Also, it detects the hard disk driver status.

There are manytypes of hard diskcontroller, but the basic components and the operating principle are approximately the same.

Hard Disk Controller IDE Controller

Serial Port

IDE controller is usually produced in the mainboard.

It can support up to 4 hard disks.

IDE controller has several variants, and the most common one isATA(Advanced Technology Attachment).

ATA-3 and ATA-4 whose performance has been further improved are being widely used by audio workstation.

ATA can be classified in following types.

Data Handling Capacity

The specifications related to handling capacity are derived with the introduction of various ATA specifications.

ATA/66

The maximum of data handling capacity is 66MB/s.

ATA/100 is similar to ATA/66, but its maximum data handling capacity is 100MB/s.

Mainboard and hard disk must support ATA/100 at the same time.

Some PCI cards produced by third party can help computers run ATA/100 drive.

It is the most suitable for studio which needs enormous capacity.

Just like IDE and SCSI, they have different versions.

They need SCSI cable to connect.

The final choice is up to your budget and the work nature.

The Relevant Regulations of SCSI

SCSI-1:SCSI-1 is the original regulation and first SCSI standard in 1986.

It is allowed to connect up to 7 devices, and the maximum transmission speed is 5MB/s.

This is epochal at that time.

SCSI-2 streamlines some unreasonable options and enhances the reliability.

The transmission speed is increased to 10MB/s.

Fast Wide SCSI:Fast Wide SCSI is a punch in of SCSI-2.

Its bus width has been doubled to 16bit and the maximum transmission speed is 20MB/s.

14 devices can be connected to this kind of controller.

Ultra SCSI:Ultra SCSI, a bang out of SCSI-2 as well, utilizes original 8-bit bus.

Ultra Wide SCSI:Ultra Wide SCSI is also known as Wide Ultra SCSI.

Just like Fast Wide SCSI, it utilizes 16-bit bus and the maximum transmission speed is 20MB/s.

One controller can connect 14 devices.

Ultra2 SCSI:Ultra2 SCSI utilizes 8-bit bus.

But the internal clock speed has been doubled, and the maximum transmission speed is 40MB/s.

The number of devices connecting to a single controller is still 7.

Wide Ultra2 SCSI:Wide Ultra2 SCSI is the fastest SCSI in a period of time.

It utilizes 16-bit bus.

The internal clock speed has been doubled and the maximum transmission speed is 80MB/s.

One controller can connect 7 devices.

Ultra3 SCSI:Ultra3 SCSI, also known as SCSI160, is a rather fast SCSI standard.

One controller can connect 14 devices.

Ultra320 SCSI:Ultra320 SCSI is the new SCSI standard and is just put into system.

SCSI320 uses 16-bit bus and it can be compatible with SCSI160.

It is a multi-level storage devices stack.

And SAS disk is a disk adopting this interface technology.

Simple Cable Link

Thinner cable matches smaller connector.

Better Scalability

It can connect more disk devices simultaneously.

In general, large parallel cable will bring electronic interference, and SAS cable structure can solve this problem.

Whats more, SAS structure has good scalability.

It can connect at most 16384 disk devices.

Serial SCSI (SAS) hard disk utilizes the same interface with S-ATA.

But SAS can use more signals and SAS hard disk cannot be connected to S-ATA hard disk controller.

As SAS is the universe interface, it can support SAS and S-ATA.

SAS controller can support SAS and SATA disk.

SAS controller supports S-ATA hard disk because S-ATA uses the signal subset of SAS controller.

Switch Interface

Early SAS hard disk utilizes 2.5 inches package.

By doing so, rack server can support more hard disks.

Some manufacturers have released 3.5 inches SAS hard disk.

Each SAS cable has 4 cables, 2 for input and 2 for output.

As a new storage interface technology, SAS is considered as the replacement of SCSI.

This is because SAS is not only functionally comparable with fiber channel, but also compatible with SATA.

The strengths of SAS are mainly reflected on following aspects.

Flexibility

It can be compatible with SATA and save cost for users.

Scalability

A SAS domain can connect up to 16384 devices directly.

Excellent Performance

The performance of spot-to-spot structure will be improved along with the increase of the number of ports.

More reasonable cable design

More effective cooling can be provided in high-density environments.

Four basic indicators are often used to weigh a technology, namely performance, reliability, scalability and cost.

But its price is expensive.

After all, it is unsatisfactory in terms of performance.

SAS should be regarded as an all-rounder.

It can support SAS and SATA hard disk to satisfy the different cost-effective storage requirements.

And it is a resolution of high performance, high reliability and high scalability.

When guided fault occurs, system will send many error prompts.

Making sense of these prompts can be helpful to deal withhard disk problems.

And this leads to time-out error.

If this case happens, maybe your hard disk is damaged.

The reasons may be relative to the controller damage or failure of cable plugging.

In addition, controller failure is also relevant to the validity of hard disk parameter.

Error prompt: NO ROM BASIC SYSTEM HAIT

Explanation: no curing BASIC system and system downtime.

This error often appears on 486 and previous computer.

Only on very old computer will the prompt appear.

So, system has to suspend and call the BASIC program solidified in BIOS.

And if there is no curing BASIC, this error appears.

It can cause shutdown.

Therefore, the simplest repair method is to set an active partition in the hard disk with FDISK.

Then, if the computer has no curing BASIC program, this error will not happen again.