CompTIA exam study guide presentations by instructor Brian Ferrill, PACE-IT (Progressive, Accelerated Certifications for Employment in Information Technology) "Funded by the Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Grant #TC-23745-12-60-A-53" Learn more about the PACE-IT Online program: www.edcc.edu/pace-it

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Instructor, PACE-IT Program – Edmonds Community College
Areas of Expertise Industry Certifications
 PC Hardware
 Network Administration
 IT Project Management
 Network Design
 User Training
 IT Troubleshooting
Qualifications Summary
Education
 M.B.A., IT Management, Western Governor’s University
 B.S., IT Security, Western Governor’s University
Entrepreneur, executive leader, and proven manger
with 10+ years of experience turning complex issues
into efficient and effective solutions.
Strengths include developing and mentoring diverse
workforces, improving processes, analyzing
business needs and creating the solutions
required— with a focus on technology.

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– Types of storage devices
– SCSI
– RAID
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Storage devices I.

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– Traditional internal hard disk drives.
» The spinning platter type of hard disk.
» PATA = Parallel AT Attachment Interface.
» SATA = Serial AT Attachment Interface.
– Non-traditional internal hard disk drives.
» SSD = Solid State Drive.
» SCSI = Small Computer System Interface.
» RAID = Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks.
– Floppy disk drives.
» 8” floppy: first commercial disk drive, but it is now obsolete.
» 5.25” floppy: followed the 8” drive and was very common in
the early PC market, but it too is now obsolete.
» 3.5” floppy: most successful of the floppy disk drives. They
are not very common now but it is still possible to find them
in the workplace. Had a maximum capacity (in most cases)
of 1.44 MB.
Storage devices I.

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– CD-ROM (Compact Disk – Read Only
Memory).
» Commonly uses the PATA or SATA interface.
» Has a maximum capacity of 700 MB.
» Originally CDs could only be read from not written to.
» A CD-RW is a combo drive (aka a CD burner); allows for
writing to the CD.
– DVD-ROM (Digital Video Disk – Read
Only Memory).
» Has a maximum capacity of 4.7 GB, or 8.5 GB for a dual-
layer.
» DVD-RW: a combo drive that allows for writing to the DVD.
– BD-R (Blu-ray Disk – Read)
» The common internal interface is SATA.
» Has a maximum capacity of 25 GB to 128 GB.
» BD-RE: a combo drive that can write and erase data.
Storage devices I.

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– External storage devices.
» As a general rule, all of the internal storage devices are
available for an external connection. The only difference
is that the interface tends to be different.
– Common external connections.
» USB = Universal Serial Bus.
» FireWire.
» eSATA = External Serial AT Attachment.
– Ethernet storage.
» NAS = Network Attached Storage.
» SAN = Storage Attached Network.
» Cloud storage solutions.
Storage devices I.

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Storage devices I.

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– Small Computer System Interface (SCSI).
» SCSI is pronounced “scuzzy” and it was standardized in
1986.
» SCSI was not very popular in the home market due to the
cost of SCSI devices and the management of those devices.
» SCSI was very popular in the enterprise market because the
devices were very robust and could be easily (fairly easily)
chained together. When chained, the last device needed to
be terminated in order to stop signal bounce.
» SCSI’s longevity has lead to different versions being on the
market.
» Most, but not all, SCSI devices were “hot swappable,”
meaning that the system didn’t need to be shut down in
order for a defective device to be replaced and a new one
added in.
– Main types of SCSI.
» Narrow = 8 total components (1 controller and 7 devices).
» Wide = 16 total components (1 controller and 15 devices).
Storage devices I.

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Storage devices I.

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– Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks
(RAID).
» RAID is taking multiple disks or storage volumes and
combining them to achieve performance gains, or fault
tolerance, or performance gains and fault tolerance.
– RAID 0 (stripe set).
» Requires a minimum of two volumes: data is striped between
the drives (write a block of data to one volume, write the next
block to the other).
» Offers the best performance out of all of the RAID types (in
most situations).
» It is not fault tolerant; if one drive fails, the whole set is ruined.
– RAID 1 (mirror set).
» Requires a minimum of two volumes: data is mirrored
between the drives (the system writes each block of data at
least twice).
» Offers extremely fast read times, but it is slow to write.
» It is fault tolerant; if one drive fails, the data is still safe.
Storage devices I.

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– RAID 5 (striping with parity).
» Requires a minimum of three volumes: stripes data
across two drives and adds a parity block to the third
drive in a rotating manner.
» The parity block adds fault tolerance to the RAID. If any
one disk fails, the data on it can be rebuilt by combining
the data on the other two disks with the parity blocks.
» Not as fast as RAID 0, but offers better performance than
RAID 1 while still providing fault tolerance.
– RAID 10 (stripe of mirrors)
» A.K.A. RAID 1 + 0.
» Requires a minimum of four volumes: a mirror set is also
striped.
» Next to RAID 0, offers the best performance while
offering a high degree of fault tolerance.
Storage devices I.

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Storage devices I.
Storage devices include hard disk drives, solid state drives, floppy drives,
and optical media. The common internal interfaces are PATA and SATA.
Common external connections include: USB, FireWire, eSATA, SCSI (not
so much anymore), and Ethernet solutions.
Topic
Types of devices.
Summary
Small Computer System Interface. Was a popular enterprise solution
because the devices could be chained together, “hot swapped,” and tended
to be more robust than other solutions. Narrow SCSI allows for a total of
eight devices, while Wide SCSI allows for 15 total devices.
SCSI.
RAID can add performance, or fault tolerance, or performance and fault
tolerance. RAID 0 is a striped set. RAID 1 is a mirror set. RAID 5 is a stripe
with parity. RAID 10 (RAID 1 + 0) is a stripe of mirrors. RAID 0 offers the
best performance but no fault tolerance. RAID 10 is popular because of the
performance gains and fault tolerance.
RAID.

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