CHAPTER 3

MEMORY STORAGE
 Storage Memory
• Computer data storage, often called storage
or memory, refers to computer components,
devices, and recording media that retain digital
data used for computing for some interval of
time.
• Computer data storage provides one of the core
functions of the modern computer, that of
information retention. It is one of the
fundamental components of all modern
computers, and coupled with a central
processing unit (CPU, a processor), implements
the basic computer model used since the 1940s.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_data_storage
 Purpose of Storage
A digital computer represents data using the binary numeral system.
Text, numbers, pictures, audio, and nearly any other form of
information can be converted into a string of bits, or binary digits,
each of which has a value of 1 or 0.

A piece of information can be handled by any computer whose

storage space is large enough to accommodate the binary
representation of the piece of information, or simply data.

• Without a significant amount of memory, a computer would merely

be able to perform fixed operations and immediately output the
result.
• store operating instructions and data.
• Generally, the lower a
storage is in the
hierarchy, the lesser its
bandwidth and the
greater its access latency
is from the CPU. This
traditional division of
storage to primary,
secondary, tertiary and
off-line storage is also
guided by cost per bit.
• Type of storage memory :
– Primary storage
– Secondary storage
– Off-line storage
– Tertiary storage
 Primary Storage
• Primary storage (or main memory or internal
memory), often referred to simply as memory, is the
only one directly accessible to the CPU.
• The CPU continuously reads instructions stored there
and executes them as required. Any data actively
operated on is also stored there in uniform manner.
• As shown in the diagram, traditionally there are two more
sub-layers of the primary storage, besides main large-
capacity RAM:
– Processor registers are located inside the processor.
– Processor cache is an intermediate stage between ultra-fast
registers and much slower main memory.
 Secondary storage
• Secondary storage (or external memory) differs from
primary storage in that it is not directly accessible by the
CPU.
• computer usually uses its input/output channels to
access secondary storage and transfers the desired data
using intermediate area in primary storage.
• Secondary storage does not lose the data when the
device is powered down—it is non-volatile.
• Example:
– Rotating magnetic storage - hard disk drives
– optical storage – CD,DVD
– flash memory - USB flash drives
– floppy disks,
– magnetic tape,
 Tertiary storage
• Tertiary storage or tertiary memory,[3] provides a third level of
storage. Typically it involves a robotic mechanism which will mount
(insert) and dismount removable mass storage media into a storage
device according to the system's demands.
• Useful for extraordinarily large data stores, accessed without human
operators.
• Example :
– tape libraries
– optical jukeboxes.
• When a computer needs to read information from the tertiary
storage, it will first consult a catalog database to determine which
tape or disc contains the information. Next, the computer will instruct
a robotic arm to fetch the medium and place it in a drive. When the
computer has finished reading the information, the robotic arm will
return the medium to its place in the library.
 Off-line storage
• Off-line storage, also known as disconnected
storage, is a computer data storage on a
medium or a device that is not under the control
of a processing unit.
• The medium is recorded, usually in a secondary
or tertiary storage device, and then physically
removed or disconnected. It must be inserted or
connected by a human operator before a
computer can access it again. Unlike tertiary
storage, it cannot be accessed without human
interaction.
Differentiate Secondary Memory
• magnetic disk
• Magnetic disk: Diskette and Hardisk
 HARD DISK OPERATION
• A hard disk is a sealed unit that a PC uses for nonvolatile data
storage.
• The hard drive is used to store crucial programming and data.
• A hard disk drive contains rigid, disk-shaped platters, usually
constructed of aluminum or glass.
Hard Disk
 Hard Disk Overview
• A hard disk uses round, flat disks called platters, coated on both sides with a
special media material designed to store information in the form of magnetic
patterns.
• The platters are mounted by cutting a hole in the center and stacking them
onto a spindle.
• The platters rotate at high speed, driven by a special spindle motor
connected to the spindle.
• Special electromagnetic read/write devices called heads are mounted onto
sliders and used to either record information onto the disk or read
information from it. The sliders are mounted onto arms, all of which are
mechanically connected into a single assembly and positioned over the
surface of the disk by a device called an actuator.
• A logic board controls the activity of the other components and
communicates with the rest of the PC.
 Hard Disk
• Each surface of each platter on the disk can hold tens of billions of
individual bits of data.
• Each platter has two heads, one on the top of the platter and one on
the bottom, so a hard disk with three platters (normally) has six
surfaces and six total heads.
• Each platter has its information recorded in concentric circles called
tracks.
• Each track is further broken down into smaller pieces called sectors,
each of which holds 512 bytes of information.
 Hard Disk – Platters and Media
• Every hard disk contains one or more flat disks that are used to
actually hold the data in the drive.
• These disks are called platters (sometimes also "disks" or "discs").
• They are composed of two main substances:
– a substrate material that forms the bulk of the platter and gives it structure
and rigidity,
– a magnetic media coating which actually holds the magnetic impulses that
represent the data.
• Hard disks get their name from the rigidity of the platters used, as
compared to floppy disks and other media which use flexible "platters"
(actually, they aren't usually even called platters when the material is
flexible.)
Hard Disk – Platters and Media

