Company Name
Employee Names
Team Lead
Module Name	Hard Drives
Certification Test		Vendor
Objectives covered
Time allotted	10 days	Time Taken
Date Started	12/3/2007	Date Completed		12/14/2007
Item			Complete		Incomplete	Points Awarded
Group Test Score
Lab Test Score for Each Member
Completed solution to problem portfolio (see rubric for score)
Task One: Three things Jason should check first
Task Two: List of vocabulary to be defined
Task Three: Team evaluation
Task Four: Project Questions turned in day assigned (five questions you want others to learn from your presentation)
Project Sheet completed and turned in
Personal Evaluation from EACH team member
Project presented

Budget for Unit	500
Expenditures		Remaining Budget
Tardies (5/day)		Labs	N/A
Absences (20/day)		Hardware Test Score Average	N/A
Off Task (50/student/episode)		Objective Test Score Average (100)
Consultation Fees (50/consultation)		Project (400)
Seminar (100)		Total (500)
Missed deadline (100/day)
Total
Budget remaining

A+ Computer Technician

Understanding and Supporting Hard Drives

Tory Klementsen, A+ MCP

Sno Isle Skills Center

You Will Learn:

lAbout hard drive technologies

lHow communication with hard drive BIOS is accomplished

lHow a hard drive is logically organized to hold data

lHow to install a hard drive

lHow to troubleshoot hard drives*

Hard Drive Technology

lHard drives use two forms of technology

–Technology of how the hard drive __________ with the system

–Technology used within the hard drive to __________and __________data to the drive*

Types of Hard Drive Interfaces

lIDE and EIDE standards (AKA __________)

lOther interface standards

– __________

– IEEE __________

– __________

– __________ Channel

– __________

– __________*

IDE Channels on a Motherboard

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

IDE Cable

lEnsure that the __________, indicated by a red line on the cable, is connected to __________ on the hard drive.

Parallel vs Serial Communications

l PATA (__________ __________ __________ aka IDE) communicates using parallel communications.

– Parallel devices communicate by sending data in __________ vs bits. A parallel device can send one or two __________ of data down a bus at a time.

– Both the sending and receiving devices must __________ the transfer

– Originally parallel communications were more reliable

– Parallel devices must __________ __________ communicating*

Parallel vs Serial Communications

l SATA (_______ __________ __________ __________)

– Serial devices communicate one __________ at a time, however communications are __________ and more __________

– Can go __________ Gbps (whew)

– SATA does advanced __________ checking, resulting in more reliable communications

– Serial devices can communicate in __________ with other __________ devices

– Serial devices operate at a lower voltage*

PATA vs SATA

	Parallel ATA	Serial ATA
Maximum Speed
Cable Length
Cable Pins
Power Connector Pins
Data transfer wires used
Power Consumption
Hot Swappable?

Serial Attachment SCSI (SAS)

lA drive specification that combines the benefits of __________ with __________ communications

lhttp://specials.seagate.com/sac/flash/

SAS

l More commonly seen in __________ where large storage capacity, speed, and reliability are mission critical

l Works much like __________ but uses some of the __________ benefits

– Allows up to __________ devices chained together

– Greater __________

– __________ cabling

– __________ cables

– Uses similar cables as __________

– __________ ported for __________ *

SAS Ports

l Not intended for single drive environments

l Use is mainly business at this point…high speed __________, __________, and __________

l What is RAID:

l What is JBOD?

l What is SAN?

l Extra notch keeps you from plugging a regular __________ plug into SAS.

Vertical Drives

l Traditionally, bits are arranged in a flat, __________ manner

l To increase size of the disk, the size of the bits have been __________, however we’re reaching the limits at about __________

l Laying the bits __________ frees up a lot of real estate, allowing the bits to be __________ together and increasing the __________ of drives.

l Also known as __________ recording

Hybrid Hard Drives

l A __________ hard drive is a hard drive that contains a __________ memory chip that stores __________ and __________.

l Because the processor can retrieve data from __________, the drive--which spins constantly in an ordinary computer--can stay __________ most of the time.

l Speeds up __________ and takes out the issue of the hard drive being the __________ of the system, depending on the amount of flash memory.

l Improves __________, __________ consumption, and __________ of hard drives (less wear and tear on platters).

