCSI ports were designed for Apple Macintosh and Unix computers, but also can be used with PCs.
* See our SCSI help page for additional information and help with the SCSI interface and SCSI devices.
* See our SCSI network section for a listing of SCSI manufacturers and related links.
Secondary storage device
A storage medium that holds information until it is deleted or overwritten. For example, a floppy disk drive or a hard disk drive is an example of a secondary storage device.
Sector
A division of a storage medium such as a hard drive or diskette. Diskettes or hard drive platters are divided into wedge shaped sections that segment the circular tracks into small arcs such as if you were to cut a pie into a section, each section is one arc. Each arc is a sector that typically holds 512 bytes of data. All of the arcs within a given wedge are given the same sector number for interleaving purposes, so the term sector may refer to the entire single arc. The size of sectors can be customized to maximize the storage area. For example, if a user stores smaller files, decreasing the sector size allows more files to fill the space without any leftover room.
Seek time
The total amount of time required for information on a disk drive to be found. The lower this value is the faster the hard drive will be able to find and/or read data. Examples of common hard disk drive seeks times are: 8ms and 10ms.
Selector channel
A high-speed input / output (I/O) channel that links a peripheral device, such as a hard drive or CD-ROM, to the computer.
S.M.A.R.T.
1. Short for Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology, S.M.A.R.T, or SMART, is a diagnostic method originally developed by IBM to test hard disk drives and was introduced with the ATA-3 specification.
Extended information on S.M.A.R.T. and errors attributed to the S.M.A.R.T. error can be found on document CH000184.
2. When referring to software, smart is also known as intelligence and is an ability of a program to function with little or no human interaction.
Servo motor
When referring to a computer hard disk drive, a servo motor is a new type of actuator motor that replaces the old step motor found in computer hard disk drives.
Settling time
The time it takes a hard disk drive's read / write head to move to a position. This time is commonly factored into the hard disk drive's seek time.
Slave
1. Computer or peripheral device that operates under the control of another computer peripheral.
2. A setting commonly adjusted using a jumper found on a computer peripheral, such as a hard disk drive. This setting sets the drive to be the secondary drive and allows for multiple devices to be connected to a single connection.
Soft-sectored disk
A disk that has had its sectors mapped with a software program instead of a physical separation created on the disk.
Source data disk
Term could also be source data disc, source data diskette, or source data drive, the source data disk is a diskette, disc, or drive from which data will be copied to an alternate diskette or disc. For example, when copying a floppy diskette to another floppy diskette the source data diskette is where the information is being copied from and the destination data diskette is where the information is being copied to.
Step motor
An actuator motor that moves in small, consistent increments. The stepper motor is used in older computer hard disk drives to move the actuator arm by reacting to stepper pulses. However, new hard disks drives now utilize a servo motor.
Storage devices
A storage device is a hardware device designed to store information. There are two types of storage devices used in computers; a 'primary storage' device and a 'secondary storage' device.
Store
Term used to describe the process of saving information to be used later. Commonly, when a user stores information, he or she is storing the information on a disk drive such as a hard disk drive or a floppy disk drive.
Super Block
Section of a computer hard disk drive that contains information about the file system. The majority of computer file systems have some type of a super block.
Linux users may receive an incorrect or bad super block error message when attempting to mount a drive disk drive improperly.
FDD
A Floppy Disk Drive, or FDD for short, is a computer disk drive that enables a user to easily save data to removable diskettes. Although 8" disk drives were the first real disk drives, the first widely used an floppy disk drives were the 5 1/4" floppy disk drives, which were later replaced with 3 1/2" floppy disk drives. However, today because of the limited capacity and reliability of floppy diskettes many computers no longer come equipped with floppy disk drives.
See our floppy drive page for additional information and help.
CD-ROM
Short for Compact Disc-Read Only Memory, CD-ROM drives are CD-Players inside computers that can have speeds in the range from 1x and beyond, and have the capability of playing audio CDs and computer data CDs. Below is a picture of the front and back of a standard CD-ROM drive.
Below is an illustration of the back of a CD-ROM for users who may need to have a better example of the pins and/or connectors.
CD-R
Also known as CD-WO (Write once) or WORM (Write Once Read Many) drive. CD-R is short for CD-Recordable and is a type of writable disc and drive that is capable of having information written to the disc once and then having that disc read many times after that. If the data is not written to the disc properly, has errors, or has the incorrect information that disc or portions of that disc cannot be erased.
