TECHNICAL COLLEGE

DAYALBAGH EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE

DAYALBAGH, AGRA

A course on

Maintenance of Computer Systems

(Diploma in Electronics Engineering)
What is Floppy?
„ A Floppy Disk is a data storage medium
made of thin magnetic coated flexible
("floppy") Teflon encased in a plastic shell.
FDD

„ Invented by IBM
„ FDD in 8-inch (200 mm)
„ 5¼-inch (133⅓ mm)
„ 3½-inch (90 mm)
FDD
FDD Rear View
Floppy and its disk organization
Floppy Disk Geometry & Density Chars.
Geometry 360 KB 1.2 MB 720 KB 1.44 MB 2.88 MB
Specification 5.25” 5.25” 3.5” 3.5” 3.5”
Tracks 40 80 80 80 80
Sectors/Track 9 15 9 18 36
Total 720 2400 1440 2880 57600
Sectors/Disk
Tracks Density 48 96 135 135 135
(TPI)
Bit Density (BPI) 5876 9869 8717 17434 34868

Density Name Double High Double High Extra High

Density density Density density density
(DD) (HD) (DD) (HD) (EHD)
FDD Subassemblies

„ R / W Head
„ Head Actuator
„ Spindle Motor
„ Stepper Motor
„ Logic board
„ Drive Select Sensor
FDD Subassemblies..

„ Read/Write Heads

… Converts binary data into electromagnetic

pulses and vice versa, when writing to /
reading from the disk

… Usesferrite head, a iron core, wire wrapped

around it to form a controllable electromagnet
FDD Subassemblies..
FDD Subassemblies..
FDD Subassemblies..
… Works on contact recording technology i.e.,
the heads directly contact the disk media

… Overa period of time, due to wear and

deposition of magnetic oxide and dirt demand
periodical cleaning

… Thismakes the disk more sensitive to dirt

induces errors causing scratches and Pitts.
FDD Subassemblies..
„ Head Actuator
…A device that physically positions the read/write
heads over the correct track on the surface of
the disk

„ A stepper motor
…A motor that drives the Head Actuator

… As time passes FDD can develop head

alignment problem i.e., drifting of the position
of actuator
FDD Subassemblies..
„ Head Alignment Problem leads to disk
failures when they are used in different
FDDs other than the FDD in which they are
formatted for..

„ Head actuators are slow in FDD that

makes their seek time much higher
FDD Subassemblies..
„ Spindle Motor
… Itis responsible to spin the disk
… The speed of the spindle motor depends on
the type of FDD

360 KB 5.25” 300 RPM

1.2 MB 5.25” 360 RPM
720 KB 3.5” 300 RPM
1.4 MB 3.5” 300 RPM
FDD Subassemblies..
„ Logic Board
… An integrated logic board that acts as the
drive controller
… Controls all the other subassemblies and
circuits and components

„ Disk Change Sensor

…A sensor that works in conjunction with FDC
to report, when a disk is ejected and a new
one is inserted
Floppy Disk Controller (FDC)

„ FDC Functions

… Translatesthe logical commands into

equivalent electrical pulses that control the disk
drive

… Translates the stream of pulses generated by

floppy drive head into data in the form that can
be handled by PC
FDC..
„ Major functional blocks of FDC

… System interface logic

… Floppy disk controller logic

… Read / Write logic

… Drive select logic

… Control logic
FDC Block Diagram

FLOPPY DISK R/W R/W SIGNALS

CONTROLLER
LOGIC LOGIC FDD
SYSTEM
INETRFACE (FDC LOGIC)
LOGIC DRIVE A

DRIVE
SELECT
LOGIC
DRIVE B

CONTROL
LOGIC

CONTROL B
SIGNALS
FDC..
„ The system interface logic communicates with
the system and the controller electronics through
I/O slots

„ Floppy disk controller logic (IC 8272)

coordinates all the functions of FDC

„ Although PC can support two FDDs the FDC

can be programmed to select only one of the two
drives at a time.
FDC..
„ The drive select logic energizes the respective
drive for R / W operation after decoding the
commands received form CPU

„ R / W heads needs to be located over the

required track before actually honoring the R / W
request

„ The control logic issues commands to head

assembly to locate it over the desired address
FDC..
„ The control logic also analyses the interface
signals such as write protect, index hole and
track 0 and informs CPU about the status