Hard Disk Cylinder

 Hard Disk – Platters and Media
• The size of the platters in the hard disk is the primary determinant of
its overall physical dimensions, also generally called the drive's form
factor.
 Hard Disk – Tracks and Sectors
• Each platter is broken into tracks--tens of thousands of them--which are
tightly-packed concentric circles.
• Track is one of the many concentric circles that holds data on a disk surface.
• A track holds too much information to be suitable as the smallest unit of
storage on a disk, so each one is further broken down into sectors.
• A sector is normally the smallest individually-addressable unit of information
stored on a hard disk, and normally holds 512 bytes of information.
– The first PC hard disks typically held 17 sectors per track.
– Today's hard disks can have thousands of sectors in a single track, and
make use of zoned recording to allow more sectors on the larger outer
tracks of the disk.
Hard Disk – Tracks and Sectors

A platter from a 5.25" hard disk, with 20 concentric tracks drawn

over the surface. This is far lower than the density of even the oldest
hard disks; even if visible, the tracks on a modern hard disk would
require high magnification to resolve. Each track is divided into
16 imaginary sectors. Older hard disks had the same number of
sectors per track, but new ones use zoned recording with a different
number of sectors per track in different zones of tracks.
 Hard Disk – Read & Write Head
• The read/write heads of the hard disk are the interface between the
magnetic physical media on which the data is stored and the
electronic components that make up the rest of the hard disk (and
the PC).
• The heads do the work of converting bits to magnetic pulses and
storing them on the platters, and then reversing the process when
the data needs to be read back.
Hard Disk Read/Write Operation
• Older, conventional (ferrite, metal-in-gap and thin film) hard disk
heads work by making use of the two main principles of
electromagnetic force.
– Write : applying an electrical current through a coil produces a magnetic
field;. The direction of the magnetic field produced depends on the
direction that the current is flowing through the coil.
– Read : that applying a magnetic field to a coil will cause an electrical
current to flow; this is used when reading back the previously written
information.
• Newer (MR and GMR) heads don't use the induced current in the
coil to read back the information; they function instead by using the
principle of magnetoresistance, where certain materials change their
resistance when subjected to different magnetic fields.
 Hard Disk
– An MR head employs a special conductive material that changes its resistance in
the presence of a magnetic field. As the head passes over the surface of the
disk, this material changes resistance as the magnetic fields change
corresponding to the stored patterns on the disk. A sensor is used to detect these
changes in resistance, which allows the bits on the platter to be read.
– MR technology is used for reading the disk only. For writing, a separate standard
thin-film head is used. This splitting of chores into one head for reading and
another for writing has additional advantages.
• Ferrite vs MR Head
– The use of MR heads allows much higher areal densities to be used on the
platters than is possible with older designs, greatly increasing the storage
capacity and (to a lesser extent) the speed of the drive.
– allows the use of weaker written signals, which lets the bits be spaced closer
together without interfering with each other, improving capacity by a large
amount.
Hard Disk
Extreme closeup view of a ferrite
read/write head. The head is at the end of
the slider, wrapped with the coil that
magnetizes it for writing, or is
magnetized during a read.

Closeup view of an MR head assembly.

Note that the separate
copper lead wire of older head designs
is gone, replaced by thin
circuit-board-like traces. The slider is
smaller and has a distinctive shape.
The actual head is too small to be seen
without a microscope.
Hard Disk
 IDE/EIDE CONCEPT
Overview
• The interface used to connect hard disk and optical drives to a modern PC
is typically called IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) or the true name is of
this interface is ATA (AT Attachment).
• IDE variation :
There have been four main types of IDE interfaces based on three bus
standards:
– Serial AT Attachment (SATA)
– Parallel AT Attachment (ATA, based on the 16-bit AT-bus, also called ISA)
– XT IDE (based on 8-bit ISA, obsolete)
– MCA IDE (based on 16-bit Micro Channel, obsolete)
• Only the parallel and Serial ATA version are used today.
• ATA and Serial ATA have evolved with newer, faster and more
powerful versions.

