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Comparison of the listed storage devices and connectors
| Floppy Disk | Parallel ATA | Serial ATA | Optical Devices | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Definition | Floppy Disk, or simply known as Floppy is a type of disk storage composed of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic enclosure lined with fabric that removes dust particles, Floppy Disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive(FDD). | Parallel ATA(Advanced Technology Attachment) is a standard for connecting hard drives into computer systems. As its name implies, PATA is based on parallel signaling technology. PATA dates back to the 1980s. Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) drives operate according to this standard. | Serial ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment)[2] is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard to become the predominant interface for storage devices. | An optical disk is any computer disk that uses optical storage techniques and technology to read and write data. It is a computer storage disk that stores data digitally and uses laser beams (transmitted from a laser head mounted on an optical disk drive) to read and write data. |
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Features and Structures |
The magnetic-coated plastic disk is the actual storage medium. Data is written in sectors, which makes it possible to properly read and write data. The magnetic-coated plastic disk is protected by a polyester sheet that reduces the friction against the disk media as it rotates within the plastic housing. | The connections for PATA devices were originally made using 40-conductor ribbon cables. These were later supplanted by 80-conductor cables in which every other conductor is grounded, minimizing mutual capacitance between conductors. The maximum workable cable length is 46 cm(about 18 inches). This means that PATA cables are only practical for use with internal drives. | SATA drives each has its own independent bus, so there is no competition for bandwidth like there is with Parallel ATA. They also use smaller, thinner cables, which allows for better airflow inside the computer. SATA cables can be as long as one meter, while PATA cables max out at 40cm. This gives manufacturers more liberty when designing the internal layout of their computers. Finally, Serial ATA uses only 7 conductors, while Parallel ATA uses 40. This means there is less likely to be electromagnetic interference with SATA devices. | An optical disc is a flat, usually circular disc which encodes binary data in the form of pits and lands on a special material on one of its flat surfaces. The lands represent "1" and the pits represent "0" in binary computing. The bits are read by the disc drive that uses a laser beam to distinguish between the lands and pits based on the amount of scattering or deflection that occurs when the beam of light hits the surface of the disc. |
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Types |
8 inch: 1 Mb 5¼ inch: 1 Mb with higher density 3½ inch: 1.44 Mb storage capacity |
PATA-4 drives can transfer data at a maximum rate of 33 Mb/s PATA-6 drives support up to 100 Mb/s |
SATA1 SATA3 ESATA MSATA SATA Express |
Compact disks (CD) Digital versatile/video disks (DVD) Blu-ray disks |
Definition of Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID)
Redundant array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) is a method of storing duplicate data on two or more hard drives. It is used for data backup, fault tolerance, to improve throughput, increase storage functions and to enhance performance.
RAID is attained by combining two or more hard drives and a RAID controller into a logical unit. The OS sees RAID as a single logical hard drive called a RAID array. There are different levels of RAID, each distributing data across the hard drives with their own attributes and features. Originally, there were five levels, but RAID has advanced to several levels with numerous nonstandard levels and nested levels. The levels are numbered RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 2, etc. They are standardized by the storage networking industry association and are defined in the common RAID disk data format (DDF) standard data structure.
RAID was first patented by IBM in 1978. RAID is mostly used for data protection allowing a continuation of two data copies, one in each drive. It is often used in high-end servers and some small workstations. When RAID duplicates data, a physical disc is in the RAID array. The RAID array is read by the OS as one single disc instead of multiple discs. The RAID objective for each disc is to provide better input/output (I/O) operations and enhanced data reliability. RAID levels can be individually defined or have nonstandard levels, as well as nested levels combining two or more basic levels of RAID.
Components of Disk Optimization
Storage
Storage algorithms break the data apart so that it will fit into
the available space. This makes the storage congested and increases
the loading time and decreases the performance of the PC.
The process of defragmentation Optimization moves the data blocks
on the hard drive around to bring all the parts of a file together.
Defragmentation reduces file system fragmentation, increasing the
efficiency of data retrieval and thereby improving the overall
performance of the computer. At the same time, it cleans the
storage and provides additional storage capacity.
Optimizing Disk
It is a process of organizing or compressing data to maximize free disk space.
A good example of a disk compression software program is a Microsoft Windows utility known as double space.
With today's large hard drives, disk compression utilities are no longer used and no longer recommended. A disk compression utility should be used on hard drives of 1 gig and smaller.
The Microsoft Windows utility defrag can be considered a disk optimizer and is still commonly used and recommended even on large hard drives.
Disk Performance Maintenance
Since fragmentation is the primary cause of poor disk performance, anything that can be done to eliminate fragmentation is going to increase disk performance.
One of the primary reasons fragmentation hurts disk performance is because your hard drive head has to go and retrieve each and every piece of a fragmented file before you can access it. This excessive and unnecessary disk activity causes slow PC performance.
There are essentially two ways to address fragmentation. You can wait until it happens, then use defrag (the act of putting fragmented files back together), or you can prevent the fragmentation before it ever has a chance to slow down your disk performance.
Hey, can anyone answer this? Thank you. Compare and contrast the 4 listed storage devices: Floppy,...