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CompTIA A+ Certification Prep 1: Hardware > Lesson 9 Chapter 1 - Hard Drive Technologies > Flashcards

Lesson 9 Chapter 1 - Hard Drive Technologies Flashcards

1
Q

How would you fix a mechanical HDD?

A

You wouldn’t because mechanical HDDs rely on being dust-free. Opening up the HDD exposes it to issues from any dust particle, thus are only opened up when being disposed of.

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2
Q

What HDD form factor is used for desktop PCs and laptops? [spinning platter sizes] (2)

A

3.5mm - Desktop PCs
2.5mm - Laptops

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3
Q

What are the 4 differentiating factors in variations of mechanical HDDs?

A
  1. Form Factor
  2. Capacity
  3. Interface
  4. Spindle speed (rpm)
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4
Q

What is the spindle speed measured in? What is it measuring? (2)

A
  1. rpm (revolutions per minute)
  2. It measures how fast the actuator arm can magnetically read/write data (how fast the platter spins = lower seek time)
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5
Q

What’s a typical spindle speed for desktop computers? What about older or less expensive laptops? (2)

A
  1. Desktop computers = 7200 rpm
  2. Older/Less expensive laptops = 5400 rpm
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6
Q

High-performance HDDs can have spindle speeds of _____rpm up to _____ rpm

A

10,000rpm to 15,000rpm

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7
Q

What are the 2 styles of Advanced Technologies Attachment (ATA) drives?

A
  1. PATA (Parallel Advanced Technologies Attachment)
  2. SATA (Serial Advanced Technologies Attachment)
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8
Q

What does ATA stand for?

A

Advanced Technologies Attachment

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9
Q

What is the old HDD interface PATA also called? (2)

A
  1. Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE)
  2. Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE)
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10
Q

What’s the difference between PATA and SATA in terms of bits of measurement and how it transfers data? (2)

PATA transfers ___ ___ at a time and measured in
SATA transfers ___ ___ at a time and measured in

A

PATA transfers entire bytes at a time and is measured in Megabytes MBps
SATA transfers one bit at a time and is measured in Gigabits Gbps

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11
Q

What is the wide, flat ribbon cable PATA uses to connect to the motherboard called?

A

IDE cable

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12
Q

Why does a modern PATA cable have 80 wires instead of 40?

Older cable had problems with____
Modern PATA cable has ____ pins/holes on each end but there are 80 wires in the cable itself

A

Older PATA cables had problems with electromagnetic interference so the newer ones have more wires for more buffer between the unused wires and live ones
Modern PATA cables have 40 pins/holes on each end but there are 80 wires in the cable itself

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13
Q

SATA devices send data serially instead of in parallel so they only need ___ wires instead of the 80 wires like PATA

A

7

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14
Q

Each SATA drive connects to one motherboard port, creating a ___ __ ___ connection

A

SATA drives establish a point-to-point connection to the motherboard

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15
Q

What’s the maximum number of drives a motherboard can support?

A

No maximum, many motherboards support 8 or more SATA drives

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16
Q

What are the device cable lengths of SATA, eSATA, and PATA? (3)

A

SATA: 1 meter (~39 inches/3 feet)
eSATA: 2 meters (6 feet)
PATA: 18 inches

17
Q

You divide by __ when converting megabytes to megabits

A

8

18
Q

What are the 3 varieties that SATA drives come in and their maximum throughput? (3)

A
  1. SATA 1.0 - 1.5 Gbps
  2. SATA 2.0 - 3.0 Gbps
  3. SATA 3.0 - 6.0 Gbps
19
Q

How many Megabits in a 1.5 Gigabits (Gb/s)?

A

1500 Megabits (Mb/s)

20
Q

The actual speed of a SATA throughput is ___% lower than it actually says because the encoding scheme takes ___% of the transferred bytes as overhead, leaving ___% for bandwidth

SATA 1.0 || 1.5 Gbps/8=192 MBps minus 20% = actually 150 MBps speed
SATA 2.0 || 3Gbps(3000 Megabits)/8=375 MBps minus 20% = actually 300 MBps speed

(for 2.0 and 3.0 the numbers make more sense when dividing)

A

20% lower throughout due to encoding scheme, leaving 80% for bandwidth

21
Q

What is SATAe? What bus does it connect drives to? (2)

A
  1. SATAe = SATA express
  2. Connects drivers directly into the PCIe bus on motherboards
22
Q

Each lane of PCIe 3.0 with the latest version of SATA (SATAe or SATA 3.2) is capable of handling up to ___ Gbps of data throughput. That means a drive grabbing 2 lanes could move a whopping ___Gbps through the bus. (2)

A

Each lane of PCIe 3.0 can handle up to 8 Gbps. 2 lanes could move 16 Gbps through the bus! Wow!

23
Q

SATAe has unique connectors, does it provide backward compatibility with earlier versions of SATA?

A

Yes SATAe is backward compatible with earlier versions of SATA

24
Q

What does a SATAe connector on the motherboard look like?

A

Where it looks like there’s 3 connectors for 3 different drives (close together), but it’s for the same drive. The SATAe drive connector cable has 3 sections to it.

25
Q

What does an eSATA connector look like? Is it similar to internal SATA? (2)

A

Similar to internal SATA (and speed) but keyed differently
It looks like Shrek’s face, with two square ears on the side (the port)

26
Q

Is eSATA hot swappable/hot pluggable?

A

Yes

27
Q

What does a eSATA cable look like and how long is it?

A

eSATA uses shielded cable lengths of up to 2 meters (6 feet) outside the PC

28
Q

What does SCSI stand for? What is it?

A
  1. SCSI stands for Small Computer System Interface
  2. A drive technology
29
Q

Where would you find a SCSI (SAS) drive today? (2)

A
  1. Servers
  2. Storage arrays
30
Q

What does it mean that SCSI uses a standard SCSI command set?

A

You can have systems with old and new devices connected and they can communicate without issue

31
Q

What type of cable do SCSI drives use?

A

a ribbon cable

32
Q

What does SAS stand for?

A

Serial Attached SCSI

33
Q

What speed does the latest SAS interface provide?

A

Up to 12 Gbps

34
Q

Do SAS controllers also provide support for SATA drives?

A

Yes (cool because it offers a lot of flexibility for techs!)

35
Q

What type of connector do you use for SAS implementations?

A

There are more than a dozen to choose from
Most internal ones look like chunkier versions of a SATA connector at the drive end (with no hole notches)

CompTIA A+ Certification Prep 1: Hardware (49 decks)

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