Continue…
 IDE/EIDE CONCEPT
• The newer versions of parallel ATA are referred to as ATA-2 and higher.
• They are also called EIDE (Enhanced IDE), Fast-ATA, Ultra-ATA or Ultra-
DMA.
– ATA-1
– ATA-2 (also called Fast-ATA, Fast-ATA-2, or EIDE)
– ATA-3
– ATA-4 (Ultra-ATA/33)
– ATA-5 (Ultra-ATA/66)
– ATA-6 (Ultra-ATA/100)
– ATA-7 (Ultra-ATA/133 or Serial ATA)
– SATA-8 (Serial ATA II)
• Even though parallel ATA has hit the end of the of the evolutionary road with
ATA-7, Serial ATA picks up where parallel ATA leaves off and offers greater
performance, higher reliability, easier installation, low cost and established
roadmap for future upgrades.

Continue…
 IDE/EIDE CONCEPT
ATA-1 (AT Attachment Interface for Disk Drives)
• Original ATA
• Integrated bus interface between disk drives and host
systems based on the ISA (ATA) bus.
• Major features:
– 40/44-pin connectors and cabling
– Master/Slave or cable select drive configuration options.
– Signal timing for basic Programmed I/O (PIO) and Direct Memory Access
(DMA) modes.
– Cylinder, head, sector (CHS) and logical block address (LBA) drive
parameter translations supporting drive capacities up to 228-220
(267,386,880) sectors or 136.9GB.
• ATA-1 had been in use since 1986 that has BIOS limitation
that stopped at 528MB.

Continue…
 IDE/EIDE CONCEPT
ATA-2 (AT Attachment Interface with Extensions-2)
• Upgraded from original ATA.
• First used in 1993.
• Major features added to ATA-2 compared to the original ATA
standard include:
– Faster PIO and DMA transfer modes
– Support for power management
– Support for removable devices.
– PCMCIA (PC Card) device support.
– Identify Drive command that reports more information.
– Define standard CHS/LBA translation methods for drives up to 8.4GB in
capacity.
• ATA-2 also known as fast-ATA or fast-ATA-2
(Seagate/Quantum) and EIDE (Western Digital)

Continue…
 IDE/EIDE CONCEPT
ATA-3 (AT Attachment Interface-3).
• First appearing in 1995.
• Has minor revision to the ATA-2 standard
• Most major changes included the following:
– Eliminated single-word (8-bit) DMA transfer protocols)
– Added SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology)
support for prediction of device performance degradation.
– LBA mode support was made mandatory (previously it had been optional)
– Added ATA Security mode, allowing password protection for device
access.
– Recommendation for source and receiver bus termination to solve noise
issues at higher transfer speeds.
• SMART enable a drive to keep track of problems that might
result in a failure and therefore avoid data loss.

Continue…
 IDE/EIDE CONCEPT
ATA/ATAPI-4 (At Attachment with Packet Interface
Extension-4)
• First appearance in 1996.
• ATA-4 included several important additions to the standard included :
– Packet Command feature known as the AT Attachment Packet Interface (ATAPI) which
allowed devices such as CD-ROM and CD-RW drives, LS-120 SuperDisk floppy drives,
ZIP drives, tape drive and other types of storage devices to be attached through a
common interface.
• The major revisions added in ATA-4 were as follows:
– Ultra-DMA (UDMA) transfer modes up to Mode 2, which is 33MBps (called UDMA/33 or
Ultra-ATA/33)
– Integral ATAPI support.
– Advanced power management support.
– Defined an optional 80-conductor, 40-pin cable for improved noise resistance.
– Host protected area (HPA) support.
– Compact Flash Adapter (CFA) support
– Introduced enhanced BIOS support for drive over 9.4ZB (zettabytes or trillion gigabytes)
in size (even though ATA was still limited to 136.9GB)

Continue…
 IDE/EIDE CONCEPT
ATA/ATAPI-5 (At Attachment with Packet Interface-5)
• First appear in 1998.
• Built on previous ATA-4 interface.
• ATA-5 includes Ultra-ATA/66 (also called Ultra-DMA or UDMA/66) which double the Ultra-
ATA burst transfer rate by reducing setup times and increasing the clock rate.
• The faster clock rate increases interference, which causes problem with the standard 40-
pin cable used by ATA and Ultra-ATA. To eliminate noise and interference, the newer 40-
pin 80-conductor cable has now been made mandatory for drives running in UDMA/66 or
faster modes. This cable hash 40 additional ground lines between each of the line.
• Major additions in the ATA-5 standard include the following:
– Ultra-DMA (UDMA) transfer modes up to Mode 4, which is 66MBps (called UDMA/66 or Ultra-
DMA/66)
– 80 conductor cable
– Added automatic detection of 40- or 80-conductor cables.
– UDMA modes faster than UDMA/33 are enabled only if an 80-conductor cable is deteched.

