Hard Disk Drive Review
Name_____________________________________________
1. What is the maximum number of sectors per track?
2. What is the best method of determining the number of drives available on a
computer?
3. What is hard drive geometry?
4. BIOS limits the number of heads to:
5. You receive an error message that ends with “Abort, Retry, Fail?” What is the most
likely cause of the error?
6. BIOS limits the number of cylinders to:
7. How many bytes of data does a sector hold?
8. What type of drive is standard on today’s personal computer?
9. One of the purposes of an IDE drive is to:
10. What is a partition?
11. A computer may have only one physical hard drive (called hard drive 0) but it may
have anywhere from one to 24 logical drives, called
12. How many drives can be connected to an IDE controller?
13. What are the two types of partitions:
14. What is Head to Disk Interference or HDI?
15. Clustering means to.
16. What is FAT?
17. Why is a voice coil actuator arm better than a stepper motor actuator arm?
18. What is fragmentation?
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19. What is the function of ScanDisk?
20. FAT 32 can create partitions larger than the _____________ limit of FAT 16, and
uses smaller clusters than FAT 16.
21. What is the best way to determine the geometry of an unknown drive?
Fill in the Blank
ScanDisk 504 megabytes Virus Check
Hard drive CMOS 20 gigabyte
partitions Geometry Operating system
cluster FDISK Table
BIOS Primary partition Extended partition
DOS UNIX Windows NT
22. The maximum storage capacity of a hard drive is determined by its ___________
_______
23. CHS values define the geometry of a __________________
24. The largest hard drive recognized by the CPU is ___________
25. Proper __________________ settings are required for hard drives
26. There are two types of _______primary and extended
27. A __________________ is the basic unit of storage and a set of contiguous sectors
treated as a single unit.
28. The ___________ _______ program is used to partition drives.
29. Microsoft __________ ________is a useful tool for diagnosing and repairing many
disk problems.
30. The active partition is where the ______________________________is stored.
31. The active partition is usually (but not always) the primary partition.
32. The ____________________ is where DOS is stored on the hard drive.
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33. __________________ has a limitation not shared by any other operating system: it
must be placed on the primary partition and that partition must always be named C..
34. Three major steps in installing a hard drive are to
1.
2.
3.
or
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
35. What are the three steps for preparing a hard disk drive for data storage?
1.
2.
3.
36. List the seven basic components of a hard drive
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
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37. Describe How File Allocation Table Works (fill in the blank)
When a file is saved:
1. __________________starts at the beginning of the FAT and looks for the first
space marked “open for use” (___________________). It begins to __________
________to that cluster.
2. If the entire file can be saved within that one cluster, the code ____________
______last cluster) is placed in the cluster’s status field, and the file name is
added to the directory.
3. The __________________ number is placed with the file name.
4. If the file takes more than __________________ cluster, then DOS searches for
the next open cluster, and places the number of the next cluster in the status
field. DOS continues filling and adding clusters until the entire file is saved.
5. The last cluster will then receive the end of the file code (__________________)
Label the Sector
Label the Cylinder Label the Track
Label the Number of Heads and the Number of Platters
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Label the following:
a. Head Actuator
b. Mounting holes
c. Power Connector
d. Read/Write Heads
e. Interface Connector
f. Platters
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