Disk Formatting

Disk formatting is a process to configure the data-storage devices such as hard-

drive, floppy disk and flash drive when we are going to use them for the very first
time or we can say initial usage. Disk formatting is usually required when new
operating system is going to be used by the user. It is also done when there is
space issue and we require additional space for the storage of more data in the
drives. When we format the disk then the existing files within the disk is also
erased.
We can perform disk formatting on both magnetic platter hard-drives and solid-
state drives.
When we are going to use hard-drive for initial use it is going to search for virus. It
can scan for virus and repair the bad sectors within the drive. Disk formatting has
also the capability to erase the bad applications and various sophisticated viruses.
As we know that disk formatting deletes data and removes all the programs
installed within the drive. So it can be done with caution. We must have the
backup of all the data and applications which we require. No-doubt disk
formatting requires time. But the frequent formatting of the disk decreases the
life of the hard-drive.

Figure – Formatting process of disk

1. Low-level Formatting :
Low level formatting is a type of physical formatting. In is the process of marking
of cylinders and tracks of the blank hard-disk. After this there is the division of
tracks into sectors with the sector markers. Now-a-days low-level formatting is
performed by the hard-disk manufactures themselves.

We have data in our hard-disks and when we perform low-level formatting in the
presence of data in the hard-disk all the data have been erased and it is
impossible to recover that data. Some users make such a format that they can
avoid their privacy leakage. Otherwise low-level will cause damage to hard-disk
shortens the service-life.
Therefore, this formatting is not suggested to users.
2. Partitioning :
As suggesting from the name, partitioning means divisions. Partitioning is the
process of dividing the hard-disk into one or more regions. The regions are called
as partitions.
It can be performed by the users and it will affect the disk performance.
3. High-level Formatting :
High-level formatting is the process of writing. Writing on a file system, cluster
size, partition label, and so on for a newly created partition or volume. It is done
to erase the hard-disk and again installing the operating system on the disk-drive.
 Figure – Steps of High-level Formatting

Firstly High-level formatting clears the data on hard-disk, then it will generate
boot information, the it will initialize FAT after this it will go for label logical bad
sectors when partition has existed.
Formatting done by the user is the high-level formatting.
Generally, It does not harm the hard-disk.It can be done easily with the
Administrator, Windows snap-in Disk Management tool, diskpart, etc.
We can use such a format to use such a format to fix some problems like errors in
the file system, corrupted hard-drive and develop bad sectors.

Cylinder and Head Skew

Sector interleaving was once used on older hard disks to ensure that the sectors
were efficiently spaced on the track. This was needed to ensure that sector #2
didn't rotate past the head while sector #1 was being processed. The high-speed
disk controllers on modern drives are now fast enough that they no longer are a
performance-limiting factor in how the sectors on the disk are arranged.
However, there are other delay issues within the drive that require spacing to be
optimized in even the fastest drives, to maximize performance. And unlike the
interleaving situation, these delays are caused by electromechanical concerns and
are therefore likely to be with us for as long as hard drives use their current
general design.

The first issue is the delay in time incurred when switching between cylinders on
the hard disk, called appropriately enough, cylinder switch time. Let's imagine
that we "lined up" all of the tracks on a platter so that the first sector on each
track started at the same position on the disk. Now let's say that we want to read
the entire contents of two consecutive tracks, a fairly common thing to need to
do. We read all the sectors of track #1 (in sequence, since we can use a 1:1
interleave) and then switch to track #2 to start reading it at its first sector.

The problem here is that it takes time to physically move the heads (or more
actually, the actuator assembly) to track #2. In fact, it often takes a millisecond or
more. Let's consider a modern 10,000 RPM drive. The IBM Ultrastar 72ZX has a
specification of only 0.6 milliseconds for seeking from one track to an adjacent
one. That's actually quite fast by today's standards. But consider that in that
amount of time, a 10,000 RPM drive will perform approximately 10% of a
complete revolution of the platters! If sector #1 on track #2 is lined up with sector
#1 on track #1, it will be long gone by the time we switch from track #1 to track
#2. We'd have to wait for the remaining 90% of a revolution of the platters to do
the next read, a big performance penalty. This problem isn't as bad as the
interleave one was, because it occurs only when changing tracks, and not every
sector. But it's still bad, and it's avoidable.

The issue is avoided by offsetting the start sector of adjacent tracks to minimize
the likely wait time (rotational latency) when switching tracks. This is
called cylinder skew. Let's say that in the particular zone where tracks #1 and #2
are, there are 450 sectors per track. If 10% of the disk spins by on a track-to-track
seek, 45 sectors go past. Allowing some room for error and controller overhead,
perhaps the design engineers would shift each track so that sector #1 of track #2
was adjacent to sector #51 of track #1. Similarly, sector #1 of track #3 would be
adjacent to sector #51 of track #2 (and hence, adjacent to sector #101 of track
#1). And so on. By doing this, we can read multiple adjacent tracks virtually
seamlessly, and with no performance hit due to unnecessary platter rotations.