Continue…
 IDE/EIDE CONCEPT
ATA/ATAPI-6 (At Attachment with Packet Interface-6)
• Developed during 2000.
• Includes Ultra-ATA/100 (also called Ultra-DMA or UDMA/100).
• Increase the Ultra-ATA burst transfer rate by reducing setup times
and increasing the clock rate.
• Use 80-conductor cable.
• Major changes or additions in the standard include the following:
– Ultra-DMA (UDMA) Mode 5 added, which allows 100MBps (called UDMA/100,
Ultra-ATA/100, or just ATA/100) transfers.
– Sector count per command increased from 8-bits (256 sectors 131KB) to 16-bits
(65,536 sectors or 33.5MB) allowing larger files to be transferred more efficiently.
– LBA addressing extended form 228 to 248 (281,474,976,710,656) sectors
supporting drives up to 144.12PB(petabytes). This feature is often referred to as
48-bit LBA or greater than 137GB support vendor.
– CHS addressing made obsolete; drive must be use 28-bit or 48-bit LBA addressing
only.

Continue…
 IDE/EIDE CONCEPT
ATA/ATAPI-7 (At Attachment with Packet Interface-7)
• ATA-7 began late in 2001.
• Major changes or additions in the standard include the following:
– Upgrade to UDMA Mode 6 that allows for data transfer up to 133MBps.
– Also required the use of an 80-conductor cable.
– Inclusion of the Serial ATA 1.0 that makes SATA an official part of ATA
standard.
– ATA-7 is last revision of the venerable parallel ATA standard. ATA is
evolving into Serial ATA which was incorporated into the ATA-7
specification.

Continue…
 IDE/EIDE CONCEPT
SATA/ATAPI-8
• SATA/ATA-8 began in 2004 which is a new ATA standard based on
ATA-7 that carry forward the development of Serial ATA while
removing parallel ATA from the standard entireky.
• Main features of SATA-8 include :
– The removal of parallel ATA from the standard
– The replacement of read long/write long functions.
– Improve HPA management.

Continue…
 ATA Timeline

                                     PRESENT
                                           

ATA-1
   ATA-2 
   
ATA-3
Drive support up to   ATA-4
 
136.9GB;BIOS issues      
not addressed ATA-5
  ATA-6
 
Faster PIO modes;
CHS/LBA BIOS    ATA-7  
Ultra-DMA
 SATA  
translation defined up to modes; ATAPI
8.4GB;PC-Card Packet 133MBps
Interface; BIOS UDMA mode;
SMART; improved
support up to Serial ATA
signal integrity; LBA
136.9GB
support mandatory;
Serial ATA II
eliminated single-word Faster UDMA 100MBps UDMA mode;
DMA modes modes; 80-pin extended drive and
cable BIOS support up to
autodetectiopn 144PB.
HARD DISK DRIVE TROUBLESHOOTING
AND REPAIRING
• If a hard drive has a mechanical problem inside the
sealed head disk assembly (HAD), repairing the drive is
usually unfeasible.
• If the failure is in the logic board, that board can be
replaced with one from a donor drive.
• Most hard disk drive problems are not mechanical
hardware problems; instead, they are “soft” problems
that can be solved by a new LLF and defect-mapping
session.
• Soft problems are characterized by a drive that sounds
normal but produces various read and write errors.

Continue…
 HARD DISK DRIVE
TROUBLESHOOTING AND
•
REPAIRING
Hard problems are mechanical, such as when the drive
sounds as though it contains loose marbles. Constant
scraping and grinding noises from the drive, with no reading
or writing capability also qualify as hard errors.
• In these cases, an LLF is unlikely to put the drive back into
service.
• If hardware problem is indicated, first replace the logic-board
assembly. You can make this repair yourself and if
successful, you can recover the data from the drive.
• If replacing the logic assembly does not solve the problem,
contact the manufacturer or a specialized repair shop.