„ R / W logic decodes the commands from CPU,

either to perform read / write operation
Hard Disk Drive Subassemblies
„ Disk Platter
„ R / W Head
„ Head Arm / Head Slider
„ Head Actuator
„ Spindle Motor
„ Logic Board
„ Air Filter
„ Bezel
„ Cables and connectors
Hard Disk Drive Subassemblies
Hard Disk Drive Subassemblies

„ Disk Platter is fixed magnetic coated

aluminum / ceramic plate
„ General sizes :5.25”, 3.5”, 2.5”
„ No. of platter vary from 1 – 10 in a HDD
Hard Disk Drive Subassemblies

A Disk Platter
Hard Disk Drive Subassemblies

„ Types of R / W Heads
… Ferrite
… Metal in Gap
… Thin film
… Magneto Resistive
Hard Disk Drive Subassemblies

R / W Heads
Hard Disk Drive Subassemblies
„ Ferrite Head was originally used in HDDs
(Winchester drives) by developed IBM
„ It is made of iron oxide core wrapped with
electromagnetic coils
„ To write on to disk platter using this head the coil
is energized which produces magnetic field on the
disk surface
„ To read from the disk head is passed over the
disk surface and the induced current generated in
the coil is used to read the data.
„ Obsolete
Hard Disk Drive Subassemblies
Hard Disk Drive Subassemblies
„ A metal alloy is placed in the recording
gap on the trailing edge of the head in
Metal – in – gap type heads

„ Metal is placed using vacuum depositing

process called sputtering

„ Used in high density thin film media

Hard Disk Drive Subassemblies

„ Thin file head are very small and light in

weight and are as close as 2 µ” to the disk
surface
„ These are produced by photolithographic
process
„ Iron nickel alloy is used instead of iron oxide,
which is 2 – 4 time more powerful magnetically
Hard Disk Drive Subassemblies
„ Magneto resistive head works on the principle
that when a magnetic field is present in near a
conductor, the resistance of the conductor
changes.
„ To read the data a small amount of current is
allowed to flow through the drive head and any
change in the current is measured.
„ A separate head is required to write data
„ These are very delicate and susceptible to
electrostatic charges
Hard Disk Drive Subassemblies

SPINDLE MOTOR
Hard Disk Drive Subassemblies

„ It is the main motor which rotates the hard disk

drive platters.

„ It is called Spindle motor because it is directly

connected to the Spindle on which the platters
are connected.

„ Spindle motor rotates at a speed of 3600 to

7200 RPM or more.
Hard Disk Drive Subassemblies

„ Logic Board is an intelligent circuit board in built

to the hard disk.

„ It contains the electronic components that

controls various sections of the HDD

„ It also acts as an interface between the hard

disk drive and the computer.
HDD Subassemblies
HDD Subassemblies

„ Air Filter
„ Most HDDs will have two air filters
„ Re-circulating air filter
„ Breather filter
HDD Geometry
HDD Organization

Arm
Assembly Spindle Cylinder
Arm Head

Platter
Track
HDD Geometry
Tracks and Sectors

„ Bits are grouped into sectors

„ Typical sector-size = 512 B of data
„ Sector also has overhead information
… ErrorCorrecting Codes (ECC)
… Servo fields to properly position the head
Density
„ Density Metrics
BPI
… Linear density
(Bits/inch or BPI)
… Track density
TPI
(Tracks/inch or TPI)
… Arial Density = BPI x
TPI
Capacity

„ Total no. of sides x no. of tracks/side x

total sectors per track = Cylinders

„ Cylinders x Heads x Sectors x

bytes/sector = storage capacity
Internal Data Rate (IDR)
„ Rate at which data can be read from or
written to the physical media
… Expressed in MB/s
„ IDR is determined by
… BPI
… Platter-diameter
… RPM
Seeking
„ Seek time depends on:
… Inertial power of the arm actuator motor
… Distance between outer-disk recording radius and inner-disk
recording radius (data-band)
„ Depends on platter-size

„ Components of a seek:
… Speedup
„ Arm accelerates
… Coast
„ Arm moving at maximum velocity (long seeks)
… Slowdown
„ Arm brought to rest near desired track
… Settle
„ Head is adjusted to reach the access the desired location
Metrics for Drives
„ Traditional
… RPM
… Seektime
… Capacity

