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CompTIA A+ > Chapter 2: Storage Devices and Power Supplies > Flashcards

Chapter 2: Storage Devices and Power Supplies Flashcards

1
Q

Define HDD

A

Hard disk drive / hard drive / hard disks. Used for permanent storage and quick access

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2
Q

3 Critical components of a HDD

A

Controller, Hard Disk, HBA

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3
Q

What is a HDD’s Controller?

A

The controller chip controls how the drive operates and how the data is encoded onto the platters. It controls how the data sends signals to the various motors in the drive and receives signals from the sensors inside the drive. Most common: PATA (IDE), SATA

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4
Q

What is the HDD’s hard disk?

A

This is the physical storage medium. Stacked platters.

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5
Q

What is a HDD’s HBA?

A

Host bus adapter. Translator, converting signals from the controller to signals the computer can understand. HBA is usually located on the motherboard.

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6
Q

Identify the sector and track colored in this image.

A

Red: Track; Blue: Sector

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7
Q

Define a Sector

A

magnetic domains that represent the smallest units of storage on the discs’ platters. Magnetic-drive sectors commonly store only 512 bytes (1⁄2KB) of data each

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8
Q

CHS

A

cylinders/heads/sectors

The components of the basic geometry of a HDD

The basic hard disk geometry consists of three components: the number of sectors that each track contains, the number of read/write heads in the disk assembly, and the number of cylinders in the assembly.

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9
Q

How do you determine the number of cylinders on a hard drive?

A

The number of cylinders is the number of tracks that can be found on any single surface of any single platter.

It is called a cylinder because the collection of all same-number tracks on all writable surfaces of the hard disk assembly looks like a geometric cylinder when connected together vertically.

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10
Q

A cylinder on a HDD assembly with 3 platters is comprised of how many tracks?

A

6

one track on each side of a platter.

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11
Q

How many heads are contained in a HDD assembly?

A

One for each writable surface, so two per platter.

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12
Q

What does a CHS geometry of 16383/16/63 mean?

A

16,383 cylinders

16 heads

63 sectors per cylinder

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13
Q

What is the capacity of a HDD with a CHS geometry of 16383/16/63?

A

7.87GB

KB=(CHS)/2

GB=KB/1048576

Multiply 16,383 cylinders by 16 heads to get the total number of tracks, 262,128

Multiply 262,128 tracks by the number of sectors per track, 63, to get thee total number of sectors, 16,514,064

Each sector is 1/2 a KB. Get the number of KB by dividing 16,514,064 by 2.

Capacity = 8,257,032KB

Get the number of MB by dividing that figure by 1024

Capacity = 8063.5078MB

Get the number of GB by dividing that figure by 1024

Capacity = 7.87GB

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14
Q

Define SSD

A

Solid State Drives

solid-state drives (SSDs) have no moving parts but use the same solid-state memory technology found in the other forms of flash memory. All solid-state memory is limited to a finite number of write (including erase) operations.

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15
Q

Wear Leveling

A

The process of spreading read/write operations evenly over an entire SSD, so that the finite number of read/writes is spread throughout the disk

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16
Q

Benefits of SSD over conventional HDD

A

Read contents more quickly

Consume less power

Produce less heat

Are more reliable and less susceptible to damage from physical shock and heat production

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17
Q

Disadvantages of SSD over conventional HDD

A

More expensive per byte

Limited write operations

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18
Q

Examples of Optical Disk Drives

A

Blueray

DVD (Digital Video Disc)

CD (Compact Disc)

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19
Q

Define CD-ROM

A

Compact Disc Read Only Memory

650, 700, 800, or 900MB capacities

Read only

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20
Q

What speed is 1X for a CD-ROM?

A

150KBps

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21
Q

How did manufacturers increase the speed CDs could be read from 1X to 8X

A

They spun the disk faster.

At 8X the CD was spinning so fast that increasing speeds risked breaking the disk apart.

Subsequent speed increases were achieved through other technological advancements

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22
Q

What is the standard DVD-ROM transfer rate for 1X?

A

1.4MBps

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23
Q

What is the difference between these two CD-ROM devices?

A

that CD-R drives can write to a
CD-R disc only once. A CD-RW drive can erase information from a CD-RW disc and
rewrite to it multiple times.

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24
Q

What does this rating mean for a CD-RW drive?

52X-32X-52X

A

it writes at 52X, rewrites at
32X, and reads at 52X

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25
Q

What does it mean when a DVD is described as this:

DVD-ROM

A

Purchased with data encoded; not able to be changed

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26
Q

What does it mean when a DVD is described as this:

DVD-R, DVD+R

A

Purchased blank; able to be written to once and then treated like a
DVD-ROM

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27
Q

What does it mean when a DVD is described as this:

DVD-RW, DVD+RW

A

Purchased blank; able to be written to and erased multiple times;
session usually must be closed for subsequent access to stored data

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28
Q

What does it mean when a DVD is described as this:

DVD-RAM

A

Purchased blank; able to be written to and erased just like a hard
or floppy disk; no session to close before subsequent access to
stored data

29
Q

BD-R versus BD-RE

A

BD-R Blueray Disk that’s recordable once (Like CD-R)

BD-RE: Blueray Disk that’s re-recordable (Like CD-RW)

30
Q

What does DMA or PIO allow?