See our CD-R help page for additional information and help with these drives.
Worm
1. First developed by two researchers at Xerox PARC in 1978, a worm is a destructive software program containing code capable of gaining access to computers or networks, and once within the computer or network, causes that computer or network harm by deleting, modifying, distributing, or otherwise manipulating the data.
2. Short for Write Once Read Many, WORM is a type of CD which can be written to and then read from thereafter. See CD-R for additional information.
Recordable DVD drives
Unfortunately, unlike recordable CD drives, there are many different competing standards for creating DVD discs. For example, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL (DVD+R9), and DVD-RAM are all different competing standards. Below is a brief explanation of each of these standards and related links to each of these standards.
DVD-R
Short for Digital Versatile Disc-Recordable, DVD-R is similar to the idea behind CD-R, where the drive is capable or recording once to a disc and then read many times after it has been created. DVD-R is an approved standard by DVD Forum and the drives are capable of recording to DVD-R discs, also known as DVD-5 and DVD-10 discs.
Note: DVD-R discs are compatible with most stand alone DVD players and computer DVD-ROM drives.
DVD-RW (DVD-R/W)
Short for Digital Versatile Disc-Read/Write, DVD-RW is an approved standard by DVD Forum and, much like CD-RW, is a technology that enables a user to read and write to a DVD-RW or DVD-R disc several times. DVD-RW drives are capable of recording to DVD-R and DVD-RW discs, also known as DVD-5 and DVD-10 discs.
Note: DVD-RW discs are compatible with most stand-alone DVD players and computer DVD-ROM drives.
DVD+R
Short for Digital Versatile Disc-Recordable, DVD+R is an approved standard by the DVD+RW Alliance and, much like CD-R and DVD-R, is a technology that enables a user to read and write to a DVD+RW or DVD+R disc several times. DVD+RW drives are capable of recording DVD+R discs, also known as DVD-5 and DVD-10 discs.
Note: DVD+R discs are compatible with most stand-alone DVD players and computer DVD-ROM drives.
DVD+RW
Short for Digital Versatile Disc-Read/Write, DVD+R is an approved standard by the DVD+RW Alliance and, much like CD-RW and DVD-RW, is a technology that enables a user to read and write to a DVD+RW or DVD+R disc several times. DVD+RW drives are capable of recording DVD+R and DVD+RW discs, also known as DVD-5 and DVD-10 discs.
Note: DVD+RW discs are compatible with most stand-alone DVD players and computer DVD-ROM drives.
DVD+R DL (DVD+R9)
Short for Digital Versatile Disc-Recordable Dual Layer, DVD+R DL is an approved standard by the DVD+RW Alliance and almost doubles the capacity of a DVD when compared with the DVD+R or DVD+RW discs, also known as DVD-9 and DVD-18 discs.
Note: DVD+R DL discs are compatible with most stand-alone DVD players and computer DVD-ROM drives.
DVD-RAM
Short for Digital Versatile Disc-Random Access Memory, DVD-RAM drives are an approved standard by the DVD+RW Alliance and are similar to CD-RW in that they enable users to read and write to a disc several times.
Note: Unlike competing standards of DVD recordable discs, DVD-RAM discs cannot be read in the majority of stand-alone DVD players and computer DVD-ROM drives.
Jump drive
Also known as a USB flash drive, a jump drive is a portable memory disk, a jump drive is a small device (about the size of your index finger) that connects to a computer's USB port and often is capable of storing 256MB, 512MB, or more. Jump drives are used by users who need an easy and small way to transfer or store information from their computer.
Hard drive
Computer's main storage media device, also called a hard disk drive or abbreviated as HD or HDD. The hard drive was first introduced on September 13, 1956 and consists of one or more hard disks inside of air sealed casing. Most hard drives are permanently stored in an internal drive bay at the front of the computer and are connected with one ATA / SCSI cable and power cable. Below is an illustration of the inside of a hard disk drive.
Below is a graphic illustration of laptop computer hard drive. In the below graphic you can see the hard disk drive's back, bottom and top.
· Additional information about hard disk drives can be found on our hard disk drive help page.
· Information about installing a IDE/EIDE hard disk drive can be found on document CH000413.
Information about the SuperDisk / LS120 drive.
