sector

Microsoft has warned users of its Windows Home Server technology that they could have problems using newer hard drives. It follows earlier warnings that the drives are also problematic for Windows XP users. Drives Use Advanced Format Technology The ... situation involves sectors, the individual chunks into which a hard drive is divided. The standard size of each sector has traditionally been 512 bytes, but some drives are already using a 4 kilobyte sector, and this will become the standard size for all drives after 2011. The new drives are referred to as having "Advanced Format" ... (view more)

The hard drive is a highly sensitive and complicated device that most of us tend to take for granted. Just what it is and -- how it works -- is the subject of this second article on computer hardware [read part 1 here]. If you were to remove the ... sealed cover on the drive, what you would see is a number of platters attached to a fairly thick shaft that contains a type of motor known as a servo motor. The servo motor has the characteristic of being easily controlled and stable when considering the speed of rotation. The platters are spun by the motor at a rate of speed designated by the ... (view more)

A recent question raised a red flag in my mind. I think most, if not all, of you read my 'brief' description of about what happened to the missing 32 MB on a 512 MB Thumb Drive: Available Space Misreported by USB drive? Allow me to explain in ... greater detail. On a hard drive, thumb drive, or any other storage device in common use, the capacity displayed on the carton is the maximum 'raw' or usable number of bytes the device can hold. However, a device that 'says' it can hold 512 MB of data will not display the number 512 MB after it has been formatted. As stated in the previous article , some ... (view more)