14 | CompTIA® A+®: A Comprehensive Approach (Exams 220-801 and 220-802)

TOPIC B
Storage Devices
In the previous topic, you identified the main components of a personal computer. One of the
primary reasons for using a computer is to electronically store data. In this topic, you will identify
the types of storage devices used in personal computers.

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As a computer technician, your responsibilities are likely to include installing and maintaining many

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different types of computer components, including storage devices. By identifying the various types
of storage devices that can be found in most personal computers, you will be better prepared to
select, install, and maintain storage devices in personal computers.

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This topic covers all or part of the following CompTIA® A+® (2012) Exam 220-801 certification
objectives:

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• Objective 1.5: Install and configure storage devices and use appropriate media.
• Objective 1.7: Compare and contrast various connection interfaces and explain their purpose.

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• Objective 1.12: Install and configure various peripheral devices.

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Floppy Drives
A floppy disk drive (FDD) is a storage device that reads data from, and writes data to, floppy disks.
Floppy Drives

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Floppy disks are removable disks that are made of flexible Mylar plastic that is covered with
magnetic coating and enclosed in stiff, protective plastic cases. The vast majority of floppy drives are
internal devices that connect to the system board through a floppy disk controller, and they get their
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power from the personal computer's power supply. The form factor is usually 3.5 inches; 3.5-inch
floppy disks can hold up to 1.44 MB of data. Floppy disk drives are not used much anymore and are
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considered a legacy technology, but you might still encounter them on older machines.
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Figure 1-10: An FDD.

Note: Although 3.5 inches is the most recent standard for floppy disks and drives, 5.25-inch
floppy disks and drives were once the standard, and before that, 8-inch disks and drives were the
standard. You will probably never encounter either of these, and even 3.5-inch models are
essentially obsolete.

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Hard Drives
A hard disk drive (HDD) is a storage device that reads data from, and writes data to, a hard disk. A Hard Drives
hard disk consists of several metal or hard plastic platters with a magnetic surface coating. Data is
stored magnetically and can be accessed directly. Although the HDD and the hard disk are not the
same thing, they are packaged together and are often referred to interchangeably. HDDs are also
referred to as hard drives, and they can be internal or external devices. Internal hard drives are
mounted inside the chassis and connect directly to the system board through at least one cable for
data and one for power, while external hard drives generally connect to the system by means of an

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expansion card or a port.

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Figure 1-11: An HDD.

Disk Controllers

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Both floppy drives and hard drives require circuitry to communicate with the CPU. This circuitry is
known as the disk controller. Disk controllers can be built into the drive itself, or they can be
contained on an expansion card. In most modern floppy drives and hard drives, the controller is
built into the drive.
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Jumpers
Jumpers are used to configure older hardware by shutting off an electrical circuit located on the
component. Using jumpers, this is accomplished by sliding a jumper shunt over the jumper pins on
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the jumper block of the motherboard.

Hard Drive Speeds

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The speed of a hard drive is based on how fast the disk is spun to retrieve the requested data. This is
referred to as revolutions per minute (rpm). Common speeds include:
• 5,400 rpm
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• 7,200 rpm
• 10,000 rpm
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• 15,000 rpm

Types of Hard Drives

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There are many types of hard disks that you might encounter as you work with personal computers, Types of Hard Drives
each of which has its own set of characteristics.
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Hard Drive Type Characteristics

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Parallel Advanced Also known as Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE), Enhanced IDE (EIDE),
Technology Attachment Ultra Direct Memory Access (UDMA), and Advanced Technology Attachment
(PATA) (ATA) drives, PATA drives have the following characteristics:
• The controller is built into the drive.
• PATA drives are limited to two channels, each with up to two devices.

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Hard Drive Type Characteristics

• The earliest PATA drives came in "types," which corresponded to a

particular internal geometry; the drive type needed to be set in the system
BIOS. Modern drives are automatically detected.
• If the drive type is not automatically detected, it must be set in the
system BIOS.
• Over the years, there have been several revisions to the standard, each
supporting different data transfer rates.

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• To install PATA drives, you use jumpers to set the configuration.

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Small Computer SCSI drives have the following characteristics:
Systems Interface
• There is no controller built into the drive. A separate bus within the

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(SCSI)
computer system enables SCSI drives to communicate with the CPU.
• SCSI supports up to eight devices, but the host bus adapter (HBA) card

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installed in the computer counts as one of the devices, so you can
actually connect only up to seven drives or other devices (15 devices in
more recent versions).