The same problem, only to a lesser degree, occurs when we change heads within
a cylinder. Here there is no physical movement, but it still takes time for the
switch to be made from reading one head to reading another, so it makes sense
to offset the start sector of tracks within the same cylinder so that after reading
from the first head/track in the cylinder, we can switch to the next one without
losing our "pace". This is called head skew. Since switching heads takes much less
time than switching cylinders, head skew usually means a smaller number of
sectors being offset than cylinder skew does.

These two diagrams illustrate the concept of cylinder and head skew. Assume that
these platters spin
counter-clockwise (as seen from your vantage point) and that they are adjacent to
each other (they might
be the two surfaces of the same platter.) They each have a cylinder skew of three,
meaning that adjacent
tracks are offset by three sectors. In addition, the platter on the right has a head
skew of one relative
to the one on the left. (Of course, real drives have thousands of tracks with
 hundreds of sectors each.)

Both cylinder and head skew must be simultaneously "overlaid" onto all the
tracks of the hard disk, resulting in a "two-dimensional pattern" of sorts, with
different offsets being applied depending on the specific timing characteristics of
the disk. The layout of the tracks is adjusted to account for cylinder skew and
head skew, based on the way the designers intend the hard disk to store
sequential data. All of the details are taken care of by the controller. This is one
reason why having integrated, dedicated drive electronics on the disk itself, is
such a good idea. No universal, external controller could possibly know how to
take all these hard disk characteristics and performance requirements into
account.

Error handling

The basis of all error detection and correction in hard disks is the inclusion of
redundant information and special hardware or software to use it. Each sector of
data on the hard disk contains 512 bytes, or 4,096 bits, of user data. In addition to
these bits, an additional number of bits are added to each sector for the
implementation of error correcting code or ECC (sometimes also called error
correction code or error correcting circuits). These bits do not contain data; rather,
they contain information about the data that can be used to correct any problems
encountered trying to access the real data bits.

There are several different types of error correcting codes that have been
invented over the years, but the type commonly used on PCs is the Reed-
Solomon algorithm, named for researchers Irving Reed and Gustave Solomon,
who first discovered the general technique that the algorithm employs. Reed-
Solomon codes are widely used for error detection and correction in various
computing and communications media, including magnetic storage, optical
storage, high-speed modems, and data transmission channels. They have been
chosen because they are easier to decode than most other similar codes, can
detect (and correct) large numbers of missing bits of data, and require the least
number of extra ECC bits for a given number of data bits

Redundant Array of Independent Disks

RAID or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology to connect multiple
secondary storage devices and use them as a single storage media.

RAID consists of an array of disks in which multiple disks are connected together to achieve
different goals. RAID levels define the use of disk arrays.

RAID 0

In this level, a striped array of disks is implemented. The data is broken down into blocks
and the blocks are distributed among disks. Each disk receives a block of data to write/read
in parallel. It enhances the speed and performance of the storage device. There is no parity
and backup in Level 0.

RAID 1

RAID 1 uses mirroring techniques. When data is sent to a RAID controller, it sends a copy of
data to all the disks in the array. RAID level 1 is also called mirroring and provides 100%
redundancy in case of a failure.

RAID 2

RAID 2 records Error Correction Code using Hamming distance for its data, striped on
different disks. Like level 0, each data bit in a word is recorded on a separate disk and ECC
codes of the data words are stored on a different set disks. Due to its complex structure and
high cost, RAID 2 is not commercially available.
RAID 3

RAID 3 stripes the data onto multiple disks. The parity bit generated for data word is stored
on a different disk. This technique makes it to overcome single disk failures.

RAID 4

In this level, an entire block of data is written onto data disks and then the parity is
generated and stored on a different disk. Note that level 3 uses byte-level striping, whereas
level 4 uses block-level striping. Both level 3 and level 4 require at least three disks to
implement RAID.

RAID 5

RAID 5 writes whole data blocks onto different disks, but the parity bits generated for data
block stripe are distributed among all the data disks rather than storing them on a different
dedicated disk.
RAID 6

RAID 6 is an extension of level 5. In this level, two independent parities are generated and
stored in distributed fashion among multiple disks. Two parities provide additional fault
tolerance. This level requires at least four disk drives to implement RAID.

Relative data and information is stored collectively in file formats. A file is a sequence of
records stored in binary format. A disk drive is formatted into several blocks that can store
records. File records are mapped onto those disk blocks.