Lab Time!

lLab 6-1 Formatting and Partitioning

lLab 6-2 More FDISK and DOS utilities

lLab 6-3 Changing the File System Types

How Hard Drives Work

l Platter(s) are stacked together and spin in __________

l Read/write heads are controlled by an __________ and move in unison across disk surfaces as disks rotate on a __________

l Require hard drive __________ for instructions*

Tracks and Sectors on IDE Drive

l Older __________ and __________ technologies

– Have either __________ or __________ sectors per track over entire drive platter

– All tracks contain same number of __________

l IDE drives use __________ bit recording formatting system

– Number of sectors per track is __________ the same throughout the platter

– Tracks near center have smallest __________ of sectors per track*

How Data is Written

lData is written from the __________ in towards the center.

lAs the heads get closer to the center they must __________ for the smaller sectors

– __________: Speeds up writing of tracks on smaller sectors.

– __________ __________ __________: A reduced current is used towards the center of the platter on the smaller sectors.*

IDE Drives

l __________ -level formatting

– Track and sector markings are written on hard drive at the __________

– NEVER do this yourself. BAD!

l High-level formatting (OS formatting)

– Executed by the __________

– Create a boot __________, __________, and __________ directory*

Lab Time!

lLab 6-4

lLab 6-5

lLab 6-6

SCSI Basics

l SCSI = __________ __________ __________ __________

l Acts like a small __________ inside of the computer

l Bus can contain/be used by up to __________ or __________ devices

l Bus controller can be either:

– An __________ card (host adapter)

– __________ on motherboard

l Faster, more expensive, more difficult to install than similar IDE devices*

The SCSI Subsystem

l Host adapter

– Card inserted onto __________ slot on mother board

– Manages all __________ on SCSI bus

– Supports __________ and __________ SCSI devices

– Forms a single __________ chain with devices

l Device drivers

– Enable OS to __________ with a host adapter*

Issues to Consider when Selecting a Host Adapter

l BIOS—SCSI has its own __________ that sometimes will assign resources already in use.

l Expansion slot—does it __________?

l Bus mastering—allows access to __________ and other devices w/out accessing CPU.

l __________ -compliant—allows devices to work like PnP automagically assigning __________ Ids

– Will be identified by logo “____________________”

– If not SCAM must use __________ *

SCSI Device Drivers

l BIOS that supports SCSI will see the drive, but __________ will be needed to use it.

– If using IDE and SCSI, __________ should be the boot drive

– Some BIOS allow the __________ BIOS to boot first, but not always.

l __________ (Advanced SCSI Programming Interface)

l __________ (Common Access Method)*

Variations in SCSI

l Bus __________

– Narrow __________ -bit uses __________ pin cable

– Wide __________ -bit uses __________ pin cable

l Signaling methods used on SCSI cables

– Two kinds used: __________ Ended and __________

l Connectors used with SCSI cables

– __________ pin A cable

– __________ pin P cable

– __________ pin SCA cable used with hot __________ drives*

lTermination

–Prevents __________ __________

–Required at __________ ends. If the card is first either place a __________ on it or use __________ or a __________ to turn it on/off*

Comparing IDE and SCSI

lIDE supports only __________ internal devices; SCSI supports both __________ and __________ devices and allows you to add __________ devices to a system.

lSCSI devices are generally of __________ quality than IDE devices and more __________.*

lIDE devices require a separate __________ for each channel; SCSI requires only __________ for the entire chain.

lBoth IDE and SCSI are generally __________ -compatible, in that most faster hardware can work with slower devices.*

lA SCSI subsystem provides __________ data transfer than an IDE drive

lThe SCSI bus is the source of the performance rather than the hard drive technology.

lSCSI generally provides better __________ than IDE and is often used on high-demand servers.*

lA good SCSI host adapter allows you to connect other SCSI devices to it, such as a __________, __________, or __________ drive.

lWithout SCSI technology, if you have two IDE drives on the same IDE channel, only one of them can be __________ at any one time.*

How System BIOS Helps Manage Data Transfer

l Provides __________ handler for software interrupts

l Automatically __________ /__________ hard drive

l Helps manage __________ transfer over I/O bus between hard drive and memory

– Using __________ mode, CPU is in charge

– Using __________ with DMA controller in charge (no CPU involvement)

– With bus __________ using DMA, hard drive BIOS controls data transfer*

How a Hard Drive Is Logically Organized to Hold Data

lRequirements to boot from hard drive and get to a command prompt:

– Drive must have __________ and __________ markings written on it

– A __________ __________ must be installed

– __________ needed to __________ the PC must be copied to __________ directory of drive*

How a Hard Drive Is Logically Organized to Hold Data

lSteps for preparing a hard drive to hold files (after physical installation)

–__________ -level format

–__________ hard drive

–__________ -level format*

Hard Drive Partitions and Logical Drives

lPartitions

– __________ -level divisions

lLogical drives (volumes)

– __________ division of partitions

– Have letters or name (in _____ /__________) assigned to them

– Each has its own __________ system (eg, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS)*

