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The workhouse of the computer is the hard disk. Therefore, it is important to know the functions and working of the hard disk. The files that we save are magnetically recorded onto the platter. The platter is placed inside the hard disk. The platters in most of the hard drives are usually mounted on a spindle. With the help of this spindle, the platter is able to spin faster and the speed can reach up to 15,000 times/ minute. The platter is two sided, and is mounted on a single arm which has a slider.

The head can move across the surface with the help of the platter is two sided. In this way the head can read and access the data. The unit of data held by the platter is tracks/inch. The track is equal to 1 concentric ring around the disk. The track is further divided into sectors, and the sector is equal to approx. 512 bytes. The saved data on the disk is referred accordingly to its sector and track.

The process of data collection can be made faster by de-fragmenting the hard disk periodically. The de-fragmenting can be done with the help of Windows Disk Defragmenter, which reorganizes the scattered data on the hard drive. Once, the de-fragmentation is done, the files on the hard disk run faster and more efficiently. The de-fragmentation process shifts the files to the beginnings that are used most often. This shifting of files is done so that the hard disk can load these files immediately when they are accessed.

The SATA (Serial ATA) hard drives are the next generation of ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) hard drives. The HP SATA hard drives have been developed and designed to offer its users the best and optimum prices for the entry level servers. The HP SATA hard drive also offers its customers the affordable solutions for external storage deployments in the environments with low workload.

The hard disk Cleanup

The Windows Disk Cleanup application sorts through the disk and deletes unused and temporary files. In this way space can be made available on the disk which speeds up the operations.

The ScanDisk utility

The files in normal daily routine are regularly read from and written to the disk, often in small chunks. The ScanDisk utility runs when the computer had to restart after a crash or is turned off without properly shutting down the system.

The ScanDisk scans the disk to detect if there are any errors on the hard drive. If it finds any errors on the hard disk, the ScanDisk marks the cluster of sectors containing the error as unusable. In this way no data can be written to or read from that portion of the disk.

ScanDisk should probably be done after every two or three month's time. The ScanDisk can also automatically repair some of the detected errors. If the errors are more severe, then these errors can be repaired by reformatting the drive. The bumps or scratches are known as the hard errors, which are the physical damages to the disk. These hard errors cannot be repaired. If the number of hard error increases, then the hard drive needs to be replaced. The hard drive can run smoothly well past the time it has become obsolete with the help of simple maintenance.