„ New Metrics
… Acoustics (drives in living rooms)
… Power (battery, cooling, …)
… Idle/Standby modes (Watts saved)
… Shock/Vibration (cabinets, other drives, jogging)
… Reliability (end-to-end protection)
Interface technologies

„ ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment)

„ SATA (Serial ATA)
„ PATA (Parallel ATA)
„ FATA ( a low cost ATA for Fiber optic
channel)
„ SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)
„ USB (Universal Serial Bus)
Drive Electronics

„ Common blocks found:

… Host Interface
… Buffer Controller
… Disk Sequencer
… ECC
… Servo Control
… CPU
… Buffer Memory
… CPU Memory
… Data Channel
Drive Electronics
HDD Controller

SERVO µP
ROM

SERVO
U SPINDLE
MOTOR DRIVER
CONTROLLER
S DISK HEAD
DMA CONTROLLER AND

PULSE DISK
DETECT.
ASSEMBLY
B
DATA
SEPARATOR
U

S DRIVE
ACTUAT.
HDD Controller

„ System Interface Unit

„ Buffer RAM

„ BISO ROM

„ Timing control logic

„ HDC logic

„ Drive interface logic

HDD Controller

TIMER & CONTROL LOGIC

RAM
R
R / W LOGIC
___________
W
I/O _______________
HDC LOGIC HARD DISK
SLOTS SYSTEM
CONTROL LOGIC DRIVE
INTERFACE
LOGIC
___________

BIOS

CONTROL
SIGNALS
HDD Controller
„ SIL acts as a communication port between system and
the controller

„ HDC BIOS ROM determines what part of the disk is to

be read / write

„ This BIOS on HDC is also responsible to perform self

test of HDC whenever the system is started

„ HDC obtains address in terms of cylinder, head, sector,

track from drive interface unit
HDD Controller
„ The control logic first verifies whether the requested
address is available in RAM and interprets the address
received and acts accordingly

„ The control logic also activates the spindle motor,

instructs the head actuator to move read/write heads to
the appropriate track

„ The control logic also coordinates the flow of information

„ The timing and control logic controls the complete

sequence of operations
HDD Form Factors

Platters
Form factor Width Largest capacity
(Max)

5.25″ 146 mm 47 GB (1998) 14

5.25″ 146 mm 19.3 GB (1998) 4
1.3″ 43 mm 40 GB (2007) 1
1″ (CFII/ZIF/IDE-
42 mm 20 GB (2006) 1
Flex)
0.85″ 24 mm 8 GB (2004) 1
3.5″ 102 mm 3 TB (2010) 5
2.5″ 7 – 15 mm 15 TB (2010) 4
1.8″ 8 mm 320 GB (20090 3
Performance Characteristics

„ Data transfer rate

„ Power consumption

„ Audible noise

„ Shock resistance
Few important terms

„ Head skew: The offset distance from the start of

the previous track, so that the head has time to
switch from top of platter to bottom of platter and
be at the start of the new track

„ Cylinder skew: The offset distance from the

start of the last track of the previous cylinder so
that the head has time to seek from cylinder to
cylinder and be at the start of the first track of
the new cylinder
Few Important Terms

„ ZBR: Zone Bit Recording (ZBR) is used

by disk drives to store more sectors per
track on outer tracks than on inner tracks

„ LBA: In Logical Block Addressing, only

one number is used to address data, and
each linear base address describes a
single block.
Hard Disk Preparation …!!!
„ Choose a HDD

„ Look at the Jumper settings for suitable mode and set

them as required
… Master
… Slave
… Cable Select etc.

„ Position the HDD in its bay and screw it properly

„ Connect the power cable (D type) running from SMPS

„ Connect data cable to suitable interface (IDE/SATA etc.)

„ Power on the system

Hard Disk Preparation …!!!
Hard Disk Preparation …!!!
Hard Disk Preparation …!!!
Hard Disk Preparation …!!!
Hard Disk Preparation …!!!
„ Invoke BIOS

„ Detect HDD through BIOS in suitable mode and reboot

the system with bootable disk

„ Initialize HDD (Optional) using FDISK program

„ Perform Logical division as required

„ Format all partitions

„ Set the active partition

„ Load OS on to a predetermined partition