When to Partition a Drive

lWhen installing a __________ hard drive

lIf existing hard drive is giving __________

lIf you suspect a __________ has attacked the drive

lTo wipe hard drive clean and install new __________ *

What Happens During Formatting

lOS format for each __________ drive creates these file system items at beginning of each logical drive:

–__________ boot record

–__________

–__________ directory*

An Ounce of Prevention

l Make __________ and keep them current

l Run __________ software regularly

l __________ files; scan hard drive occasionally

l Don’t __________ around the hard drive

l Don’t leave PC turned __________ for weeks/months at a time

l High __________ can be dangerous for hard drives

l Be __________ with a hard drive

Commands to Use
with Hard Drives

lFdisk

lFormat

lDefrag and Windows Disk Defragmenter

lScanDisk to correct __________ -linked and lost clusters

Hard Drive Problems

lComputer recently __________?

lNew __________ recently installed?

lNew __________ recently installed?

lSoftware recently __________ or upgraded?

lHistory of __________ problems?

Hard Drives

Lab Check off Sheet and Report

Certification Tests and Objectives Covered in Labs

A+ Operating System

A+ Hardware

Network+

Windows 2000 Professional 70-210

Windows 2003 Server 70-290

CISCO 640-801

X

1.0 OS Fundamentals

X

1.0 Installation, Configuration, and Upgrading

1.0 Media and Topologies

Installation

Managing and Maintaining Physical and Logical Devices

Planning and Designing

2.0 Installation, Configuration and Upgrading

X

2.0 Diagnosing and Troubleshooting

2.0 Protocols and Standards

Implementing and Conducting Administration of Resources

Managing Users, Computers, and Groups

Implementation and Operations

3.0 Diagnosing and Troubleshooting

X

3.0 Preventative Maintenance

3.0 Network Implementation

Implementing, Managing, and Troubleshooting Hardware Devices and Drivers

Managing and Maintaining Accesses to Resources

Troubleshooting

4.0 Networks

4.0 Motherboards, Processors, and Memory

4.0 Network Support

Monitoring and Optimizing System Performance and Reliability

Managing and Maintaining a Server Environment

Technology

5.0 Printers

Configuring and Troubleshooting the Desktop Environment

Managing and Implementing Disaster Recovery

6.0 Basic Networking

Implementing, Managing, and Troubleshooting Network Protocols and Services

Implementing, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting Security

Check off each of the labs as you complete them below. Turn this in with your lab reports.

Requirement	Completed	Filled Out Lab Sheet	Not Attempted (0 on labs for unit)
Lab 6-1
Lab 6-2
Lab 6-3
Lab 6-4
Lab 6-5
Lab 6-6

Lab 6-1 Install DOS using Floppy Disk Images

1. Go into Virtual PC where you have your DOS installation.
2. Open DOS if you saved the state last time.
3. Close DOS, do not save state.
4. Click on your DOS installation and select settings
5. Click on Hard Disk 1 and write down, below, where your virtual hard disk is stored (no sense in creating a new one, we’ll just reformat and install on this one).
6. Click Cancel.
7. Click your DOS and click remove. Yup, you’re going to delete that DOS.
8. Follow the instructions below to reinstall DOS using the disk images online.

FileàNew virtual machine wizard. Create a new virtual machine.
Name your virtual machine DOS and save it in the same place you had your old DOS. (If it won’t let you save over it, just name it DOS 6.22) The Operating system will be Other. Virtual PC does not support DOS (supposedly).
Adjust the RAM down to 4 MB. We don’t need more than that.
Select an existing hard disk and choose your other DOS disk, unless it was huge. If it was huge, delete it and create a new one using only 10 MB.
While DOS is booting go under the Floppy menu and select “Capture Floppy Disk Image” The image is in \\csn\pub \Software\ISOs\MSDOS-6.2.2
Click the first image file. That’s your first floppy. If you grab it while it’s booting, it should boot right into the installer. If it’s “too late” just hit return when it says it can’t find an OS. Hit Enter at the installer screen.
If you kept your old virtual hard drive, you’ll get the message shown. Go ahead and continue setup by hitting Enter.
NOW DON’T JUST HIT ENTER! Look at the settings. We are not in Finland!
Using your arrow keys, move up to Country and hit Enter. Select United States. Do the same for Keyboard Layout.
NOW you can hit Enter. When it wants the next disk, go under Floppy and release the first disk image. Then go under floppy and capture disk image 2. Hit Enter. Do the same when it asks for three. You’re done reinstalling DOS using floppy disk images!
Test to make sure you did it right. Reboot and type a: If you see the picture to the right, YOU DID IT WRONG! START OVER!