Quick links
SuperDisk ABCs
Cleaning information
Technical Support
Superdisk ABCs
The LS120, or SuperDisk, is a drive which supports a special floppy diskette which can store up to 120MB of information as well as being backwards compatible and still supporting the standard 1.44MB floppy diskettes.
Installation
Before connecting the SuperDisk drive, ensure that all information is backed up on your computer's hard disk drive. Once backed up, open the computer case, being aware of ESD, and get the computer setup to have the Super Disk drive installed.
Before placing the SuperDisk drive into your computer, ensure that you have properly set the Jumper Settings.
Once the jumper settings have been properly set, place the drive into an available location on your computer. When connecting the IDE connection to the LS120 drive, it must be connected directly to the IDE port on the motherboard or interface board. The LS120 will not work off a sound card IDE channel.
Next, connect the power and boot the computer and install the software
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Basic troubleshooting
Macintosh OS troubleshooting
Windows 95 troubleshooting
Windows 98 troubleshooting
Windows NT troubleshooting
Basic troubleshooting
Can I boot from the SuperDisk drive?
If your computer's BIOS supports the LS120 or SuperDisk option, you can boot from the LS120 super disk. If this option is not available from CMOS, you may want to contact your manufacturer for possible BIOS updates. Alternatively, you can purchase a SuperDisk drive ISA adapter board from Imation.
Cannot eject the diskette currently in the SuperDisk.
The SuperDisk drive is a digital switch and not a mechanical switch like that of a standard floppy diskette drive. Therefore, the computer needs to have power to eject the floppy diskette.
If the computer cannot get power you can straighten a paper clip and press the manual eject button by sliding the paper clip into the small hole in front of your SuperDisk drive.
If the computer is on, however, does not eject and you are running Windows 9x, attempt to press CTRL + ALT + DEL within Windows, this will open the End task window; within this window Close all application except Explorer and Systray. Once only these two items are remaining, attempt to eject the diskette again. If this does eject the diskette, it's a good possibility another software application was not responding or was utilizing a portion of the diskette causing it to not eject.
Can the SuperDisk drive be mounted vertically?
Imation indicates that this can be done; however, it is not recommended as it works best horizontally.
Unable to get the Parallel SuperDisk drive to work with Canon 610 or 620 Printer.
See our Canon Printer Page for additional information.
Unable to get the Parallel SuperDisk drive to work with the Hewlett Packard 5L printer.
See our Hewlett Packard Page for additional information.
Macintosh OS
Old Macintosh software which has several diskettes fails to install
The installation of older Macintosh software may fail on USB versions of the Imation SuperDisk drives. Older Macintosh software can use an eject command which is incompatible with the USB version of the SuperDisk drive. It is recommended you copy the contents of each of the diskettes to a temporary folder on your Hard Disk drive and run the installation from that folder.
Windows 98
After installing the Parallel SuperDisk drive my computer only boots to safe mode.
Turn off your computer and disconnect the Parallel SuperDisk drive from your computer. After disconnecting the drive, turn on the computer and enter Safe Mode by pressing F8 as the computer beeps or pressing and holding CTRL as the computer is booting up. Once in Safe mode, click Start / Find / Find files or folders / search for drvwppqt.vxd on the C: drive. Once this file has been located, rename the file by right clicking the file and choosing the option to rename the file, rename the file to drvwppqt.vx_ Once renamed, shutdown the computer, reconnect the SuperDisk drive and power the computer back on.
After the installation of Windows 98 my computer freezes.
During the installation I loose control of my SCSI CD-ROM drive.
This issue can occur when Hide120.com is located within the Autoexec.bat file. This file allows you to access the LS120 or SuperDisk drive from MS-DOS or Windows 3.x. To resolve this issue, reboot the computer and boot to a safe mode command prompt only by pressing the F8 key when the computer beeps or by pressing and holding CTRL as the computer boots up. Once in the C:\> directory, type edit autoexec.bat in the autoexec.bat file remark x:\lsl120\hide120.com line by typing REM in front of the line.
Windows NT
Windows NT may report a Cyclic Redundancy (CRC) Error or hang when attempting to access the SuperDisk Drive.
Install the latest Windows NT service pack onto the computer.
Blue screen error with No_More_IRP_Stack_Locations error.