Continue…
 HARD DISK DRIVE
TROUBLESHOOTING AND
Testing a drive
REPAIRING
• When accessing a drive, determine whether the drive
has been partitioned and formatted properly.
• Procedure :
1. Attach the drive to your system.
2. Detecting the drive in the BIOS and saving the changes,
start your operating system from the boot disk.
3. Then from the A: prompt, enter the following command:

4. This
DIRproduces
C: one of the following responses:

Continue…
 HARD DISK DRIVE
TROUBLESHOOTING AND
REPAIRING
Invalid drive specification.

Problem:
• This indicate the drive does not have a valid partition (create by
FDISK) or that the existing Master Boot Record or partition tables
have been damaged. No matter what, the drive must be partitioned
and formatted before use. You also get this warning on FAT32 or
NTFS partitioned drive if you use a Windows 95 (original version) or
MS-DOS boot disk when checking.
Solution:
• Use a Windows 95B, Windows 98/Me, or Windows 2000 boot disk
to avoid this false massage from FAT32 partitions.
• Or, use a windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP boot disk to
detect NTFS partitions.
 HARD DISK DRIVE
TROUBLESHOOTING AND
REPAIRING
Invalid Media Type.

Problem:
• This drive has been partitioned but not FORMATed, or the
format has been corrupted.

Solution:
• You should use FDISK’s #4 option to examine the drive’s
existing partitions and either delete them and create new ones
or keep the existing partitions and run FORMAT on each drive
letter.
 HARD DISK DRIVE
TROUBLESHOOTING AND
REPAIRING
Directory of C:

Problem:
• The contents of the C: drive are listed, indicating the
drive was stored with a valid FDISK and FORMAT
structure and data.
 COMPACT DISK
• A Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an
optical disc used to store digital data.
• It was originally developed to store sound
recordings exclusively, but later it also allowed
the preservation of other types of data.
• Audio CDs have been commercially available
since October 1982. In 2010, they remain the
standard physical storage medium for audio.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc
• Standard CDs have a diameter of 120 mm and can hold
up to 80 minutes of uncompressed audio (700 MB of
data).
• The Mini CD has various diameters ranging from 60 to
80 mm; they are sometimes used for CD singles or
device drivers, storing up to 24 minutes of audio.
• The technology was eventually adapted and expanded to
encompass data storage CD-ROM, write-once audio and
data storage CD-R, rewritable media CD-RW, Video
Compact Discs (VCD), Super Video Compact Discs
(SVCD), PhotoCD, PictureCD, CD-i, and Enhanced CD.
 Cross-section of a CD

A CD is a fairly simple piece of plastic, about four one-hundredths (4/100) of an

inch (1.2 mm) thick. Most of a CD consists of an injection-molded piece of
clear polycarbonate plastic. During manufacturing, this plastic is impressed
with microscopic bumps arranged as a single, continuous, extremely long spiral
track of data. We'll return to the bumps in a moment. Once the clear piece of
polycarbonate is formed, a thin, reflective aluminum layer is sputtered onto the
disc, covering the bumps. Then a thin acrylic layer is sprayed over the
aluminum to protect it. The label is then printed onto the acrylic. A cross section
of a complete CD (not to scale) looks like this:
 How do CD-RWs rewriteable CDs
work?
Normal CD
• Normal CD uses microscopic bumps to store data.
• The surface of the CD contains one long spiral track of data. Along
the track, there are flat reflective areas and non-reflective bumps.
• The surface of the CD is a mirror, and the bumps disrupt the mirror's
perfect surface.
• A flat reflective area represents a binary 1, while a non-reflective
bump represents a binary 0.
• The CD drive shines a laser at the surface of the CD and can detect
the reflective areas and the bumps by the amount of laser light they
reflect. The drive converts the reflections into 1s and 0s to read
digital data from the disc.
• The bumps on a CD are molded into the plastic when it is
manufactured, so they are permanent.
 How do CD-RWs rewriteable CDs
work?
CD-R
• There are no bumps on a CD-R.
• A clear dye layer covers the CD's mirror.
• A write laser heats up the dye layer enough to
make it opaque.
• The read laser in a CD player senses the
difference between clear dye and opaque dye
the same way it senses bumps -- it picks up on
the difference in reflectivity.
 How do CD-RWs rewriteable CDs
work?
CD-RW
• Dye layer can be changed back and forth
between opaque and transparent.
• The material has the property that it can change
its transparency depending on temperature.
• Heated to one temperature, the material cools to
a transparent state; heated to another
temperature, it cools to a cloudy state. By
changing the power (and therefore the
temperature) of the writing laser, the data on the
CD can be changed, or "rewritten."
 CD-ROM Standard
• There are several formats used for data stored on compact discs,
known collectively as the Rainbow Books.
• The Rainbow Books are a collection of standards defining the
allowed formats of Compact Discs.
• Red Book
– CD-DA – Digital Audio extended by CD-Text,
• Yellow Book
– CD-ROM – Read-Only Memory and
– CD-ROM XA, - An extension to Yellow Book
• Orange Book
– CD-MO – Magneto-Optical
– CD-R alias CD-WO or CD-WORM – Recordable, Write Once or Write
Once, Read Many
– CD-RW alias CD-E – ReWritable or Erasable,
– The orange book standard references the fact that "Yellow" and "Red"
mix to orange; which means that CD-R and CD-RW is capable of music
and data; although other colors (other CD standards) that do not mix are
capable of being burned onto the physical medium. Orange book also
introduced the standard for multisession writing.
• White Book
– VCD – Video and
– Hybrid discs, e.g. CD-Ready,
– SVCD – Super Video,
• Blue Book
– E-CD – Enhanced,
– CD+ - plus and
– CD+G – plus Graphics (karaoke) extended by CD+EG / CD+XG,
• Beige Book
– PCD – Photo
• Green Book
– CD-i – interactive,
• Purple Book
– DDCD – Double Density,
• Scarlet Book
– SACD – Super Audio.
• Black Book

