Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
spin, the more power it requires. For example, most of the 3 1/2-inch drives on the mar-
ket today use roughly one-half to one-fourth the power (in watts) of the older 5 1/4-inch
drives. Some of the small (2 1/2-inch or 1.8-inch) hard disks barely sip electrical power
and actually use 1 watt or less!
A grounding tab provides an optional ground connection between the drive and the sys-
tem's chassis. In most computers, the HDD is mounted directly to the chassis using
screws, or the drive is grounded via the ground wires in the power connector, so an extra
ground wire is unnecessary.
Configuration Items
To configure an HDD for installation in a system, you usually must set several jumpers
(and, possibly, terminating resistors) properly. These items typically vary according to the
type of interface the drive supports but can vary somewhat from drive to drive as well.
See Chapter 7 , p. 367 .
Hard Disk Features
Tomakethebestdecisioninpurchasingaharddiskforyoursystemortounderstandwhat
distinguishes one brand of hard disk from another, you must consider many features. This
section examines some of the issues you should consider when you evaluate drives:
Capacity
Performance
Reliability
• Cost
Capacity
As stated earlier, a corollary of Parkinson's famous “law” can be applied to hard drives:
“Data expands so as to fill the space available for its storage.” This, of course, means that
no matter how big a drive you get, you will find a way to fill it.
If you've exhausted the space on your current hard disk, you might be wondering, “How
muchstoragespaceisenough?”Becauseyouaremorelikelytorunoutofspacethanhave
too much, you should aim high and get the largest drive that will fit within your budget.
Modern systems are used to store many space-hungry file types, including digital photos,
music,video,newerOSs,applications,andgames.Photo,audio,andespeciallyvideofiles
can take up huge amounts of storage, easily running into hundreds of gigabytes or even
terabytes of storage. Although most drives today can hold hundreds of gigabytes, many
people are storing several times that.
 
 
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