Glossary of Hard Disk Drive Terminology (Letter R)

Radial Path
The straight-line path from the center of the disk to the outer edge of the disk.

Random Access Memory (RAM)
Memory that allows any storage location to be accessed randomly, as opposed to tape drives, which are sequential access devices.

Read Channel
Performs the data encoding and conversions the drive needs to write computer generated information onto a magnetic medium and then read that information back with a high degree of accuracy.

Read Verify
A data accuracy check performed by having the disk read data to the controller, which in turn checks for errors but does not pass the data on to the system.

Read/Write Head
See Head.

Recoverable Error
A read error that the drive can correct by ECC recovery or by re-reading the data.

Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks (RAID)
Groupings of hard drives in a single system to provide greater performance and data integrity.

R & D
Research and development.

RLL (Run Length Limited)
An encoding scheme used during write operations to facilitate data readback.

ROM (Read Only Memory)
Integrated circuit memory chip containing programs and data that the computer or host can read but cannot modify. The computer can read instructions out of ROM, but cannot store data in ROM.

Rotational Latency
The amount of delay in obtaining information from a disk due to the rotation of the disk. For a disk rotating at 5200 RPM, the average rotational latency is 5.8 milliseconds. See also Mechanical Latency.

RPM (Revolutions per Minute)
Rotational speed of the media (disk), also known as the spindle speed. Hard drives typically spin at one constant speed. The slower the RPM, the higher the mechanical latencies. Disk RPM is a critical component of hard drive performance because it directly impacts the rotational latency.

Read More

Backup and Recovery for Small Business Networks

Bare Metal Backup and RecoveryAsk small business IT staff what worries them most . They won’t talk about natural disasters, power outages, security breaches or running out of disk space. They will probably tell you that what keeps them up the most are nightmares about backing up and recovering servers and workstations and the data on them. This shouldn’t be the case, because the market is full of very good software and hardware backup products, each of which can be used in conjunction with a variety of backup strategies. So, if you’re one of those worriers, sit back, relax and get rid of those backup/recovery blues by selecting the right product and strategy for your backup needs.

Most backup products support backup of files to tape and disk, and they let you restore discrete files from your backups. That’s great if you have to restore one or a few lost files. But what if you have to recover an entire disk drive, like your system drive? Older solutions require you to fix your hardware and then reinstall the operating system, then install your backup software, then install your applications and then install each data file to the repaired hardware. Better backup products allow you to restore application configuration information (for example the Windows Registry) and then restore applications from your backup. But all of these solutions are nerve-wracking and time-consuming. The full process can take six to eight hours or even more, depending on how much data you have to restore. This is not a fun way to spend your day, especially in a small business environment where IT resources are often limited and you have a lot of “real” work to do.

Putting The Pedal To Bare Metal

products are a great solution for small businesses. The best allow you to backup and then restore servers and sometimes networked workstations at either the level of discrete files or the entire disk volume. When you restore a disk volume to a new empty disk drive, you’re doing what is called “bare metal recovery” or “disaster recovery.” Most products let you restore to a drive temporarily mounted in any computer. Most also let you boot your original repaired computer off a CD-ROM and restore your disk drive from CD-ROM, a second disk drive connected to the computer, a disk on the network or, in some cases, tape. Bare metal recoveries save lots of time – they can take less than one-sixth the time of a discrete file recovery.

It is true if you’re buying a solution for a large networked environment, using a complex backup product with special modules for bare metal backup and recovery. However, there are very reasonably priced bare metal products designed specifically for the small and medium-sized business market.

Read More