{"id":319,"date":"2012-12-18T10:53:02","date_gmt":"2012-12-18T15:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=319"},"modified":"2012-12-18T10:53:02","modified_gmt":"2012-12-18T15:53:02","slug":"what-do-hard-drive-related-words-like-sata-ide-and-raid-actually-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2012\/12\/18\/what-do-hard-drive-related-words-like-sata-ide-and-raid-actually-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"What do hard drive-related words like SATA, IDE, and RAID actually mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Technical terms can get overwhelming, especially when they include too many TLAs (three-letter acronyms). Even people who use these terms sometimes need to step back and remember what they&#8217;re talking about.<br \/>\nSo here are some of the most common labels for the technologies used to store data inside your computer:<br \/>\nHDD: Hard disk drive. A magnetic, mechanical device that&#8217;s been the primary internal storage device for more than a quarter century.<br \/>\nFlash RAM: Silicon chips that, unlike other types of RAM, can hold data without an electric current&#8211;a feature that makes them useful for storage. (RAM stands for Random Access Memory.)<br \/>\nSSD: Solid state drive. Flash memory packaged in an HDD-like form factor, to be used in place of a hard drive. SSDs are generally faster than HDDs, use less power, and are less likely to be damaged by a fall or shock. They also cost much more per gigabyte.<br \/>\nPartition: A section of a hard drive (or SSD) that appears to the operating system as a separate, independent drive. People use multiple partitions to run more than one operating system, or to separate programs from data. Most major-name Windows PCs come with a special recovery partition containing the files needed to restore Windows.<br \/>\nSATA: Serial Advanced Technology Attachment. The current standard technology for connecting a hard drive or SSD to the rest of the computer.<br \/>\nIDE: Integrated Drive Electronics. The older standard that SATA replaced.<br \/>\nRAID: Redundant Array of Independent Disks. Two or more drives working together to enhance performance or redundancy. For instance, in a RAID 0, two drives work as one larger and faster drive&#8211;faster because twice as many drive heads are reading data simultaneously. In a RAID 2, two drives contain the exact same files, so that if one dies the other continues to work. Other configurations allow both speed and redundancy.<br \/>\n<em>From NCCT: It seems the author of this article was referring to RAID 1(Mirrored set) not RAID 2.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>For a in-depth look at RAID see the below wikipedia articles.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/RAID<\/em><br \/>\n<em>http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Standard_RAID_levels<\/em><br \/>\nvia <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/262323\/what_do_hard_drive_related_words_like_sata_ide_and_raid_actually_mean_.html\" target=\"_blank\">What do hard drive-related words like SATA, IDE, and RAID actually mean? | PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Technical terms can get overwhelming, especially when they include too many TLAs (three-letter acronyms). Even people who use these terms [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[458,504,884,933,1019],"class_list":["post-319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardware","category-technology","tag-hard-drive","tag-ide","tag-raid","tag-sata","tag-ssd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-59","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6604,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/10\/13\/when-to-buy-a-flash-drive-an-external-hard-drive-or-an-external-ssd\/","url_meta":{"origin":319,"position":0},"title":"When to buy a flash drive, an external hard drive, or an external SSD","author":"NCCT","date":"October 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Mrinal Thakur asked \u201cWhat should I buy, an external hard drive, an external SSD, or a pen drive?\u201d My quick answer: Use an external hard drive for backup. Use a flash drive or an SSD if you want to move files from one computer to another and a network isn\u2019t\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hardware&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hardware","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/hardware\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7910,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/03\/30\/bit-by-bit-intel-looks-to-quadruple-ssd-storage\/","url_meta":{"origin":319,"position":1},"title":"Bit by bit, Intel looks to quadruple SSD storage","author":"NCCT","date":"March 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"With all the photos, videos, apps and tunes you have, the storage on your smartphone may not be enough. With that in mind, Intel is researching new ways to up the storage capacity in mobile devices and PCs without hurting the size or price of devices. One effort underway at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hardware&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hardware","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/hardware\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3087,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/08\/02\/diablo-technologies-mcs-architecture-uses-flash-memory-as-ram\/","url_meta":{"origin":319,"position":2},"title":"Diablo Technologies&#039; MCS architecture uses flash memory as RAM","author":"NCCT","date":"August 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A new breakthrough in flash memory from Diablo Technologies could have a tremendous impact on the performance of future storage systems. By tapping into the speedy data channel used to link CPUs with system memory, the company claims their Memory Channel Storage (MCS) architecture is able to reduce latencies by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hardware&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hardware","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/hardware\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6516,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/10\/03\/these-self-destructing-ssds-will-physically-destroy-the-nand-flash-on-your-command-techspot\/","url_meta":{"origin":319,"position":3},"title":"These self-destructing SSDs will physically destroy the NAND flash on your command &#8211; TechSpot","author":"NCCT","date":"October 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s one thing to have your personal notebook filled with family photos, music and movies come up missing. It\u2019s a different beast entirely when that missing notebook contains business information, trade secrets or the login credentials of your employer. In those instances, it\u2019d be great to have a self-destructing hard\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hardware&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hardware","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/hardware\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3177,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/08\/14\/sata-3-2-finalized-includes-sata-express-for-2-gbs-of-bandwidth\/","url_meta":{"origin":319,"position":4},"title":"SATA 3.2 finalized, includes SATA Express for 2 GB\/s of bandwidth","author":"NCCT","date":"August 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"SATA-IO, the group in charge of maintaining the SATA specification, has announced (PDF) that revision 3.2 of SATA has been finalized. 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