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• You must configure separate SCSI ID settings for each device.
• You might need to set the system BIOS to no drive, and then configure

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the SCSI firmware to recognize which drive to boot from.
• There are several variations on the interface, each supporting different
data transfer rates.
Serial Advanced
Technology Attachment
(SATA)
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SATA drives have the following characteristics:
• SATA supports one device per channel.
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• Data transfer rates are 150 MBps for SATA I and 300 MBps for SATA
II.
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• SATA supports hot swapping of drives, which means that you can replace
a SATA drive without powering down the system.
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• Recently, computers have started offering external SATA jacks.

PATA Configuration
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.Each PATA interface can support up to two drives. Because the controller is integrated with the
drive, there is no overall controller to decide which device is currently communicating with the
CPU. This is not a problem as long as each device is on a separate interface, but to support two
devices on the same channel, the master/slave configuration was developed. This configuration
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allows one drive's controller (the master) to tell the other drive's controller (the slave) when it can
transfer data to or from the computer. Some drives feature an option called Cable Select (CS). With
the correct type of connecting cable, these drives can be automatically configured as master or slave.
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Most drives today come preset for CS, which allows the BIOS to configure itself as needed

ATA and Related Specifications

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Hard drive manufacturer Western Digital designed IDE technology as a replacement for even older
drive technologies that did not include an integrated drive controller. American National Standards
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Institute’s (ANSI) ATA standard was based on IDE and released in 1990. ATA referred to IBM®’s
PC/AT. When SATA technology was introduced in 2003, ATA was retroactively renamed PATA.
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The original IDE specification predated CD-ROM drives, and did not support hard drives larger
than 504 MB. However, revisions of the specifications over the years have extended the capabilities
to provide support for faster and larger hard drives and other devices. The following table describes
PATA specifications.

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Standard and Other Description

Common Names for It

IDE, ATA, ATA-1, or The original PATA specification supported one channel, with two
PATA drives configured in a master/slave arrangement. A second channel was
added later.
EIDE, Fast ATA, Also known as ATA Interface with Extensions ATA-2, Western Digital
ATA-2, or Fast ATA-2 called its implementation EIDE. Seagate’s was called Fast ATA or Fast
ATA-2. It could implement power-saving mode features, if desired.

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ATA-3 A minor enhancement to ATA-2, this standard improved reliability for

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high-speed data transfer modes. Self Monitoring Analysis And
Reporting Technology (SMART) was introduced. This is logic in the
drives that warns of impending drive problems. Password protection

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was available as a security feature of the drives.
ATA/ATAPI-4, ATA-4, This standard doubled data transfer rates. ATA Packet Interface

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Ultra ATA/33, Ultra (ATAPI) is an EIDE interface enhancement that includes commands
DMA, UDMA, or used to control tape, CD-ROM, and other removable drives.

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UDMA/33
ATA/ATAPI-5, ATA-5, The ATA-5 specification introduced UDMA modes 3 and 4, as well as

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Ultra ATA/66, or mandatory use of the 80-conductor (40-pin), high-performance IDE
UDMA/66 cable with UDMA modes higher than 2. Additional changes to the
command set were also part of this specification. This standard supports
drives up to 137 GB.
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ATA/ATAPI-6, ATA-6, This standard supports data transfers at up to 100 MBps and supports
Ultra ATA/100, or drives as large as 144 petabytes (PB), which is approximately 144 million
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UDMA/100 GB or 144 quadrillion bytes.
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PIO Programmed Input/Output (PIO) is a data transfer method that

includes the CPU in the data path. It has been replaced by DMA and
UDMA.
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DMA Direct Memory Access (DMA) is a data transfer method that moves
data directly from the drive to main memory. UDMA transfers data in
burst mode at a rate of 33.3 MB per second. The speed is two times
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faster than DMA.

SATA This standard uses serial instead of parallel signaling technology for
ATA and ATAPI devices. SATA employs serial connectors and serial
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cables, which are smaller, thinner, and more flexible than traditional
PATA cables. Data transfer rates are 150 MB per second or greater.
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SATA II, SATA2, or This standard provides data transfer rates of 300 MBps.
SATA 3 Gbps
SATA 6 Gbps This standard doubled data transfer rates, and is designed to support the
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latest (and future) solid state drives (SSDs).

SCSI Standards
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SCSI standards have been revised repeatedly over the years. The following table describes current
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SCSI standards.

