Chapter 9 - Implementing Hard Drives Flashcards
What is the status of freshly installed drives?
Unorganized
What does the operating system need to do with a freshly installed drive?
Organize (partition) the drive
What is partitioning?
Process of electronically dividing a physical drive into one or more units called ‘partitions’
What must be done after a drive is partitioned?
It needs to be formatted
What does formatting a drive do?
Installs a file system onto the drive that organizes each partition
What do magnetic HDDs have that are essential for data organization?
Small storage areas called sectors
What are the storage areas in NAND chips called?
Pages
Pages can be grouped into blocks.
Who handles the communication between the CPU and the storage structures in SSDs?
A controller
The controller uses LBA (logical block addressing) for communication.
What does MBR stand for?
Master Boot Record
MBR is crucial for the booting process of the operating system.
What does the Master Boot Record contain?
A sector with the master boot record and a partition table
The MBR informs the system of the OS and describes the partitions.
What is the first thing the BIOS looks for when the computer boots?
The Master Boot Record (MBR)
If the BIOS does not find the MBR, the system will not load the OS.
How many partitions can the Master Boot Record support?
Up to 4 partitions
MBR is large enough to store the information for 4 partitions.
What does the partition table describe?
The number and size of the partitions
Instructions in the partition table help determine where the OS is stored.
Fill in the blank: After the MBR locates the partition, the _______ loads the OS to that partition.
Partition boot sector
What is a primary partition?
The main type of partition where you can install an operating system.
What happens to primary partitions in Windows once they are formatted?
They usually get drive letters (like C:, D:, E:, etc.).
What is the label of the first primary partition in Windows?
C:
What were A: and B: originally reserved for?
Floppy drives.
What small hidden partition does Windows often create during installation?
System Reserved.
What is the purpose of the System Reserved partition?
It holds important boot files and recovery tools.
Does the System Reserved partition usually get a drive letter?
No.
Where does the System Reserved partition typically not show up?
File Explorer.
Is it normal for the System Reserved partition to not be interacted with much?
Yes.
Fill in the blank: The first hard drive partition started at _______.
C:
