Computer Hard disk drive help

Quick links

Hard Drive ABCs
Hard Drive specifications
Hard Drive interfaces
Size information
Debug Routines
Troubleshooting
Hard disk drive definitions
Hard disk drive buying tips

Hard disk drive ABCs

The hard disk drive is the primary storage location where data is permanently stored. Below is an illustration of what the inside of the hard disk drive may look like. The four main components of a hard disk drive are the platters, head arm, chassis, and the head actuator.

The majority of computer hard disk drives are permanently stored in an internal drive bay at the front of the computer and are connected with one ATA / SCSI cable and power cable. Unlike other drives, the hard disk drive is the only drive that is not physically accessed by the user like the floppy disk drive or the CD-ROM drive.

Size information

The capacity of a computer hard disk drives and the files it contains can be confusing. Below is a listing of the standards in different size values. It is important to realize that not all manufacturers and developers use these values. For example, a manufacturer may consider a gigabyte as the value of a gibibyte.

Bit	Value of 0 or 1
Nibble	4 Bits
Byte	8 Bits
Kilobit	1,000 bits
Kilobyte	1,000 bytes
Kibibit	1,024 bits
Kibibyte	1,024 bytes
Mebibit	1,048,576 bits
Mebibyte	1,048,576 bytes
Megabit	1,000,000 bits
Megabyte	1,000,000 bytes
Gibibit	1,073,741,824 bits
Gibibyte	1,073,741,824 bytes
Gigabyte	1,000,000,000 bytes
Gigabit	1,000,000,000 bits
Tebibit	1,099,511,627,776 bits
Tebibyte	1,099,511,627,776 bytes
Terabyte	1,000,000,000,000 bytes
Terabit	1,000,000,000,000 bits
Pebibit	1,125,899,906,842,624 bits
Pebibyte	1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes
Petabit	1,000,000,000,000,000 bits
Petabyte	1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes
Exabyte	10¹⁸ bytes
Exabit	10¹⁸ bits
Exbibit	2⁶⁰ bits
Exbibyte	2⁶⁰ bytes
Zettabyte	10²¹bytes
Yottabyte	10²⁴bytes

Index

Category:
Hardware

Companies:
Click here

Related Pages:
Conner Hard Drive
Fujitsu Hard Drive
Maxtor Hard Drive
NEC Hard Drive
Quantum Hard Drive
W.D. Hard Drive

Drivers

Hard Disk Drive Drivers

Resolved

Were you able to locate the answer to your questions?

TROUBLESHOOTING

General hard drive support
Windows 95, 98, ME hard drive support
Windows NT, 2000, and XP hard drive support

General hard drive support

Reference	Issue / Question
Hard drive	Dictionary definition and related links on the hard drive.
Interfaces	Additional information and help with computer hard disk drives interfaces.
Cleaning	Additional information and help with cleaning computer hardware.
Contacts	Contact information for hard disk drive manufacturers.
Buying tips	Additional information and help with purchasing a hard drive.
Drivers	Computer hard drive drivers and manufacturer listing.
History	The complete history of computer hard disk drives.
CHADD	Additional information with installing computer hardware.
CHSIZE	Unable to see full amount of hard drive.
CH000033	Determining if FAT32 is enabled.
CH000038	Changing the drive letter of a disk drive.
CH000045	Where can I get the settings for my HDD?
CH000047	Hard drive is not being detected when using a boot diskette.
CH000101	Sector not found error.
CH000102	When installing a new hard drive, does it matter if jumpers are assigned?
CH000175	Do you have any additional information on FDISK /MBR?
CH000179	My computer is running slow what steps can I do to fix it?
CH000180	I'm getting Bad Sectors, Clusters, and/or Missing Allocations what should I do?
CH000181	Missing operating system.
CH000183	Unable to disable Write Precomp within CMOS is there another way?
CH000184	Receiving S.M.A.R.T. status bad backup and replace error.
CH000185	No ROM basic system halted error.
CH000186	How to erase my hard disk drive and start over.
CH000226	Partition shows up as a MS-DOS partition.
CH000229	Invalid / Non System Disk error.
CH000230	Insufficient memory error when formatting hard drive.
CH000231	Invalid media type reading drive c:
CH000260	Is one hard disk drive better then another?
CH000302	Noise from the computer.
CH000341	How to manually remove hard drive compression.
CH000342	How to recover missing, lost, or deleted files.
CH000346	Dual booting information.
CH000355	How to lock / unlock the hard disk drive.
CH000369	Determining available hard drive space.
CH000387	Disk boot failure.
CH000389	Fixed disk failure.
CH000392	ATAPI incompatible press F1 to resume.
CH000402	Boot Record signature AA55 not found.
CH000406	1780 or 1790 hard disk error at boot.
CH000446	Hard disk controller failure.
CH000454	Hard Disk Fail (10), (20), or (80).
CH000474	Computer stops at verifying dmi pool data...
CH000497	How do I determine what type of hard drive I have?
CH000518	Receive a track error when reading, writing, or formatting a disk.
CH000520	How to help make sure all data is erased on hard drive.
CH000528	Regaining computer hard disk drive space.
CH000649	Can I put a laptop hard disk drive in a desktop computer?
CH000705	Getting media test failure, check cable error when computer boots.
CH000712	Can formatting a hard drive several times cause problems?
CH000713	How do I determine what file system is running on my hard drive?
CH000799	Why is the hard disk drive the C: drive?
CH000854	How can I see all drives available on my computer?
CH000929	Disk I/O error as computer starts.
CH001008	Computer is telling me my C drive is full or out of space.
CH001091	Testing a computer hard disk drive for failures.
CH001101	How do I disable / enable AAM?
FORUM	If your question is not listed on this page please try our online forum.

Windows 95, 98, and ME hard drive support

Reference	Issue / Question
Defrag	Defrag information and help
Scandisk	Scandisk information and help
Microsoft 95	Microsoft Windows 95 Q&A
Microsoft 98	Microsoft Windows 98 Q&A
Microsoft ME	Microsoft Windows ME Q&A
CH000142	Is there a FAT16 to FAT32 file converter for Windows 95?
CH000143	Windows 95/98 MS-DOS compatibility preventing game from running.
CH000276	Windows 95 does not support hard drives over 32GB.
CH000366	VFAT errors.
CH000381	A serious disk error occurred trying to read/write drive.
CH000854	How can I see all drives available on my computer?

Windows NT, 2000, and XP hard drive support

Reference	Issue / Question
Microsoft NT	Microsoft Windows NT Q&A
Microsoft 2000	Microsoft Windows 2000 Q&A
Microsoft XP	Microsoft Windows XP Q&A
CH000275	Unable to see over 8GB with Windows NT 4.0.
CH000588	How do I setup a hard disk drive in Windows 2000 and XP?
CH000854	How can I see all drives available on my computer?

Home - Computer help - Contact - Dictionary - Links
Link to Computer Hope - Bookmark Computer Hope