Data storage in hard disks |
Overview
In this section I will try to give an overview and a bit of indepth look at how data is stored in hard disks. I'm not wanting to give a crashcourse into these things, but I just thought, you might get a better knowledge of what are the most valuable sections in a hard disk and why data loss can occur easily. As normal users we don't need to know how data is stored, as we just store data in files, which are placed in directories, which can also be stored on seperate drives (if any). But the operating system which we use has to do a lot of housework inorder to keep track of how things are stored.
The structure that I will be describing will be found in a typical Windows 95/98 system nowadays. There are other operating systems like Linux, OS/2, MacOS which store data differently. But some parts like partitions fall in common in most operating systems. The things like FAT have mainly come from DOS and are still used in Windows 95/98 (FATs nowadays have changed a lot and have different formats), but other operating system follow a similar theme but may have their internal structures might be different.
You'll also find information on how the CIH virus attack renders a hard disk inaccessible and causes data loss. And I'll also give a brief description on how MRECOVER gets things back.
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Copyright ©1999, Monirul Islam Sharif
Last Modified Thursday, May 20, 1999.