3.3 Storage Devices Flashcards
Given a scenario, select and install storage devices
An employee at a government agency is trying to move data across isolated networks. Neither network allows for removable devices, so the employee must rely on optical media. However, the employee has a lot of data to move between networks. Which optical media offers the largest storage capacity?
-DVD
-Blu-Ray
-CD
-Compact Flash
Blu-ray
~Blu-ray has a capacity of 25 GB per layer. The base speed for Blu-ray is 4.5 MBps, and the maximum theoretical rate is 16x (72 MBps).
~DVD has a capacity of 4.7 GB for a single layer, single-sided disc and up to about 17 GB for a dual-layer, double-sided disc. At launch, there were competing DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW recordable and rewritable formats.
~CD has a maximum capacity of 700 MB and is available in recordable (CD-R) and rewritable (CD-RW) formats. The base transfer rate of a CD is 150 KBps.
~CompactFlash is a removable media that the employee cannot use in this environment.
An amateur videographer starts a business that films sports games and wants to use memory cards with the highest speed. Which of the following meets the customer’s needs?
-FD312
-FD624
-UHS-II full duplex
-UHS-II half duplex
FD624
~UHS-III specifies two full-duplex rates; the fastest is 624 MBps (FD624). There are also four-speed variants. The original specification is up to 25 MBps, and UHS allows 108 MBps.
~The second UHS-III full-duplex rate is 312 MBps (FD312). In addition, smaller form factor microSD, microSDHC, and microSDXC cards are also available.
~UHS-II is rated up to 156 MBps full-duplex. The user can use smaller form factors with regular size readers using a caddy to hold the card.
~UHS-II is rated up to 312 MBps half-duplex. In addition, there are several proprietary types of memory cards, each of which also has different sizes and performance ratings.
A supervisor at a small company asks a server administrator to use high-performance hard drives, but the cheapest possible. Which of the following would be at the low end of high performance?
-7,200 rpm
-12,000 rpm
-10,000 rpm
-15,000 rpm
10,000 rpm
~High-performance drives are rated at 15,000 or 10,000 rpm; average performance is 7,200 or 5,400 rpm.
~7,200 rpm would be the higher average performance. RPM is one factor determining access time, measured in milliseconds. Access time is the delay that occurs as the read/write head locates a particular track position, which is known as seek time.
~12,000 rpm is not a standard. In addition, the drive’s sector location process (rotational latency) also impacts access time.
~15,000 rpm would be the peak performance of the higher end with an average performance of 7,200 rpm.
A helpdesk engineer is packaging an NVMe SSD for installation. Which of the following should the engineer use to supply power over the bus instead of an extra cable?
-M.2
-PCIe
-NAND
-AHCI
M.2
~M.2 supplies power over the bus, so there is no need for a separate power cable. M.2 adapters can be of different widths and lengths, so the engineer should check that any given adapter will fit on the motherboard.
~The engineer can package a non-volatile memory express (NVMe) solid-state drive (SSD) for installation to a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) slot as an expansion card or an M.2 slot.
~Where the serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) uses the advanced host controller interface (AHCI) to communicate with the bus, PCIe-based SSDs use the non-volatile memory host controller interface specification (NVMHCI) or NVMe.
~The NOT AND (NAND) flash memory used in SSDs comes in different types.
A server administrator is looking at older physical servers in the organization’s environment and notices that while a key web server is in a Redundant Array of Independent Disk (RAID) configuration, no redundancy is available. What type of RAID is this?
-5
-1
-0
-10
RAID 0
~RAID 0 provides no redundancy at all. Therefore, if any physical disk in the array fails, the whole logical volume will fail, causing the computer to crash and recover data from backup.
~RAID 1 is a mirrored drive configuration using two disks. The system duplicates each write operation on the second disk in the set.
~RAID 5 uses striping (like RAID 0) but with distributed parity. Distributed parity means that error correction information spreads across all the disks in the array.
~RAID 10 is a logical striped volume (RAID 0) configured with two mirrored arrays (RAID 1).
A computer engineer is designing a new laptop for a major computer manufacturing company. The engineer is looking at placement for the internal hard drive and is trying to make sure it fits properly. Which of the following is NOT a standard height for laptop hard drives?
