Electromechanical

Rotating disks
Arm assembly
Disk controller
Interface controller
Aluminum with a deposit of magnetic material
Some disks also use glass platters
Anti-Ferromagnetically Coupled media
Arm
Assembly
Arm
Head
Cylinder Spindle
Platter
Track
Typical configurations seen in disks today
Platter diameters: 3.7, 3.3, 2.6
RPMs: 5400, 7200, 10000, 15000
Number of platters: 1-5
Mobile disks can be as small as 0.75
Bit-cell composed of
magnetic grains
50-100 grains/bit
0
Region of grains of
uniform magnetic
polarity
1
Boundary between
regions of opposite
magnetization
Source: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/research/storage/pm/index.html
For Reading
For Writing
Rate at which data can be read from or written to the
physical media
Expressed in MB/s
IDR is determined by
BPI
Platter-diameter
RPM
Track=
concentric
circle
Sector =
small arc
of track
Can store
512 bytes
Tracks
Cylinders
Sectors
Clusters


No of pins : 39
No of devices can be connected : 2
Speed : 66-480/mbps
RPM : 3200-7500
Used : internal hard disk for desktops
No of pins : 7
No of devices can be connected : 1
Speed : 780mbps-1.5gbps
RPM : 7500-15000
Used : internal hard disk for desktops and
laptops

No of pins : 4
No of devices can be connected : 1
Speed : 480mbps-5gbps
RPM : 15000-25000
Used : external hard disk for desktops and laptops

No of pins : 50
No of devices can be connected : 32
Speed : up to 10gbps
RPM : 15000-25000
Used : internal hard disk for servers