Answer the questions below.

1. What is a disk image?

2. What was the cause of not being able to type a colon in DOS if you installed from the images originally?

3. Why did we reset the RAM so low?

4. Why do you only need 10 MB to install DOS?

Lab 6-2 Creating a Virtual Hard Disk in DOS

Open Virtual PC. Close DOS so that the state is not saved. Click the DOS install and click the settings button in Virtual PC.
Click Hard Disk 2 (it currently says None because you only have one virtual hard disk). Now click Virtual Disk Wizard
Click next, create a new virtual hard disk, browse to where your other DOS disk is. Name this disk DOS Disk 2.VHD
Create a Fixed Size disk. Make it 500 MB. We don’t need a big disk. Click Okay.
Quit DOS, turn off (not save state). Click DOS Click settings. NOW you’re going to put in a second hard drive (the one you just created).
Reboot into DOS.

Questions

1. What is a virtual hard disk?

2. What can you do with this disk you just created?

3. What are you going to need to do before you can use it? (Don’t do that, just tell me. The next lab has you doing stuff to it.)

4. How many hard disks can you have in a virtual machine?

5. How many network cards?

6. Pretty cool, huh?

Lab 6-3 Using FDISK

Objective

Low level formatting is done using the format command. Low level formatting divides the disk in tracks and divides the tracks into sectors. This must happen before high level formatting when the disk is new, and can also be done when a disk is exhibiting a lot of unrecoverable errors. Generally this is done at the manufacturer. You will rarely perform your own low-level format. The steps to preparing a hard drive are as follows:

o Perform a low level format

o Partition the drive

o Format the drive with a high level format

You’ll do the last two, only.

Viewing the current hard drive configuration

Reboot into your DOS Virtual Machine. At the C prompt, type FDISK. Your screen should resemble this: From the FDISK menu, select option 4 by typing 4 and then pressing Enter. Observe your current hard drive configuration. In particular, note the volume label. Write down what you see below:
You are going to change your current disk drive (remember, you created a new disk in the last lab). Hit escape to get back to the main menu. If you do not see 5, that means you didn’t complete the lab 6-2 so go back and do that. Hit 5.
You should see something like shown to the right. You haven’t done anything to your 2^nd drive yet. It’s pristine, clean, and ready to be FDISKed!
At the FDISK Main Menu, select option 1 and press Enter. Type 1 and press Enter. When the FDISK utility asks if you want to use all the available space for the primary partition and set it as active, select No by typing N and pressing Enter. When FDISK prompts you to enter the amount of drive space you want to use, type 100 and press Enter. Press Esc to return to the FDISK Main Menu. Hit 4 to display partition information and you should see 1 partition, set as primary DOS, 100 MB in size, which is using 20% of your drive.
Primary, extended and DOS partitions. o There are a maximum of four partitions that can be placed on any DOS or Windows 9x hard drive. o These would be primary partitions. However, you can create extended partitions and put logical partitions inside extended partitions. Confused? Good. o This allows you to get around the 4 partition limit. o You can have only ONE extended DOS partition, but it can be split into lots of logical partitions. o Only one partition can be active. The active partition is the one that is used for booting the system. o Primary—A partition that can be named active and can hold boot files. There can be up to four. If you need four use: o Extended—Used to hold logical partitions. There can be only ONE. o Logical—used when you need more than four partitions. Logical partitions may ONLY be created within the extended partition. o Why? Because I said so. (No, because that’s how DOS works. No one thought they’d need more than two partitions, four max!)
So let’s create an extended partition. Go back to the FDISk menu. Select 1 to create a new partition. Select 3 to create logical DOS drives in the extended DOS partition. D’oh! You can’t do that! You need to create an extended partition first! Select 2 to create an extended DOS partition. Make it 300 MB. It’s going to immediately tell you that you have to create a logical drive. Why? Because you can’t do anything to an extended drive unless it has logical drives. Create THREE logical drives of 100, 100, and 99 MB each (just follow the onscreen prompts).
When you are done display partition information. It should look like this:
Go ahead and display the logical partitions. What drive letters have been assigned?	Write answer here
Exit out of FDISK. Because you created new partitions, you have to restart. Test that your partitions are there. Type d:\ and hit enter. It’s giving you an error? What is the error and why are you getting it?	Write answer here
You have to format it so back at the C:\ prompt type format d: Format away! Whee! Formatting is fun! Label it OLDWOMAN
What is happening as you format the drive?	Write the answer here, be specific.
Go into your D: drive and type dir. What do you see? Why does it say “File not found?”	Write the answer here.
Create a text file within OLDWOMAN named fly.txt. Now do a DIR. What do you see?	Write the answer here.
Format e: name it spider Format f: name it bird Format g: name cat	Take a screen shot of these partitions named (go into FDISK) and staple it to your lab report.
Delete a Partition
Head into FDISK again. Select 3 to delete a partition. Select 2 to delete an extended partition. You get an error? What is the error and why did you get it?	Write the answer here
Let’s just delete ONE logical partition. Do that (figure it out) You’ll have to reboot after you delete the partition.