This error message can occur when using the SuperDisk and McAfee Virus scanner 3.0.2. To resolve this issue, uninstall the SuperDisk drive and McAfee Virus scanner from the computer. Once each have been uninstalled, reinstall the SuperDisk drive and update to the latest version of McAfee Virus scanner.
Jumper settings
The below illustration is the back of the Imation LS120 SuperDisk drive. Ensure before connecting the drive that you properly set the jumper settings.
Tape
A magnetically thin coated piece plastic wrapped around wheels that is capable of storing data. Tape is much less expensive than other storage mediums but commonly a much slower solution that is commonly used for backup.
TB
A terabyte or TB, is equal to 1,099,511,627,776 bytes; however, the IEC defines a TB equal to 1012, or 1,000,000,000,000, bytes. Therefore, a TB could be equal to either of these values.
Thrashing
When referring to a computer, thrashing or disk thrashing is a term used to describe when the hard disk drive is being overworked by moving information between the system memory and virtual memory excessively. Thrashing is often caused when the system does not have enough memory, the system swap file is not properly configured, and/or too much is running on the computer and it has low system resources.
When thrashing occurs, a user will notice the computer hard disk drive always working and a decrease in system performance. Thrashing is bad on a hard disk drive because of the amount of work the hard disk drive has to do and if is left unfixed will likely cause an early failure of the hard disk drive.
To resolve hard disk drive thrashing, a user can do any of the below.
1. Increase the amount of RAM in the computer.
2. Decrease the amount of programs being run on the computer.
3. Adjust the size of the swap file.
TPI
Short for Tracks Per Inch, TPI is the number of tracks capable of fitting on a disk.
Track
1. When referring to an audio CD, a track is a section of a CD that contains a single, full song. Tracks are used on a CD to help enable a user to skip songs or locate a song on a CD easily.
2. A track is also a data storage ring on a computer floppy diskette or hard disk drive that is capable of containing information. As shown in the below example, a track goes all around the platter and is used to help locate and retrieve information from a disk or diskette.
UDMA
Short for Ultra-DMA and also known as Ultra ATA, UDMA is a standard developed by Quantum in conjunction with Intel that is twice as fast as the previous DMA interface. UDMA was first introduced in 1998 with the ATA-4 or ATA/ATAPI-4 standard and is capable of transferring data at 33.3 MBps, which is how the UDMA/33 or Ultra-DMA/33 names came about. Since its initial release and the approval of new ATA standards, the below UDMA standards are available.
· ATA-5 -- UDMA/66, Ultra-DMA/66
· ATA-6 -- UDMA/100, Ultra-DMA/100
Notice: UDMA/66 and higher are only supported when an 80-wire 40-pin cable is being used. This cable can be distinguished by looking at the ribbon and noticing the amount of wires when compared with a 40-wire cable.
Park
When referring to a computer hard disk drive, park refers to a process of moving a computer hard disk drive head away from the disk platters to prevent the head from mistakenly damaging the disk platter when the computer or hard disk drive is being moved.
In the past, older hard disk drives and operating systems required the user to manually park and unpark the hard disk drive using a software utility or program. However, today's hard disk drives automatically park and unpark.
Voice coil
1. When referring to a computer hard drive, a voice coil is a type of motor used to move the access arm within a hard disk drive.
2. When referring to an audio speaker, a voice coil is a wire that is adjusted with a magnetic field to adjust the intensity of the audio signal.
Volume label
With IBM compatible computers a volume label is a unique name commonly assigned by the user to a storage medium. For example, a user is capable of changing the label on a floppy disk to describe what may be on a diskette.
With an Apple Macintosh computer this is known as an on-screen volume name.
Winchester disk
Named after the .30-caliber Winchester rifle, Winchester disk drive is a hard disk drive developed by IBM that had two 30MB capacity and offered a 30 millisecond (ms) access time.
Wpcomp
1. Short for Write Pre-Comp, wpcomp is a setting used with computer hard disk drives that specifies when adjustments are to be made when writing inside tracks of a hard disk drive platter.
2. Wpcomp can also be short for Word Processing Competency.
Zoned recording
Also known as Zone Bit Recording (ZBR), zoned recording is a method hard disk drive manufacturers use to increase the available hard disk drive space by increasing the amount of sectors per track. This enables outer tracks to have more sectors than inner tracks. In the past, a hard disk drive had the same amount of sectors on each of its tracks.
Zip
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