A+ Tutorials Basic Disk DriversA+ Tutorials - Basic Disk Drivers
Before You Begin
Lesson 1: Floppy Disk Drives
The Basics of Floppy Disk Drives
Keeping a Floppy Disk Drive Running
Errors Caused by the Floppy Disk
Lesson Summary
Lesson 2: Hard Disk Drives
Physical Characteristics
Storing Data
Actuator Arms
Geometry
Hard Disk Drive Types
Installation and Setup
Maintaining a Disk Drive
Lesson Summary
Tutorial Summary
Review
This tutorial is all about drives?disk drives?which come in assorted sizes and shapes. The first disk drives were physically large, small in capacity (limited in the amount of data they could store), and very expensive. Today, disks drives are physically small, large in capacity, and very inexpensive.
The history of disk drives is long and complex. In this tutorial, we begin our exploration by first looking briefly at the history and development of disk drives. We start with the most basic of drives (the floppy disk drive), and continue through the early hard disk drives, examining their complexities and limitations along the way.