Number of heads on hard drives lies...

[Externet]

Hi all.
From day one, the hard drives had a number of heads corresponding to each active surface of the disc platters spinning in them.

Since a long while, ago, I noticed the specifications lie, by saying such-such model hard drive has "16 heads, such # cylinders, etc. "
But when opening the drive, there is only a couple of platters, sometimes with only three heads. The specs still insist on a greater number.

Why this false statement ?

Miguel

[Chris Smith]

Im no expert here but possibly a “Headâ€

[Newz2000]

Use a tool such as Spinrite to check the real geometry. Commonly the number is faked in order to trick the computer into seeing the right capacity.

I could be wrong, but I remember the day of 5 -8GB hard drives, all kinds of tricks were used to get the numbers to come out right.

[Edd]

.

From the mechanical aspect:
The use of multiples within ONE mechanical housing is what is done. The drive mechanics "scoots" right across
a platter, but the transfer of info is even quicker in the selections of different partitions of the head.
Here is a blow up..up to the point that pixelation just starts to infringe upon greater definition.
Take note of the "large" external loose wiring harness interfacing into the head propers connections.




As for the wire used on those head windings, in a comparative dimensional scale , a human hair may look GIGANTIC.

73's de Edd
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When everything comes in your way, you're in the wrong lane.

.

[Dean Huster]

...but I remember the day of 5 -8GB hard drives...

Holy cow! 5GB? It seems like yesterday when the Intel 4004 was invented. Back then, small computers occupied a half-rack and you were amazed at the storage capacity of an 8-inch floppy.

Dean

[Newz2000]

Holy cow! 5GB? It seems like yesterday when the Intel 4004 was invented. Back then, small computers occupied a half-rack and you were amazed at the storage capacity of an 8-inch floppy.

Well, I did have a TRS 80 (coco2) that had a cassette tape drive, but Dean, you have to admit, 5GB made it mainstream around '96, which is 11 years ago. We now throw away tech stuff after 18 months, so that's kind of like your current computer's great-great-great grand-pappy.

[Chris Smith]

I remember the fantastic advantage of TWO 360k floppies, one for the CPU/ DOS program and the other to work with.

Bill was still avoiding college!

Now I just sold a 500 gig back up disk and its not even the biggest thing out there?