
DEFINITION hard drive (or drive) is a nonvolatile storage device, ie retain the information that has been stored properly even with the loss of energy, uses a digital magnetic recording system, is where most Where is stored computer operating system. In this type of disc is inside the housing a series of stacked metal plates spinning at high speed. These dishes are placed on the heads in charge of reading or writing magnetic impulses. There are different standards when communicating a computer hard disk. There are different types of interfaces are most common: Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE, also called ATA), SCSI usually used in servers, SATA, the latter standard in 2004 and FC only for servers.
As shipped, the hard disk can not be used by an operating system. Before him we have to define a format low-level, one or more partitions and then we give them a format that can be understood by our system.
There is also another type called solid state drives that use certain types of semiconductor memories built to store information. The use of such records is generally limited to supercomputers, because of its high price, even today and can be found on the market much more affordable units of low capacity (up to 64 GB) for use in personal computers (on all laptops). Thus, the cache track is a solid state memory, RAM type, in a solid state hard drive.
PHYSICAL STRUCTURE
Within a hard disk has one or more courses (usually between 2 and 4, although there are up to 6 or 7 dishes), which are disks (aluminum or glass) concentric and rotating all the time. The head (read / write device) is a vertically aligned set of arms that move in or out as appropriate, all at once. At the tip of these arms are the heads of read / write, thanks to the movement of the head can read both indoor and outdoor areas of the disc.
Each plate has two sides, and it needed a read / write for each side (not a head plate, but one per side). If look at the scheme Cylinder-Head-Sector (below), at first glance are 4 arms, one for each dish. In fact, each of the arms is double, and contains 2 heads: one for reading the upper face of the plate, and another to read the underside. Therefore, there are 8 heads to read 4 plates. The heads read / write never touch the disk, but they pass very close (up to 3 nanometers) or 3 millionths of a millimeter. If one gets to touch it, cause extensive damage to the disc, rayándolo seriously, due to fast spinning plates (one of 7,500 revolutions per minute is moving at 120 km / h on the edge). Addressing
Cylinder, Head and Sector
Track, Sector ClusterHay several concepts to cover areas of the disc:
Dish: Each of the disks inside the hard disk.
Face: Each of the two sides of a plate
Head: number of heads;
Hint: A circle within a face, the track 0 is at the outer edge.
Cylinder: Joint several tracks, they are all circles that are aligned vertically (one on each side).
Sector: Each of the divisions of a track. The sector size is not fixed, the current standard being 512 bytes. Formerly the number of sectors per track was fixed, which waste space significantly, since in the outer tracks can be stored more sectors than in the interior. Thus, the technology appeared ZBR (recording bit in places) that increases the number of sectors on outer tracks, and more efficiently uses the hard disk.
The first addressing system used was the CHS (cylinder-head-sector), since these three values \u200b\u200bcan be placed either a data disk. Later created another simpler system: LBA (Logical Block Addressing), which involves splitting the entire disk into sectors and assign each a unique number. This is currently used.
LOGICAL STRUCTURE
Within disk are:
The Master Boot Record (boot sector), which contains the partition table.
partitions, necessary to place the file systems.
HOW TO DETECT A FAILURE OF YOUR HARD DRIVE?
If the hard disk begins to show flaws is very possible that your computer crash frequently, or simply not boot but the fault is not with the storage device contenido.Dependiendo but its intensity of use that you have, is advisable that you periodically do a chkdsk chequeo.Uno is going to conduct a full review of the agreement the other is information almacenada.La defragmentation unit consisting of an arrangement of the segments in which each file is divided so as to facilitate access to them by the com check equipoTanto are defragmentation programs run easy and are on the computer, however, that the operation should be supervised by someone who can interpret the reports for each of them will entregar.Si's going to do you: You go home po, in the Run option is to open a window, there type chkdsk and press OK. Now wait just termine.Para defragmentation, you walk through Start, All Programs, open the list of them, looking for accessories, opens one more window. Looking System Tools, open another window and there it is, Disco.Si Defragmenter run it, do not panic because the program is only going to open and will show you which are the records that have the sistema.Incluso you can ask analyzed and the program after a very short time will tell whether it is necessary to defragment.
How to repair your hard drive, or at least recover the data?
option most likely to succeed is to go to any of the companies that specialize in data recovery, as they have experience, spare parts, tools and specialized facilities. In most cases, recover data on the hard drive without any problems. Only in case of catastrophic accidents, such as a fire that melted the plates with magnetic material, a data recovery company will not be able to retrieve information from the hard drive.
If commission has no budget to repair the hard drive to a company, follow the guide to recover a hard drive that will present, drawn from the experiences of hundreds of engineers in hardware:
Guide to recover a hard disk
Step 1: Determine if electronic or mechanical problems
The disk has two distinct modules:
1 .- The module electronic contains all the disk control circuitry
2 .- The mechanical module, which is enclosed in a metal case and contains the plates with magnetic material heads read / write the hard disk.
Determine if the fault is on the electronic or mechanical.
by checking if the hard drive spins when you boot the PC. Release of their anchorages hard disk to the computer to have it accessible, but keep it connected. Turn on the computer. If the disc spins, you'll notice when touched by the vibration and hear the engine noise:
1 .- If the hard drive spins normally no strange noises, but is not recognized by the computer. Electronics potential problem.
2 .- If the hard disk is not spinning. Possible mechanical problem.
3 .- If the hard disk makes a strange noise. Mechanical problems safely.
Recovering a hard drive with electronic problems
The only solution here is to get a second hard drive, identical to the damaged, and replace the failed drive electronics for the second disk.
The difficulty in this case is to get an identical hard disk failed because separate the electronic part of the mechanics to make the substitution is a relatively simple task.
If you can not find a replacement for the electronics of the hard drive, go to a company that specializes in data recovery, because they have plenty of spare parts, original or compatible, for most of the discs on the market. Ask for free quote at several of these companies.
As a last resort, try the freezing method described below, may be able to "resurrect" a defective electronic component.
Recovering a hard drive with mechanical problems
Solution 1: freeze hard drive
The solution is more likely to succeed, believe it or not, freeze the hard drive. It's no joke!
Among the most common mechanical problems are the deformations of the plates from overheating. The deformed plate is unable to turn, or does so with difficulty, and causes the hard disk malfunction.
By freezing the hard drive, retrieves the element deformed temporarily form. The perfect time to dump the data on another hard drive.
To implement this "technique" correctly, follow these steps: 1 .- Wrap
failed hard disk in a plastic bag so moisture does not concern him, and insert the hard drive in a freezer for at least 4 hours.
2 .- Prepare a second hard drive to collect information on the hard disk damaged. 3 .- Passed
4 hours, remove the hard drive from the freezer. Do not remove the bag to prevent condensation from affecting the electronics. Remove only the cables and connect the hard drive without screwing it to save time.
4 .- If you have been lucky, and failed hard disk to start, copy the key data points on the second hard disk.
5 .- If the failed hard disk failure before it has recovered all the data, try to freeze it again.
Solution 2: Change the position of
hard sometimes to change the position of the disk can resolve the problem. If the original hard disk was horizontal, try switching to vertical, or mouth below.
Start the computer and cross your fingers ...