Glossary

MTTR – Mean Time To Repair. The average time it takes to repair a drive that has failed for some reason. This only takes into consideration the changing of the major sub-assemblies such as circuit board or sealed housing. Component level repair is not included in this number as this type of repair is not performed in the field.

NANOSECOND (ns)– One billionth of a second (0.000000001 second).

OVERHEAD – The processing time of a command by the controller, host adapter or drive prior to any actual disk accesses taking place.

OVERWRITE – To write data on top of existing data, erasing it.

OXIDE – A metal-oxygen compound. Most magnetic coatings are combinations of iron or other metal oxides, and the term has become a general one for the magnetic coating on tape or disk.

PARTITION – A portion of a hard disk devoted to a particular operating system and accessed as one logical volume by the system.

PERFORMANCE – A measure of the speed of the drive during normal operation. Factors affecting performance are seek times, transfer rate and command overhead.

PERIPHERAL – A device added to a system as an enhancement to the basic CPU, such as a disk drive, tape drive or printer.

PHYSICAL FORMAT – The actual physical layout of cylinders, tracks, and sectors on a disk drive.

PLATED MEDIA – Disks that are covered with a hard metal alloy instead of an iron-oxide compound. Plated disks can store greater amounts of data in the same area as a coated disk.

PLATTER – An disk made of metal (or other rigid material) that is mounted inside a fixed disk drive. Most drives use more than one platter mounted on a single spindle (shaft) to provide more data storage surfaces in a small package. The platter is coated with a magnetic material that is used to store data as transitions of magnetic polarity.

POH – Acronym for power on hours. The unit of measurement for Mean Time Between Failure as expressed in the number of hours that power is applied to the device regardless of the amount of actual data transfer usage. See MTBF.

POSITIONER – See actuator.

REDUNDANT ARRAY OF INDEPENDENT DISKS (RAID) - is a way of storing the same data in different places (thus, redundantly) on multiple hard disks. By placing data on multiple disks, I/O operations can overlap in a balanced way, improving performance. Since multiple disks increases the mean time between failure (MTBF), storing data redundantly also increases fault-tolerance.

A RAID appears to the operating system to be a single logical hard disk. RAID employs the technique of striping, which involves partitioning each drive's storage space into units ranging from a sector (512 bytes) up to several megabytes. The stripes of all the disks are interleaved and addressed in order.

RAID – See redundant array of independent disks

RAM – Acronym for random access memory. An integrated circuit memory chip which allows information to be stored and retrieved by a microprocessor or controller. The information may be stored and retrieved in

G-6 Maxtor D540X-4G

D540X-4G specifications

The Maxtor D540X-4G, introduced in the early 2000s, is a notable hard disk drive that carved a niche in the consumer and business storage market. It is part of the D540X series, known for its reliability and substantial storage capacity for its time, boasting an impressive 4GB of storage.

One of the standout features of the D540X-4G is its advanced ATA/100 interface, allowing for a high data transfer rate of up to 100 MB/s. This was a significant leap forward in performance, enabling faster access to data and improved system responsiveness. Unlike older interfaces, the ATA/100 significantly reduced bottlenecks, making it an ideal choice for users who required efficient data management.

The D540X-4G was built on a 5400 RPM spindle speed. While this wasn't as fast as some higher-end drives available at the time, it provided a balance between speed and thermal efficiency. The combination of its rotational speed and data density allowed for a commendable average seek time, which translated into quicker file access for everyday applications, such as word processing and spreadsheet management.

Another commendable attribute of the D540X-4G is its acoustic management technology, which ensured that the drive operated quietly, minimizing distraction in office environments or home setups. This was particularly beneficial for users who needed to maintain a serene working atmosphere.

In terms of durability, the D540X-4G featured a robust design with built-in shock protection. This characteristic offered an additional layer of safety for data integrity, especially vital in portable systems where exposure to movement is frequent. Maxtor also placed a focus on providing error-correction capabilities, which further enhanced data reliability.

The D540X-4G utilized a halogen-free design in its manufacturing process, reflecting an early commitment to environmental considerations, which would become increasingly important in the years to follow.

Overall, the Maxtor D540X-4G hard drive highlighted the advancements in storage technology of the time, combining ample capacity, improved speed, and reliability in a user-friendly package. It appealed to a broad spectrum of users, from everyday home computing to small business applications, making it a valuable player in the computing landscape during its era.