SCSI Standard Description

SCSI-1 Features an 8-bit parallel bus (with parity), running asynchronously at 3.5 MBps
or 5 MBps in synchronous mode, and a maximum bus cable length of 6 meters,
compared to the 0.45-meter limit of the PATA interface. A variation on the

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SCSI Standard Description

original standard included a high-voltage differential (HVD) implementation with a
maximum cable length of 25 meters.
SCSI-2 Introduced the Fast SCSI and Wide SCSI variants. Fast SCSI doubled the
maximum transfer rate to 10 MBps, and Wide SCSI doubled the bus width to 16
bits to reach 20 MBps. The maximum cable length was reduced to 3 meters.
SCSI-3 The first parallel SCSI devices that exceeded the SCSI-2 capabilities were simply

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designated SCSI-3. These devices were also known as Ultra SCSI and Fast-20
SCSI. The bus speed doubled again to 20 MBps for narrow (8-bit) systems and

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40 MBps for wide (16-bit). The maximum cable length stayed at 3 meters.
Ultra-2 SCSI This standard featured a low-voltage differential (LVD) bus. For this reason, Ultra-2

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SCSI is sometimes referred to as LVD SCSI. LVD's greater immunity to noise
allowed a maximum bus cable length of 12 meters. At the same time, the data
transfer rate was increased to 80 MBps.

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Ultra-3 SCSI Also known as Ultra-160 SCSI, this version was basically an improvement on

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the Ultra-2 SCSI standard, in that the transfer rate was doubled once more to
160 MBps. Ultra-160 SCSI offered new features such as cyclic redundancy check
(CRC), an error correcting process, and domain validation.

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Ultra-320 SCSI This standard doubled the data transfer rate to 320 MBps.
Ultra-640 SCSI Also known as Fast-320 SCSI, Ultra-640 doubles the interface speed yet again,

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this time to 640 MBps. Ultra-640 pushes the limits of LVD signaling; the speed
limits cable lengths drastically, making it impractical for more than one or two
devices.
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Serial SCSI Four versions of SCSI—Serial Storage Architecture (SSA), Fibre Channel-Alternating
Loop (FC-AL), IEEE 1394, and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)—perform data
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transfer via serial communications. Serial SCSI supports faster data rates than
traditional SCSI implementations, hot swapping, and improved fault isolation.
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Serial SCSI devices are generally more expensive than the equivalent parallel
SCSI devices.
iSCSI Internet SCSI (iSCSI) provides connectivity between SCSI storage networks over
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an IP-based network without the need for installing Fibre Channel.

Optical Disks
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Optical Disks An optical disk is a storage device that stores data optically, rather than magnetically. The removable
plastic disks have a reflective coating and require an optical drive to be read. In optical storage, data
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is written by either pressing or burning with a laser to create pits (recessed areas) and lands (raised
areas) in the reflective surface of the disc. Common optical disks include compact discs (CDs) and
digital versatile discs (DVDs).
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Types of Optical Disks

There is a wide variety of optical discs available in the marketplace, each with its own requirements
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and specifications.
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Optical Disk Type Description

CD-ROM Compact Disc-Read Only Memory. Data is permanently burned onto the
disk during its manufacture.
CD-R CD-Recordable. Data can be written to the disk only once.
CD-RW CD-Rewritable. Data can be written to the disk multiple times.

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Optical Disk Type Description

DVD-ROM Digital Versatile Disc-Read Only Memory. Data is permanently burned onto
the disk during its manufacture.
DVD-R DVD-Recordable. Data can be written to the disk only once.
DVD+R Another format of DVD-Recordable. Data can be written to the disk only
once.
DVD+R DL DVD-Recordable Double Layer. A higher-capacity double-layer format.

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Data can be written to the disk only once.

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DVD-RW DVD-Rewritable. Data can be written to the disk multiple times.
Dual Layer DVD- A DVD-RW disc that has two layer of writable space with a maximum

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RW capacity of 8.5 GB. These disks are not used widely due to the cost and the
release of Blu-ray.

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DVD+RW Another format of DVD-Rewritable. Data can be written to the disk
multiple times.

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DVD-RAM DVD-Random Access Memory. Data can be written to the disk multiple
times.

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BD-ROM Blu-ray Disc-Read Only Memory. Blu-ray discs (BD) are intended for high-
density storage of high-definition video as well as data storage. Current Blu-
ray discs hold 50 GB total. However, companies such as Sony are testing

BD-R
BD-RE
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experimental disks that have storage capacities of up to 200 GB and more.
Blu-ray Disc-Recordable (BD-R). Data can be written to BD-R once.
Blu-ray Disc-Recordable Erasable. BD-RE is a disc that can be written to as
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well as erased. Data can be written to and erased from the disk many times
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without compromising the integrity of the disk or the data stored on it.

DVD Plus or DVD Dash?