-15 mm
-5.5 mm
-7 mm
-9.5 mm
5.5mm
~Devices with 2.5-inch form factors can vary in height, with 15 mm, 9.5 mm, 7 mm, and 5 mm form factors available. However, 5.5 mm is not a standard size.
~A 7 mm is standard for a 2.5-inch form factor hard drive. The 2.5-inch form factor is for laptops and as portable external drives.
~A 9.5 mm is also standard for a 2.5-inch form factor hard drive. Most HDDs use a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) interface. However, users may come across legacy devices using EIDE/PATA (enhanced integrated drive electronics/parallel advanced technology attachment) or SCSI (Small Computer System Interface).
~A 15 mm is also standard for a 2.5-inch form factor hard drive.
A server administrator wants to use SSD storage for the company’s server core operating system files. The company is not concerned with cost and wants the administrator to use the most reliable type. Which type should the server administrator use?
-TLC
-MLC
-SLC
-ESD
SLC
~The NOT AND (NAND) flash memory used in solid-state drives (SSDs) comes in different types. Single-level cell (SLC) is more reliable and more expensive.
~There is also a multi-level cell (MLC) which is not as reliable and less expensive. Flash chips are also susceptible to a type of degradation over the course of many write operations.
~The triple-level cell (TLC) type is also less reliable and less expensive. The drive firmware and operating system use wear-leveling routines that evenly distribute writing on all blocks of an SSD to optimize the life of the device.
~SSDs are vulnerable to electrostatic discharge (ESD).
A network administrator is setting up a DHCP server, and the supervisor requests using the best high-performance hard drives possible. Which of the following should the administrator use?
-15,000 rpm
-8,600 rpm
-5,400 rpm
-10,000 rpm
15,000 rpm
*The units for speed are known as revolutions per minute (RPM). High-performance drives are rated at 15,000 or 10,000 rpm; average performance is 7,200 or 5,400 rpm. A 15 K drive should support an internal transfer rate of 180 MBps.
~10,000 rpm would be the lower end of high-performance hard drives. The speed at which the disks spin will determine the performance of an HDD.
~8,600 rpm is not a standard. However, it is possible to accomplish this rpm.
~5,400 would be the average performance of the 10,000 rpm drive.
An intern digitizes old archived records. The intern is going through several old optical disks to see what information to maintain and which to delete. Unfortunately, it does not seem to work anymore when trying to eject the drive. What should the intern try first?
-Use a paper Clip
-Use tweezers to pull the disc tray out
-Reboot the computer
-Disconnect and reconnect the optical drive power supply
Use a paper Clip
~Drives also feature a small hole that accesses a disc eject mechanism (insert a paper clip to activate the mechanism). This method is helpful if the standard eject button will not work or the drive does not have power.
~Rebooting the computer will be the next option if the paper clip does not work, although in most cases, a paper clip should work even without power.
~Disconnecting the optical drive power supply could cause electrostatic discharge while the computer is still running and is not recommended.
~Using tweezers to pull the disk tray out has a good chance of damaging the tray.
A technician is looking at SATA interface specifications and notices a particular key associated with it. A technician usually keys a SATA interface SSD as what?
-B
-M
-M.2
-B/M
B
~Serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) interface SSDs are usually B keyed. An M.2 socket may support both types of drive or only one on the motherboard. The technician should check the documentation.
~A 2-lane PCIe SSD (peripheral component interconnect express solid-state drive) is usually B/M keyed. M.2 is a physical form factor. Users can obtain M.2 SSDs that use the SATA/AHCI (advanced host controller interface) bus.
~A 4-lane SSD is usually M keyed. On the motherboard, an M.2 socket may support both types of drive or only one; check the documentation.
~A non-volatile memory express (NVMe) SSD can be packaged for installation to a PCIe slot as an expansion card or an M.2 slot.
A computer specialist is helping a medium-sized business with several forward offices which control construction sites in various cities. Each forward office has VPN connectivity established back to the main office. The business wants to set up a central storage location for file services, but the specialist does not know how to set up a file server. Which of the following would be the best option for their needs?
-NVMe
-HDD
-NAS
-SSD
NAS
~Some enclosures can connect directly to a network rather than to a PC and are known as network-attached storage (NAS).
~A technician can provision HDDs as removable storage in an enclosure. The enclosure provides a data interface (USB, Thunderbolt, or eSATA), a power connector (if necessary), and protection for the disk.
