[kochi_hw_club] hard disk myths- part 1
- From: Sameer Thahir <sameerthahir@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: kochi_hw_club@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 12:13:56 -0700 (PDT)
Dear hardware club members
how is everyone doing
hope ur all doing great...
thanx to people keeping the mailing list alive...
... besides .. did u know that formatting a hard disk
any number of times WILL NOT
cause any failure ...
well .. wanna know more ... here are some hard disk
myths uncovered
/////////////////////////////////
This article appeared in the ELECTRONICS MAKER - May
2004
...............
There are numerous fallacies about the hard disk that
are still being propagated in many forum
discussions . Although many articles have covered
these topics , it is apparent that hard disk urban
legends are still more popular than simple truth
So lets go down to basics and examine some of these
common falllacies or myths and debunk them
.....................................
Myth 1:Formatting a hard disk too many times will
cause it to fail
Truth:To put it shortly ,formatting your hard disk
will not reduce its lifespan .Yes,formatting
is popularly thought to reduce hard disk life span but
that is nothing more than a myth
Formatting is NOT a stressful event for thr hard disk
.The read/write heads do NOT touch the platter surface
,so damage to the platter only occurs if there is any
shock to the drive during
operation. You can format your disk 20 times a
day,every day and it will not be more likely to fail
than any other drive.
......................................
Myth 2:Formatting a hard disk causes a layer of
"whatever" to be deposited on the platter surface
,causing bad sectors to form.
Truth: Formatting will not deposit any layer of
"anything" on the platter.The hard disk is a sealed
enviornment so there is very little dust inside the
hard disk .Even if there is dust ,why would formatting
deposit anything on the platter
.......................................
Myth 3:Formatting the hard disk will stress the
needle(head actuator)
Truth:Formatting is done contiguosly .This means
formatting is done in a serial order, i.e.
sector500,sector501,sector502,etc.There is very little
movement of the head actuators.Therefore formatting
will not stress the head actuators.
.......................................
Myth 4:Defragmenting the hard disk will stress the
needle (head actuator)
Truth:That is actually contrary to the truth
.Defragmenting the hard disk may involve a lot of
seeking as the hard disk rearranges its data in a
contiguos fashion
This allows the read/writer heads to read large
amounts of data without seeking all over the platters
However after defragmentation the hard disk no longer
needs to seek all over the platters for your data.This
reduces the amount of head actuator movements as well
as greatly increase the hard disk's read/write
performance
Therefore while it may be technically correct to say
that defragmenting your hard disk will stress the head
actuators,the truth is defragmenting your hard disk
will reduce the amount of seeking from then on and
thus reduce the head actuator's work load
//////////////////////////////
...to be continued...
bye
sameer
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