3.4 - Given a scenario, select, install and configure storage devices.

Question 1

Optical formats.

Answer 1

Small bumps read with a laser beam.

Microscopic binary storage.

CD-ROM (Compact Disc ROM).
• 700 megabytes (MB) capacity.

DVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disc).
• 4.7 gigabytes (GB) for single-layer.

• 8.5 GB for dual-layer.

Blu-ray Disc.
• 25 GB for single-layer, 50 GB for dual-layer.

“Burners” don’t create bumps.
They darken photosensitive dye.

Compact Disc-ReWritable (CD-RW).

DVD Read and Rewritable (DVD-R/RW) • And Dual Layer (DVD-R DL).

Blu-ray Disc Recordable (BD-R).

Blu-ray Disc Recordable Erasable (BD-RE).

Question 2

SSD

Answer 2

Solid State Drive.

Non-volatile memory.
No moving parts - Very fast.

Question 3

NVME

Answer 3

Non-volatile Memory Express.

Designed for SSD speeds
Lower latency.

Supports higher throughputs.

Take advantage of NVME with an M.2 interface.

Question 4

M.2 interface.

Answer 4

Smaller storage device.
• No SATA data or power cables.

• Can use a PCI Express bus connection.
• 4 GByte/second throughput or faster.

Different connector types:
• Needs to be compatible with the slot key/spacer.

• B key, M key, or B and M key.
• Some M.2 drives will support both.

Question 5

Hard disk drives.

Answer 5

Non-volatile magnetic storage - rapidly rotating platters.

• Random-access.
• Retrieve data from any part of the drive at any time.
• Moving parts.
• Spinning platters, moving actuator arm.
• Mechanical components limit the access speed.

• Mechanical components can also break.

Come in 2.5” and 3.5” form factors.

Question 6

Hybrid drives.

Answer 6

Solid State Hybrid Drive (SSHD).
• Both a spinning drive and SSD in a single device.

• SSD caches the slower spinning hard drive data.
• Increases speed without the cost of an SSD-only system.

• Looks like a normal hard drive or SSD - Same form factor.

Question 7

Flash memory.

Answer 7

EEPROM - (Electrically erasable programmable read-only memory)

• Non-volatile memory - No power required to retain data.

• Limited number of writes - Can still read the data.
• Not designed for archival storage - Easy to lose or damage.

Question 8

Flash memory examples.

Answer 8

Flash memory examples.

Question 9

RAID

Answer 9

Redundant Array of Independent Disks.

• They’re also inexpensive disks..

Different RAID levels:
• Some redundant, some not.

RAID 0 – Striping.

RAID 1 - Mirroring.

RAID 5 – Striping with Parity.

Nested RAID - RAID 1+0 (a.k.a. RAID 10).

• A stripe of mirrors.

Question 10

RAID 1

Answer 10

Mirroring.

File blocks are duplicated between two or more physical drives.

High disk utilisation:
• Every file is duplicated.
• Required disk space is doubled.

High redundancy:
• Drive failure does not affect data availability.

Question 11

RAID 0

Answer 11

Striping.

File blocks are split between two or more physical drives.

High performance.
• Data written quickly.

No redundancy
• A drive failure breaks the array.

• Raid 0 is zero redundancy.

Question 12

RAID 5

Answer 12

Striping with Parity.

File blocks are striped:
• Along with a parity block.
• Requires at least three disks.
• Efficient use of disk space.
• Files aren’t duplicated, but space is still used for parity.
• High redundancy.
• Data is available after drive failure.
• Parity calculation may affect performance.

Question 13

RAID 10

Answer 13

A stripe of mirrors.

The speed of striping, the redundancy of mirroring.

• The best of both worlds.
• Need at least 4 drives.

Question 14

Hot swappable drive.

Answer 14

Add and remove while the system is running.

• The connection is “hot”.

Drive chassis.
• Two or more drives.

Easy to repair.
• Replace a drive while the system is running.

• Combine with RAID for 100% uptime.