Setting an active partition

1. Select option 2 from the FDISK Main Menu.
2. Choose the primary partition that you created by typing 1 and pressing Enter.
3. Press Esc to return to the main menu.
4. Press Esc to exit FDISK and press any key. Your workstation will restart.
5. Note: If you already have DOS installed, the installer creates a single partition and sets it to active, so it will just tell you that it’s already set to active.

Define the following terms:

Term	Definition
Active Partition
Partition
Extended partition
Logical drive
FDISK
MBR

Circle True or False.

1. When a partition’s size is changed using the FDISK utility, the data contained on the partition is lost. True / False
2. The FDISK utility is used to partition and format hard drives. True / False
3. Extended partitions are always placed within logical drives. True / False

4. List three functions of the FDISK utility.

1. ___________________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________________

5. You are the desktop PC support technician for the Good Job Corporation. John, one of your customers, suspects that his hard drive is not partitioned to use its full capacity. Describe how you would use the FDISK utility to show John his current hard drive configuration.

6. Describe the relationship between a logical drive and an extended partition.

7. What is the difference between a physical drive and a logical drive?

Lab 6-4 Installing a Second Hard Drive

Objective

You must format a hard drive to install a file system. In this lab exercise you will learn how to properly install and optimize the FAT file system.

After completing this lab, you will be able to:

• Format a partition.
• Use the SCANDISK utility to optimize performance.
• Use the DEFRAG utility to optimize performance.

Materials Required

• Operating system:Windows 9x
• Lab workgroup size: 2 students
• You MUST do this on your LAB computer (not the classroom DELLs. We never open those.)
• One DOS boot disk that includes the Format and SYS commands
• One DOS disk that contains both the SCANDISK and DEFRAG utilities

Lab Setup & Safety Tips

• Each workstation’s hard drive should contain one unformatted primary partition that has been set as active during lab 6-1.
• Be sure that the data stored on your lab workstation has been backed up before you proceed with this lab exercise.

Formatting the new drive

1. Power off your lab workstation.
2. Install a second hard drive that does not have anyone else’s OS on it! You want a plain drive. Get it from me.
3. Be sure that second drive is mounting in your CMOS.
4. Insert the boot disk into drive A. If you do not have a boot disk, make one. You should have it in your disk set!
5. Power on your lab workstation and allow it to boot from your DOS boot disk.
6. At the A prompt, type FORMAT driveletterofnewdrive
7. When asked to confirm before proceeding, type Y and press Enter. The format command begins to format drive C.
8. When formatting is completed, type a volume label of DRIVE 1.

aking drive bootable

You can use many different commands to make a drive bootable. Following are two examples of command sequences:

Using the SYS command

1. Power off your lab workstation.
2. Insert the boot disk into drive A.
3. Power on your lab workstation and allow it to boot from your DOS boot disk.
4. At the A prompt, type SYS A: driveletter: and press Enter.

Using the Format command

The /S switch tells DOS to add system information to the drive after it has been formatted. Use the /? option to view other FORMAT switches.

1. Power off your lab workstation.
2. Insert the boot disk into drive A.
3. Power on your lab workstation and allow it to boot from your DOS boot disk.
4. At the A prompt, type FORMAT driveletter: /S.
5. When asked to confirm before proceeding, type Y and press Enter.
6. When formatting is completed, type a volume label of DRIVE 1.

Using the SCANDISK utility

1. Insert the disk that contains the SCANDISK utility.
2. At the A prompt, type SCANDISK and press Enter.
3. Allow SCANDISK to verify your file and directory structure, and to complete a surface scan.
4. When SCANDISK has completed, use the View Log option to view any errors that SCANDISK might have encountered.
5. After examining the view log, exit the SCANDISK utility.

Using the DEFRAG utility

1. Insert the disk that contains the DEFRAG utility.
2. At the A prompt, type DEFRAG and press Enter.
3. Allow DEFRAG to reorganize the hard drive (this should happen quickly if the drive was formatted recently).
4. When the defragmentation is completed, exit the DEFRAG utility.

Review Questions

Circle True or False.