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There are several competing DVD formats. DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM are
approved by the DVD Forum, while DVD+R, DVD+R DL, DVD+RW are not. Because some of
the competing formats are incompatible, many hybrid DVD drives have been developed. These
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hybrid drives are often labeled DVD±RW.

Optical Drives
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An optical drive is an internal or external disk drive that reads data to and writes data from an optical Optical Drives
disc. Optical drives can be connected to the system by using IDE, SCSI, or other interfaces. Internal
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optical drives generally have a 5.25-inch form factor.

Types of Optical Drives and Burners

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Optical drives include CD, DVD, and Blu-ray drives. Some optical drives provide only read
capabilities, while others enable users to write, or burn, data to optical disks. CD, DVD, and Blu-ray
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drives have varying characteristics and specifications.

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Optical Drive Description

Type

CD Compact discs store data on one side of the disc, and most hold 700 to 860 MB of
data, although older disks and drives may support only up to 650.4 MB of data.
CDs are widely used to store music and data. To meet the audio CD standard, the
CD drive on a computer must transfer data at a rate of at least 150 KBps. Most

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Optical Drive Description

Type
CD drives deliver higher speeds: at least eight times (8x) or sixteen times (16x) the
audio transfer rate. There are also drives with much higher transfer rates, up to
52x. CD drives use one of two special file systems: Compact Disc File System
(CDFS) or Universal Disc Format (UDF). CDs can be either CD-R (which can be
written to once) or CD-RW (which can be written to multiple times).
DVD Digital versatile discs can typically hold 4.7 GB on one side of the disk; it is

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possible to write to both surfaces of the disk, in which case the disk can hold up to

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9.4 GB. There are also dual-layer disks, which store additional data on each side,
and are capable of holding up to 17 GB. DVD drives access data at speeds from
600 KBps to 1.3 MBps. Because of the huge storage capacity and fast data access,

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DVDs are widely used to store full-length movies and other multimedia content.
DVD drives use UDF as the file system. DVDs can be DVD-R (which can be
written to once), or DVD-RW (which can be written to multiple times).

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Blu-ray Named for the blue laser it uses to read and write data, Blu-ray drives read and

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write data from Blu-ray discs. Blu-ray discs are primarily used for high-definition
video, though they are also used for data storage. Blu-ray used to compete with
high-definition (HD) DVD for market share, but has since emerged as the winner

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of that battle. The wavelength of the blue laser is shorter than that of the red laser
used in previous optical drives, so data can be more tightly packed on a Blu-ray
disc. A single-layer Blu-ray disc can hold up to 25 GB of information, and a dual-

Combination
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layer Blu-ray disc can hold up to 50 GB, dwarfing the capacity of a standard
double-sided DVD. Blu-ray uses UDF v2.5.
A combination drive, also referred to as a combo drive, can read and write to a
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drives and number of different optical disc types. Older combo drives were equipped with the
burners read/write function for CDs only, but could also read DVDs. However, most
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combo drives today are primarily DVD-RW burners that also have the ability to
read/write CDs and Blu-ray discs. Depending on your needs, you may require a
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combo drive that can also support the use of dual-layer DVD-RW discs.
Depending on the manufacturer, some combination Blu-ray drives and players can
also read/write to CDs and DVDs. It is a best practice to check the specific
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manufacturer's drive capabilities to verify which media the device can support.

Tape Drives
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Tape Drives A tape drive is a storage device that stores data magnetically on a tape that is enclosed in a removable
tape cartridge. Data on the tape must be read sequentially. Sizes for external tape drives vary, but
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internal drives have a 5.25-inch form factor. Tape drives are most commonly used to store backup
copies of archived, offline data in large data centers and are almost never used with desktop
computers. Recent technological advances made by IBM have allowed for data on tapes to be
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accessed and read in a file format method similar to other storage media, such as optical disks and
flash drives. The specification is called Linear Tape File Systems (LTFS). LTFS is a tape format that
determines how data is recorded on tape, and how specialized software will read that data.
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Figure 1-12: A tape drive.

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Solid State Storage

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Solid state drives (SSDs), use flash technology to retain data in special types of memory instead of on Solid State Storage
disks or tape. Solid state storage uses non-volatile memory to emulate mechanical storage devices,

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but solid state storage is much faster and more reliable than mechanical storage because there are no
moving parts.

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Solid State vs. Magnetic Storage

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Storage devices typically store data in either solid state or magnetic form. Solid state devices, such as
flash drives, contain no moving parts and tend to be more reliable than magnetic drives. Magnetic
drives, such as hard drives, store information on a magnetic coated media that is rotated underneath
a read/write head.

