Read/write heads are very minuscule parts of the hard disk which move on top of the hard drive platter and transform the platter's magnetic field into electrical current and electric current back to magnetic signals. Essentially, then, read/write heads are minuscule electromagnets which perform transition from magnetic to electrical info and back.
The ferrite, metal-in-gap and thin film hard disk heads are the older, traditional hard disk heads. They operate based on the two main guidelines of electro-magnetic force. The 1st principle is utilized in writing to the disk and this is that using an electrical current via the coil will produce a magnetic field. The second principle of electric force is employed when reading back the written information and works opposite to the firstâ€"applying a magnetic field to the coil will create an electrical current.
The more recent sorts of read/write heads are different in the sense that they don't read the induced current in the coil to read back the information. As an alternative they function based on the concept of magnetoresistance, whereby certain materials change their resistance when subjected to different magnetic fields.
These newer MR and GMR heads are also called "dual heads" or "merged heads" because they have separate heads for writing and reading, with each head specializing on a particular function.
The bit size of disk drives is shrinking dramatically through the years and this implies that a great measure of bits are packed into the disks. This requires that the magnetic fields should be made awfully faint so they do not intervene with one another. This also means that the read/write heads should be correspondingly minuscule and ultra-sensitive to read the faint signals. The new MR and GMR heads are just thatâ€"they are so tiny and so delicate.
Modern drive heads float over the outside of the heads and don't physically touch the platter. The older ones made contact and thus were subject to wear and tear. The space between the head and the platter is called the flying height or floating height or the head gap. This distance is indiscernible to the naked eye as it is measured in the millionths of an inch.
Maintaining a certain floating height is essential to exact operation. If the distance is too great, the head can't read properly and if it is too close to the platter, there is the possibility of a head crash. A head crash may end up in info loss, damage to the head, damage to the platter or all these three. This may be due to contamination stuck in the minute gap between the head and the platter, or a shock applied to the disk while it is in operation.
In all but the most grim situations, a professional data recovery expert can rescue most, if not all, of your information.
The ferrite, metal-in-gap and thin film hard disk heads are the older, traditional hard disk heads. They operate based on the two main guidelines of electro-magnetic force. The 1st principle is utilized in writing to the disk and this is that using an electrical current via the coil will produce a magnetic field. The second principle of electric force is employed when reading back the written information and works opposite to the firstâ€"applying a magnetic field to the coil will create an electrical current.
The more recent sorts of read/write heads are different in the sense that they don't read the induced current in the coil to read back the information. As an alternative they function based on the concept of magnetoresistance, whereby certain materials change their resistance when subjected to different magnetic fields.
These newer MR and GMR heads are also called "dual heads" or "merged heads" because they have separate heads for writing and reading, with each head specializing on a particular function.
The bit size of disk drives is shrinking dramatically through the years and this implies that a great measure of bits are packed into the disks. This requires that the magnetic fields should be made awfully faint so they do not intervene with one another. This also means that the read/write heads should be correspondingly minuscule and ultra-sensitive to read the faint signals. The new MR and GMR heads are just thatâ€"they are so tiny and so delicate.
Modern drive heads float over the outside of the heads and don't physically touch the platter. The older ones made contact and thus were subject to wear and tear. The space between the head and the platter is called the flying height or floating height or the head gap. This distance is indiscernible to the naked eye as it is measured in the millionths of an inch.
Maintaining a certain floating height is essential to exact operation. If the distance is too great, the head can't read properly and if it is too close to the platter, there is the possibility of a head crash. A head crash may end up in info loss, damage to the head, damage to the platter or all these three. This may be due to contamination stuck in the minute gap between the head and the platter, or a shock applied to the disk while it is in operation.
In all but the most grim situations, a professional data recovery expert can rescue most, if not all, of your information.
About the Author:
Jason Sloan runs a data recovery business called Kingdom Data Recovery Edinburgh who service all of the United Kingdom. He has got many articles on his web site which refer to issues with storage devices and useful data about stopping information loss.
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