1. Using the SCANDISK utility will delete all files less than 512 K in size. True / False
2. The DEFRAG utility places file clusters in consecutive order. True / False
3. You should run the SCANDISK utility only once every three months. True / False

4. Describe the functionality of the DEFRAG utility.

5. You are currently employed as a PC desktop support technician at My World. One of your customers, Jamie, calls to tell you that her computer is running more slowly than it did last month. List two utilities that Jamie might use to improve the performance of her computer.

6. John is currently running DEFRAG, and it is taking a long time. John called you to ask what the DEFRAG program does, and why it seems to be so slow. Over the last year John has never run the DEFRAG utility. Describe to John both the purpose of the DEFRAG utility and explain why it is taking so long to run.

LAB 6-5 TEST HARD DRIVE PERFORMANCE USING SANDRA

Objectives

The goal of this lab is to help you use SANDRA to compare the performance of your system’s drives against similar drives. After completing this lab, you will be able to:

➤ Use SANDRA to test your drive’s performance

➤ Use SANDRA to compare your system’s drives with similar drives

Materials Required

This lab will require the following:

➤ Windows 9x operating system

➤ SiSoft SANDRA 2008

Download and Install SANDRA

1. Go to www.teechur.com and download SANDRA (on this module’s homepage). Or get it in the PUB folder
2. Download SANDRA 2008.
3. Log into your Windows XP.
4. Install SANDRA. Do not install the PDA versions.

SANDRA Lite can be used to run all sorts of tests on your hard drive. It should give you a nice indication of how your drive is running. We’re going to use SANDRA to test our hard drives. SANDRA is actually updated quite often, so if you use it at a tech you’d want to check for the newest version.

1. Start SANDRA.
2. Click the hardware tab.
3. Click physical drives to analyze your hard drive and fill in the information below.
   
   

Type (SCSI, ATA, SATA)

Interface

Cache size

Total sectors

Number of ECC Bytes

Bytes per sector

Capacity

Partition information

Temperature

ECC Corrected count

List four features of your drive

Space used

4. What are two performance tips the program gives you to speed up the drive?

5. Click on the Benchmarks tab and click Physical Disks.
6. How fast is your drive? __________ MB/S (Megabytes per second)
7. What four drives does the program compare your drive with?
1. ______________________________________________
2. ______________________________________________
3. ______________________________________________
4. ______________________________________________
5. Which ones are faster?
6. Slower?
8. What could you do with this information?

9. Scroll down to benchmark breakdown. Fill out the following information.

What was the drive index speed?

What was the random access time?

Is index speed good or bad?

Buffered write

Look at detailed benchmark results

Which position shows the fastest speed?

Slowest?

Review Questions

1. Why might you want to test your drive with SANDRA?

2. Based on the drive ratings information from SANDRA, do you think a drive performs better if it spins faster or slower?

3. Based on the drive ratings information from SANDRA, do you think a drive performs better if it reads data randomly or sequentially?

4. What does this tell you about a fragmented hard drive?

LAB 6-6 TROUBLESHOOTING HARD DRIVES

Objectives

The goal of this lab is to help you troubleshoot common hard drive problems. After completing this lab, you will be able to:

➤ Simulate common hard drive problems

➤ Diagnose and repair common hard drive problems

➤ Document the process

Materials Required

This lab will require the following:

➤ A computer with a hard drive subsystem that you can sabotage

➤ Bootable disk

➤ PC toolkit

➤ Workgroup of 2-4 students

Activity Background

This lab will give you practice diagnosing and remedying common hard drive problems.

ACTIVITY

1. Verify that your hard drive is working by using a command prompt or Windows Explorer to display files on the drive.
2. Switch computers with another team.
3. Sabotage the other team’s computer by doing one of the following:
1. Remove or incorrectly configure the drive jumpers
2. Remove the power connector from the drive
3. Switch data cables to place devices on incorrect IDE channels
4. Disable IDE controllers in CMOS setup
4. Return to your computer and examine it for any symptoms of a problem.
5. Before doing anything to fix the problem, answer the following questions relating to the problem’s symptoms:
1. What symptoms would a user notice? (Describe the symptoms as the user might describe them.)

2. Does the system boot from the hard drive?

3. Does POST display the hard drive?

4. Can you boot from a floppy disk and change to the drive in question?

5. Does the CMOS HDD Autodetect option detect the hard drive?
5. State your initial diagnosis.

7. Diagnose and repair the problem.
8. Below, list the steps required to confirm your diagnosis and solve the problem.
1. __________________________________________________________
2. __________________________________________________________
3. __________________________________________________________
4. __________________________________________________________
5. __________________________________________________________
6. __________________________________________________________
7. __________________________________________________________

9. Answer the following questions relating to your final conclusions:
1. What was the problem?

2. What did you do to correct the problem? Was your preliminary diagnosis correct?

10. Repeat Steps 1-8, choosing actions at random from the list in Step 2, until your team has performed all the items listed in Step 2. Be sure to write down the relevant information (as instructed in the steps) for each problem.

