Exercise 3. Complete the sentences below.

a) Hard disk	b) Portable hard drive	c) Tracks	d) Backup
e) Access time	f) Floppy disk drive	g) Sectors	h) Transfer rate

1. The first rule of data storage is to make a _________of all important files.

2. A ________is slower than a hard drive and can only hold 1.44 MB disks.

3. The ________inside your PC is made of aluminium alloy covered with a magnetic coating. This makes the disk itself a rigid plate, hence its name.

4. The ________are circles around a disk and the _____are segments within each circle.

5. This hard drive is a 60 GB IBM model with a fast ______of 8ms.

6. The _______ is the rate of transmission of data from the disk to the CPU. This is usually described in megabytes per second.

7. Apple’s iPod music player can double as a ______for transporting computer data.

 

Lesson 17. Hard drive partitioning.

Exercise 1. Read and translate the text.

Hard drive partitioning.

A hard drive is divided into areas called partitions. Each partition is a logical storage that can be formatted to store information, such as data files or applications. If you imagine a hard drive as a wooden cabinet, the partitions would be the shelves. During the installation process, most operating systems automatically partition and format available hard drive space.

Partitioning a drive is a simple a process, but to ensure a successful boot, the firmware must know what disk and partition on that disk has an operating system installed.

The partition scheme has direct influence in the location of the operating systems on a disk. Finding and launching the operating system is one of the responsibilities of a computer firmware. The partition scheme is very important to the firmware. Two of the most popular partition scheme standards are MBR and GPT.

Master Boot Record

Publicly introduced in 1983, the master boot record (MBR) contains information on how the hard drive partitions are organized. The MBR is 512 bytes long and contains the boot loader, an executable program that allows a user to choose from multiple operating systems. MBR has become the de facto standard but has limitations that had to be addressed. MBR is commonly used in computers with BIOS-based firmware.

GUID Partition Table

Also designed as a partition table scheme standard for hard drives, the globally unique identifier (GUID) partition table (GPT) makes use of a number of modern techniques to expand on the older MBR partitioning scheme. GPT is commonly used in computers with UEFI firmware. Most modern operating systems now support GPT.

A technician should understand the process and terms relating to hard drive setup:

· Primary partition - The primary partition contains the operating system files and is usually the first partition. A primary partition cannot be subdivided into smaller sections. On a GPT partitioned disk, all partitions are primary partitions. On an MBR partitioned disk, there can be a maximum of four partitions.

· Active partition – In MBR disks, the active partition is the partition used to store and boot an operating system. Notice that only primary partitions can be marked active in MBR disks. Another limitation is that only one primary partition per disk can be marked active at one time. In most cases, the C: drive is the active partition and contains the boot and system files. Some users create additional partitions to organize files or to be able to dual-boot the computer. Active partitions are only found on drives with MBR partition tables.

· Extended partition – If more than 4 partitions are required on an MBR partitioned disk, one of the primary partitions can be designated an extended partition. After the extended partition is created, up to 23 logical drives (or logical partitions) can be created within this extended partition. A common setup is to create a primary partition for the OS (drive C:) and allow an extended partition to occupy the remaining free space on a hard drive, right after a primary partition. Any extra partitions can be created within the extended partition (drives D:, E: and so on). While the logical drives can’t be used to boot an OS, they are perfect for storing user data. Notice that there can be only one extended partition per MBR hard drive and that extended partitions are only found on drives with MBR partition tables.

· Logical drive - A logical drive is a section of an extended partition. It can be used to separate information for administrative purposes. Because GPT partitioned drives cannot have an extended partitions, they do not have logical drives.

· Basic disk - A basic disk (the default) contains partitions such as primary and extended as well as logical drives which are formatted for data storage. More space can be added to a partition by extending it into adjacent, unallocated space, as long as it is contiguous. Either MBR or GPT can be used as the underlying partition scheme of basic disks.

· Dynamic disk - Dynamic disks provide features not supported by basic disks. A dynamic disk has the ability to create volumes that span across more than one disk. The size of the partitions can be changed after they have been set, even if the unallocated space is non-contiguous. Free space can be added from the same disk or a different disk, allowing a user to efficiently store large files. After a partition has been extended, it cannot be shrunk without deleting the entire partition. Either MBR or GPT can be used as the partition scheme of dynamic disks.

· Formatting - This process creates a file system in a partition for files to be stored.