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A+ Certification Exam Notes : Hardware

3.3 Given a scenario, select and install storage devices

Hard Drives

Capacities: Typically range from 500GB to 16TB, though higher capacities are becoming available

Interfaces: SATA (older), SAS (higher-end enterprise)

Cache: The amount of RAM built into the drive to help with performance. Usually ranges from 16MB to 256MB.

Power: 2.5" drives use less power and are generally better for laptops, while 3.5" drives are larger and better for desktops and servers.

SSDs

Capacities: Typically range from 128GB to 4TB, with higher capacities becoming available.

Speed: SSDs are generally much faster than hard drives, especially in terms of random access.

Endurance: SSDs have a limited number of write cycles, so higher-end drives may use technologies such as multi-level cell (MLC) or triple-level cell (TLC) NAND to improve durability.

NVMe: This is a newer interface that allows for faster communication between the storage and the CPU, and is typically found in higher-end drives.

M.2 vs mSATA: M.2 is a newer form factor that is smaller and faster than mSATA, but not all motherboards support it. M.2 drives can use either SATA or PCIe interfaces, while mSATA drives use SATA.

Hard disk speeds

Hard disk speeds refer to the number of revolutions per minute (rpm) that the disk platters inside the hard drive spin. The higher the rpm, the faster the read/write performance of the drive.

5,400 rpm drives are the slowest and tend to have lower performance and capacity.

7,200 rpm drives are a good balance of performance, capacity, and cost and are commonly used in desktop and laptop computers.

10,000 rpm drives offer faster performance than 7,200 rpm drives and are commonly used in high-performance workstations and servers.

15,000 rpm drives are the fastest but are typically used only in enterprise-class servers and storage systems where fast access times and performance are critical.

It's worth noting that solid-state drives (SSDs) have no moving parts and do not have an rpm rating like traditional hard drives. Instead, they offer much faster performance and are becoming increasingly popular as primary storage devices in both desktop and laptop computers.

Drive configurations

1. Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks (RAID): RAID is a way of using multiple hard drives together for various purposes, such as improving performance, providing fault tolerance, or both. The most common RAID levels are:

  • RAID 0: Uses striping to increase performance, but provides no redundancy.

  • RAID 1: Uses mirroring to provide fault tolerance, but has no performance improvement.

  • RAID 5: Uses striping with parity to provide both performance improvement and fault tolerance.

  • RAID 10: Uses both striping and mirroring, providing both performance improvement and fault tolerance.

2. Removable storage:

  • Flash drives: Also known as USB drives, thumb drives, or jump drives, these are small, portable, solid-state storage devices that connect to a computer via a USB port. They are widely used for transferring files between computers or storing data.

  • Memory cards: These are small, removable storage devices that are commonly used in digital cameras, smartphones, and other mobile devices. They come in various formats, such as Secure Digital (SD), microSD, CompactFlash, and Memory Stick.

  • Optical drives: These are storage devices that use laser technology to read or write data on optical discs, such as CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs. They are less commonly used nowadays due to the popularity of online media distribution and the increasing storage capacity of solid-state drives.


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