Review Questions

1. What was the first indication that the power was disconnected from your drive?

2. What incorrect drive configuration would still allow you to access files on the hard drive by booting from the floppy?

3. What incorrect configurations have similar symptoms?

4. What problem resulted in no drives being detected except for the floppy drive?

5. List the steps required to use a drive whose partitions have been deleted.

Lab 6-7 Uses for Old Hard Drives

1. Check out this link: http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/top-10-strangest-hard-drive-projects
2. Which use is your favorite use?
3. As a group, come up with 10 NEW uses for old hard drives.

New Use

Purpose

Picture

Lab 6-8 Changing the File System Type

Objective

Sometimes you have a hard drive that is formatted FAT but you want the security of NTFS. You would think you’d have to format it all over again and lose your data, right?

Wrong! There is a little utility that will allow you to change the way the drive is formatted from FAT to NTFS.

Note: You cannot convert from NTFS to FAT because of how the vector table is stored in NTFS. Think of it the same way you can use an old device in a newer port (say you can use a SATA 1.5 drive with a SATA 2.0 port) but you can’t use the new stuff in the old port.

Materials Required

• One small partition on your drive that is formatted in FAT
• DOS boot floppy with FDISK on it

Lab Setup & Safety Tips

• Each workstation’s hard drive should contain one unformatted primary partition that has been set as active during lab 6-1.
• You should have completed lab 6-2 to ensure your hard drive is defragmented and has been checked for errors.

Here we go

1. Boot into Windows XP.
2. Ensure that you have one small formatted partition on your drive and that it is formatted FAT. IF YOU DO NOT, DO NOT CONVERT YOUR C: DRIVE TO FAT OR YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BOOT INTO WINDOWS 98!
3. What drive letter is assigned to your small partition? (It should be probably E or F.)

4. At the command prompt type convert driveletter: /FS:NTFS
1. What you’re saying is:
2. Convert the drive at this letter
3. From FS FAT to
4. NTFS
5. Give the drive a volume label of mydrive.
6. Press enter and it will tell you if you can do this or not.
7. If you were to install XP on a FAT32 on a single hard drive and you converted, the conversion would take place next time you rebooted your computer. If you looked in computer management, it would still say it was FAT.
8. If you convert a partition on a drive that contains multiple partitions, the conversion takes place right away. Check it out.
1. Open computer management
2. Look in Disk management
3. Take a screen shot and print it. Attach it to your lab report.

Review Questions

Circle True or False.

1. You can convert an NTFS partition to FAT without losing data? True or false
2. You can convert a FAT32 partition to FAT16 without losing data? True or false
3. What is the benefit of FAT16 over FAT32?

4. What is the benefit of FAT32 over NTFS?

5. What is the benefit of NTFS over FAT?

Lab 6-9 Disk Utilities Built in to your OS

The following disk utilities are built into your operating system:

1. Chkdsk
2. Scandisk
3. Device manager
4. MSConfig.exe (not really a disk utility but helpful in troubleshooting)
5. NTBackup

Learn what each of these utilities does and describe them below.

Utility name

What it does

Perform the following tasks:

1. Use Chkdsk on your lab computer’s hard drive. What is the outcome? (Describe what it found below.)
2. Use Scandisk on your lab computer’s hard drive. What is the outcome? (Describe below.)
3. Go into device manager and identify the following (do this on XP)
1. IRQ used

2. I/O Ranges used (yes, all of them)

4. Within XP do the following:
1. Open MSCONFIG.EXE by typing that command in the run box.
2. Describe each of the tabs you find and what’s under them.

Tab	What you can do here

3. What items startup when your computer boots?

4. Describe how to turn off one or more startup item.

5. Using MSCONFIG set it up to reboot in a diagnostic startup.
6. Describe what happens.

7. Reboot normally.

5. Open up NT Backup (it’s in the accessories, or you can type NTBackup at the command prompt)
1. Backup files and settings
2. Backup your documents and settings
3. Put the backup on your desktop
4. Name it “Myname’s Backup” (replace Myname with your actual name…the one your mommy gave you).
6. Restore files from NT Backup
1. Go into your “My documents” folder and delete a file that isn’t important, or move it to another location.
2. Run NTBackup again
3. Restore files
4. Go in and manually extract ONLY the file you deleted from within your backup.
7. Notes on NTBackup: There is a lot more you can do with this, but we’ll use that more in networking. One irritating thing to note is that you cannot backup to a CD burner in the XP (this changed with Vista). You can backup to a hard drive, tape drive, or floppy drive (haha) and sometimes a USB drive.