Hot Swappable Devices

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Hot swapping is a type of hardware replacement procedure where a component can be replaced
while the main power is still on. Also called hot plug or hot insertion, hot swap is a feature of USB
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and FireWire devices, enabling you to install an external drive, network adapter, or other peripheral
without having to power down the computer. It is good practice to use the safe removal option
from the System Tray before removing a hot-swappable device or peripheral from the computer.
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Hot swapping can also refer to the system's ability to detect when hardware is added or removed.
Non-hot-swappable devices require the system to be shut down and restarted before any device
installation updates or removals are recognized by the system.
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Types of Solid State Storage

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Solid state storage comes in several formats, many of which are used in external devices such as Types of Solid Storage
digital cameras or mobile devices.
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Solid State Specifications

Storage Device
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USB flash drives USB flash drives come in several form factors, including thumb drives and
pen drives. Thumb drives can be small, from 50 to 70 mm long, 17 to 20 mm
wide, and 10 to 12 mm thick. Data storage capacities vary, from 128 MB up to
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128 GB. Data transfer rates also vary, from 700 KBps to 28 MBps for read
operations, and from 350 KBps to 15 MBps for write operations.
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Solid State Specifications

Storage Device

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SSDs Flash-memory-based disks do not need batteries, allowing makers to replicate

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standard disk-drive form factors (2.5-inch and 3.5-inch). Flash SSDs are
extremely fast since these devices have no moving parts, eliminating seek time,

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latency, and other electromechanical delays inherent in conventional disk
drives. The use of SSDs has been increasing over time due to their speed and
quick data access times.

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SSDs can be configured within systems to replace traditional computer
hardware such as disk drives, optical drives, and network security appliances

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that include firewall and routing functions.
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CF cards CompactFlash (CF) cards are flash memory cards that are 43 mm long by 36
mm wide. Due to their compact size, they are typically used in portable
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devices. Type I is 3.3 mm thick and Type II is 5 mm thick. They hold 100 GB
or more, and have a 50-pin contact. Transfer speeds of up to 66 MBps are
possible.
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Newer versions of the CF card offer speeds up to 1 Gbps and can store up to
1 terabyte (TB) of data.
CF cards are commonly used for additional storage in:
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• Digital cameras
• Music players
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• Personal computing devices

• Photo printers
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• Digital camera recorders

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Solid State Specifications

Storage Device

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SM cards SmartMedia (SM) cards are flash memory cards that are similar in size to the

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CF cards, and are 45 mm long by 37 mm wide by 0.76 mm thick. They can
hold up to 128 MB and can transfer data at speeds of up to 8 MBps.

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SM cards are commonly used for additional storage in:
• Digital cameras

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• Digital camera recorders
• Older models of personal digital assistants (PDAs)

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xD xD-Picture Cards (xD) are flash memory cards that are specifically designed
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for use in digital cameras. They are 20 mm long by 25 mm wide by 1.7 mm

thick. They can hold up to 2 GB with plans for up to 8 GB. Data transfer
rates range from 4 to 15 MBps for read operations and from 1.3 to 9 MBps
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for write operations.

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Solid State Specifications

Storage Device

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MSes Memory sticks (MSes) are flash memory cards that are 50 mm long by 21.5

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mm wide by 2.8 mm thick. They can hold up to 16 GB and are used
extensively in Sony products such as VAIO® laptops. Data transfer rates are
2.5 MBps for read operations and 1.8 MBps for write operations.

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SD cards The original Secure Digital (SD) Memory Card is 32 mm long, 24 mm wide,
and 2.1 mm thick. The miniSD Card measures 21.5 mm by 20 mm by 1.4 mm,
and the microSD/TransFlash Card measures 15 mm by 11 mm by 1 mm. SD
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Memory Cards are currently available in several capacities, up to 2 TB. Data

transfer rates range from 10 MBps to 20 MBps.
SD cards are used in many different devices, including:
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• Laptops
• Digital cameras
• Smartphones
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• Handheld gaming devices

• Audio players
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Solid State Specifications

Storage Device

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MMCs MultiMediaCards (MMCs) are 32 mm long by 24 mm wide by 1.5 mm thick.
Reduced Size MMCs (RS-MMCs) and MMCmobile cards are 16 mm by 24

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mm by 1.5 mm. MMCmini cards are 21.5 mm by 20 mm by 1.4 mm, and
MMCmicro cards are 12 mm by 14 mm by 1.1 mm. These cards can hold up
to 8 GB, and data transfer rates can reach 52 MBps. MMC cards are generally

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also compatible with SD card readers and are used in many of the same
devices.
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