No rainbow book was applied to the popular DVD and Blu-ray formats.
 What is ISO 9660?
• The ISO 9660 standard was introduced in 1988 and is the most widely used
file format for data (CD-ROM) discs.
• ISO 9660 defines a common logical format for files and directories so discs
written to ISO 9660 specifications can be read by a wide array of computer
operating systems (MS-DOS, Windows, Mac OS, UNIX, etc.) as well as
consumer electronics devices.
• Due to the vast differences which exist among native file systems ISO 9660
takes a lowest common denominator approach resulting in a variety of
restrictions upon the nature and attributes of files and directories.
• Three levels of interchange define these restrictions with level one being the
most constraining and level three is the least (at the cost of compatibility
with some operating systems).
• Various protocols are available to extend ISO 9660 to accommodate file
system features specific to individual operating systems (longer file names,
deeper directory structures, more character types, etc.) while preserving
ISO 9660 compatibility with other platforms. These protocols include Joliet
(Windows 95 and higher), Apple Extensions (Mac OS) and Rock Ridge
(UNIX).
 CD ERROR CORRECTION
SYSTEM
• CD technology has built-in error correction systems
which are able to suppress most of the error that arise
from physical particles on the surface of a disc.
• Every CD-ROM drive and CD player in the world uses
Cross Interleaved Reed Solomon Code (CIRC) detection
and the CD-ROM standard provides a second level of
correction via the Layered Error Correction Code
algorithm.
• With CIRC, an encoder adds two dimensional parity
information, to correct errors, and also interleaves the
data on the disc to protect from burst errors.
• It is capable of correcting error bursts up to 3,500 bits
(2.4 mm in length) and compensates for error bursts up
to 12,000 bits (8.5 mm) such as caused by minor
scratches.
 CD-ROM TROUBLESHOOTING
My CD-ROM/DVD drive doesn’t work
• CD and DVD drives are some of the more failure-prone components in a PC. It is not uncommon for one to
suddenly fail after a year or so of use.

Solution
• If you having problems with a drive that was newly installed, check the installation and configuration of the
drive.
• Check the jumper settings on the drive. If you’re using an 80-conductor cable, the drive should be jumped to
Cable Select; if you are using a 40-conductor cable, the drive should be set to either master or slave
(depending on whether it is the only drive on the cable).
• Check the cable to ensure that it is not nicked or cut and is the maximum of 18” long (the maximum allowed
by the ATA specification).
• Replace the cable with a new one or a known-good spare, preferably using an 80-conductor cable.
• Make sure the drive power is connected, and verify that power is available at the connector using a digital
multimeter.
• Make sure the BIOS Setup is set properly for the drive and verify that the drive is detected during the boot
process.
• Try replacing the drive and, if necessary the motherboard.
• If the drive had already been installed and was working before, first read the different discs, preferably
commercial-stamped discs rather than writable or rewriteable ones. Then try the step listed previously.