Unit Project—Hard Drives

Remember your customer from the RAM unit? He has a new issue. You did such a great job fixing the RAM thing that he has returned to you for your expertise.

Here is his email:

Dude. Thanks for fixing the RAM issue. Who knew that stupid Vista didn’t see 4 GB RAM? I didn’t. Obviously you did because you’re smart like that.

My friend just gave me four SATA hard drives. I want them all to work in my system but I don’t want a bunch of different drive letters going down. I know there must be a way to get this to work.

Any ideas?

There are THREE versions of “this” that are supported natively in XP and Vista. You are going to describe to him how to do that, with screen shots. You will use your installation of Vista to do this.

THEN

There are third party solutions, you will create a package that includes hardware and software needed to use these drives in the manner that he wants to use them. You will put pictures and prices and give him full instructions how to do this.

Task One: Create a list of words that must be defined in order to answer the customer’s question.

Task Two: Develop a list of questions that must be answered before you can begin fulfilling the customer needs. Email your questions to jschmoe@teechur.com

Task Three: Develop a customer overview. Who is this guy? What does he need? How can you help?

Task Four: Determine a list of his current needs and potential future needs.

Task Five: Research the requirements for his motherboard.

Task Six: Develop a step by step list of troubleshooting steps to take.

Task Seven: Research the requirements for the task he’s asking you to complete.

Task Eight: Create a simple step by step package, complete with diagrams and screen shots, that will explain to him:

1. What it is he wants to do. Use proper terminology.
2. How to set it up.
3. The different ways he can set it up. Be CLEAR.
4. Any additional hardware or software requirements.
5. Troubleshooting tips for when it doesn’t work.
6. Your suggestion for the best way to set it up.

Task Seven: Create a complete proposal that outlines what you can do for the customer. Include drawings and images, price quotes, and other items as applicable. This proposal will be in POWERPOINT format and will be presented with ALL tasks present.

Questions that Must Be Answered

Hard Drive Technology Know/be able to answer the following:

• What is low level formatting and what does it do to your hard drive. When would you use it?
• What is precompensation and how does it speed up the writing of data?
• What kind of cable does an IDE drive use? (Number of pins.)
• Be able to identify tracks, sectors, the FAT, MBR, and other components on the platter.
• What does the OS “see” an IDE drive as?
• How many devices can be on an IDE or EIDE channel?
• What is the makeup of an IDE circuit board?
• What DOS commands can be used with hard drives?
• What is the purpose of zone bit recording and how does it speed up reading and writing?

SCSI Drives Know and be able to answer the following:

• How more than one SCSI device can communicate on a chain.
• How SCSI IDs are defined.
• How many devices can communicate on one chain.
• Define: LUN, DEV NR, SCAC, SCAM, ultra scsi, wide scsi, termination
• What devices in a SCSI chain should be terminated.
• The difference between SCSI BIOS and system BIOS.
• Which takes precedence, SCSI BIOS or system BIOS.
• What role the host adapter plays in communications.
• Sizes of cables used on narrow and wide scsi.
• Types of terminators and which is most effective.
• How a disk is prepared for use.
• The analogy of SCSI to networks.
• Types of drivers used with SCSI

Logical Organization of Drives Know and be able to answer the following:

• Know how partitioning works and where the OS should be on a partitioned drive.
• Know the utilities that can be used to fix drives in Windows 98 and DOS
• Know how many tracks per sector you have on IDE drives.
• Know what the FAT, MBR, Partition table, and root directory are.
• Know the length of the partition table.
• Know what the boot record is.
• Know the difference between primary and extended partitions and how many you can have of each.
• Know the DOS commands for managing the hard drive.
• Know the differences among FAT16, FAT32, and FAT12.
• How long are root directory entries?
• What is a cluster and how does using some file systems waste space due to clusters?
• DOS based utility programs.
• What size clusters are used for FAT16 and FAT32?
• How many entries is a FAT16 root directory size limited to?

DOS know and be able to use:

• How to use FDISk
• DOS commands
• How clusters work.
• Define lost clusters.
• Define a cross linked file.
• What is fragmentation?
• What is a virtual drive? Disk caching?

New Storage:

• What are the new things on the horizon?
• Where can you find out more information?
• Describe the following technologies
• HAMR
• Spintronics technology/UB Sensor
• Holographic storage
• Future of SAN (Storage Area Networks)
• Other