A

DMA or programmed
input/output (PIO)

methods for improving drive
performance by allowing the drive to write directly to RAM, bypassing the CPU when
possible.

31
Q

IDE is also known as

A

PATA

32
Q

What does SATA stand for

A

Serial Advanced Technology Attachment

33
Q

What type of connection is this?

A

SATA

34
Q

Define SCSI

A

Small Computer System Interface

Internernal or External storage device.

35
Q

What is this cable?

A

External SCSI cable.

36
Q

Describe this configuration.

A

Internal SCSI cable connects two devices to the motherboard.

Both ends are terminated (one to a CD-ROM, the other to the motherboard).

The middle device (the HD) is daisy-chained connected.

37
Q

Each SCSI device must have _____, set by ____.

A 
Each device must also have a unique SCSI ID number. This number can be assigned by
 the jumper (with internal devices) or with a rotary switch (on external devices).
38
Q

Define RAID

A

Redundant Array of Independent Disks.

way of combining the
storage power of more than one hard disk for a special purpose, such as increased performance
or fault tolerance.

39
Q

Two ways to implement RAID and the most efficient method.

A

Software or Hardware implementations.

Hardware implementation is more efficient and performs better.

40
Q

RAID 0 is also known as

A

Disk Stripping

41
Q

RAID 0

A

Data is written across multiple drives, so one drive can be reading or writing while the
next drive’s read-write head is moving. This makes for faster data access. However, if any one
of the drives fails, all content is lost. Some form of redundancy or fault tolerance should be
used in concert with RAID 0.

42
Q

RAID 1

A

disk mirroring

writing all data simultaneously to two separate drives. If one drive fails, the other contains
all the data and will become the primary drive

Only two drives can be used in a RAID 1 array

43
Q

RAID 5

A

Combines the benefits of both RAID 0 and RAID 1

Each stripe places data on n–1 disks, and parity computed from the data is placed on the
remaining disk. The parity is interleaved across all the drives in the array so that neighboring
stripes have parity on different disks. If one drive fails, the parity information for the
stripes that lost data can be used with the remaining data from the working drives to derive
what was on the failed drive and rebuild the set once the drive is replaced

44
Q

Minimum number of drives for RAID 5

A

A minimum of three drives
is required for RAID 5

45
Q

What is the capacity of quarter-inch cartridge tape backups?

A

200KB - 525MB

46
Q

What is the capacity of digital linear tape (DLT)?

A

Up to 160GB

47
Q

What is the capacity of 8 millimeter backup tape?

A

800 GB

48
Q

What is the capacity of linear tape-open backup tapes?

A

1.5TB

49
Q

Examples of flash memory

A

SD cards

USB flash drives

Other solid state drive solutions

50
Q

What does it mean for a device to be hot swappable

A

You can insert and remove the device with the system powered on.

A non-hot-swappable device can’t be inserted or removed whiel the power is on.

51
Q

A non-hot-swappable device may also be known as

A

Cold Swappable

52
Q

Within hot-swappable devices, there is a category of ‘warm-swappable’ devices. What makes these devices different from hot-swappable devices?

A

While you can add or remove a warm-swappable device while the PC’s power is on, you should use a software utility to disconnect the device first.

Best example: Flash USB memory stick, which should be removed via the “Safely Remove Hardware” application. If you don’t use that utility, data loss could occur.

53
Q

Power Supply

A

The device in the computer that provies power to all PC’s components.

54
Q

A power supply converts ______ to D/C voltages

A

110Volts or 220Volts A/C

55
Q

Examples of DC voltage levels that PC components require to operate

A

+3.3VDC

+5VDC

-5VDC (older systems)

+12VDC

-12VDC

Note: VDC here means volts of direct current

56
Q

Watt

A

A unit of power

57
Q

Most computers require power supplies within what watt range?

A

250 - 500 watts are required for most computers.

58
Q

In a power supply, what is the purpose of the red, recessed switch in the back?

A

The switch allows for you to switch between two different voltage levels for different countries. Popular choices include:

110 and 220 volts

115 and 230 volts

120 and 240 volts

59
Q

If the incorrect voltage is selected via the red, recessed switch behind the power supply, what could happen?

A

If you’re in the US and select the higher voltage, the power supply won’t receive as much power as it expects and the system will not boot.

In Europe & elsewhere, power lines provide more voltage. Selecting the lower voltage would result in the power supply receiving more power than it expects, and the PC could catch on fire.

60
Q

What’s the best way to handle a malfunctioning power supply?

A

Get rid of it. Attempting to fix a power supply is asking for your house to get burned down.

61
Q

Common “Classic” power connectors include what

A

AT system connectors

Standard Peripheral Power Connector

Floppy Drive Power Connectors

62
Q

Name this type of power connector

A

AT Power Connector

63
Q

What does the AT System connector power?

A

Older, AT-style motherboards.

Only legacy computers with AT and baby AT motherboards used this type of power connector.

64
Q

Name this type of power connector

A

Standard peripheral power connector

65
Q

Standard peripheral power connectors are also known as

A

Molex connectors

66
Q

Name this type of power connector

A

Floppy Drive Power Connector

67
Q

Floppy drive connectors are also known as

A

Berg connectors

68
Q

What does a laptop use for its power supply?

A

An AC adapter, which does esentially the same thing as a traditional power supply.

69
Q
A

CompTIA A+ (13 decks)

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