~A technician can provision SSDs and removable storage in an enclosure.
~Where the serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) uses the advanced host controller interface (AHCI) to communicate with the bus, PCIe-based SSDs use the non-volatile memory host controller interface specification (NVMHCI) or NVM Express (NVMe).
An anime enthusiast learns Japanese to watch a favorite animes in the natural language. The enthusiast even saved up for a trip to Japan and bought several favorite animes. However, after arriving back in the United States, the enthusiast cannot watch it on the computer. What is most likely going on?
-Data transfer speed not supported
-DRM
-Region coding
-No power
Region Coding
~Region coding, if enforced, means that the user can only play a disc on a player from the same region. The user can usually set the region using device properties on a PC. The firmware normally prevents this from updating more than a couple of times.
~Consumer DVDs and Blu-rays feature digital rights management (DRM) and region-coding copy-protection mechanisms.
~Optical drives get rated according to their data transfer speed. New drives are generally multi-format, but users may come across older drives with no Blu-ray support.
~Older optical disks should generally be loud enough to tell if the drive is powered on to spin the disk.
A computer repair specialist is putting a computer back together and has just plugged in the SATA drive. How does the drive communicate with the bus?
-ESD
-NAND
-AHCI
-NVMe
ACHI
~Serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) uses the advanced host controller interface (AHCI) to communicate with the bus. Consequently, modern solid-state drives (SSDs) often directly use the peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) bus.
~PCIe-based SSDs use the non-volatile memory host controller interface specification (NVMHCI) or the non-volatile memory express (NVMe).
~SSDs are vulnerable to electrostatic discharge (ESD). Therefore, always take anti-ESD precautions when handling and storing these devices.
~The NOT AND (NAND) flash memory used in SSDs comes in different types. Single-level cell (SLC) is more reliable and more expensive than the multi-level cell (MLC) and triple-level cell (TLC) types.
A professional photographer conducts multiple engagements per day and booked solid five to six days per week. The photographer wants camera storage to hold at least 1 TB of data to avoid running out of space while on engagements. Which type of SD card should the photographer buy?
-SDXC
-Compact Flash
-SD
-SDHC
SDXC
~Secure digital extended capacity (SDXC) has a maximum capacity of up to 2 TB. In addition, there are several proprietary types of memory cards, each of which also has different sizes and performance ratings.
~Secure digital high capacity (SDHC) has a maximum capacity of 32 GB. Most memory card readers work with multiple card types.
~The original SD cards have a 2 GB maximum capacity. Smaller form factor microSD, microSDHC, and microSDXC cards are also available.
~CompactFlash is a different type of memory card larger than an SD card. Cameras use CompactFlash, but the photographer was specifically using an SD card in this scenario.
An employee asks a PC technician for a removable device to bring when traveling to various sites. Which of the following can the employee use? (Select all that apply.)
-NAS
-RAID
-SSD
-HDD
SSD and HDD
~The technician can provision HDDs as removable storage in an enclosure. The enclosure provides a data interface (USB, Thunderbolt, or eSATA), a power connector (if necessary), and protection for the disk.
~The technician can provision SSDs and removable storage in an enclosure.
~Some enclosures can connect directly to a network rather than to a PC and are known as network-attached storage (NAS).
~Advanced enclosures can host multiple disk units configured as a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) array. When implementing RAID, it is important to select the appropriate RAID level. The factors influencing this decision include the required level of fault tolerance, read/write performance characteristics, required capacity, and cost.
A database administrator reviews servers in the company’s environment and comes across an older server with which the administrator is unfamiliar. The system has set the server for redundancies and load input/output operations per second (IOPs) load balancing. Which Redundant Array of Independent Disk (RAID) configuration is the server using?
-10
-0
-5
-1
10
~RAID 10 is a logical striped volume (RAID 0) configured with two mirrored arrays (RAID 1).
~RAID 5 uses striping (like RAID 0) but with distributed parity. Distributed parity means that error correction information spreads across all the disks in the array.
~RAID 1 is a mirrored drive configuration using two disks. The system duplicates each write operation on the second disk in the set.
~RAID 0 provides no redundancy at all. Therefore, if any physical disk in the array fails, the whole logical volume will fail, causing the computer to crash and recover data from backup.
