How does a computer read a disk?

How does a computer read a disk?

The CD drive shines a laser at the surface of the CD and can detect the reflective areas and the bumps by the amount of laser light they reflect. The drive converts the reflections into 1s and 0s to read digital data from the disc.

What is the rotating disc inside a computer hard drive called?

platters
A hard disk drive platter (or disk) is the circular disk on which magnetic data is stored in a hard disk drive. The rigid nature of the platters in a hard drive is what gives them their name (as opposed to the flexible materials which are used to make floppy disks).

What part of the disc gets read?

The dull side usually has a label on it telling you what’s on the CD; the shiny side is the important part. It’s shiny so that a laser beam can bounce off the disc and read the information stored on it.

Why do disk drives spin?

Standard computer hard drives spin continuously at 7200 RPM, only stopping after a prolonged period of disuse. When you hear your hard drive hard at work, you’re actually hearing the movement of a mechanical arm containing the read/write head, which glides across the drive’s platters.

How is information stored on a CD?

Data is stored on the disc as a series of microscopic indentations called “pits”, with the non-indented spaces between them called “lands”. A laser is shone onto the reflective surface of the disc to read the pattern of pits and lands.

How does a DVD read data?

DVD (digital video disc) is a technology based on optical data storage similar to compact disc (CD). Optical data storage is a method of storing digital information (1’s and 0’s) by using light to read the information. The pits are arranged in a track that forms a spiral pattern on the recording layer of the disc.

What is disk spinning?

A spinning disk is the mechanism within a hard disk drive to which memory is written. With rotating plates attached to an arm that writes the data, the spinning disk mechanism physically resembles a record player (although it is sealed within an enclosure).

Is a CD read from the top or bottom?

A CD is read from and written to (by laser) on one side only; a DVD can be read from or written to on one or both sides, depending on how the disc was manufactured.

Where is the data on a DVD?

The data appear as marks or pits that either absorb light from the laser beam, or transmit the light back to the laser photosensor by way of the metal reflective layer. In CDs, the data and metal layers are very close to the top of the disc (label side); in DVDs, they are in the middle of the disc (see Figures 1Ð6).

How does the disc spin on a DVD player?

A drive motor to spin the disc – The drive motor is precisely controlled to rotate between 200 and 500 rpm, depending on which track is being read.

What are the components of a DVD drive?

The DVD drive consists of three fundamental components: A drive motor to spin the disc – The drive motor is precisely controlled to rotate between 200 and 500 rpm, depending on which track is being read.

Do you know how a hard drive works?

Likewise, there are few people — geek or otherwise — who don’t know the basis of how a hard drive operates; disks spin and heads read and write data.. but beyond that, how much do you know about the actual operation of a hard drive? How do the heads move, for example?

How does the head of a hard drive read data?

How does a head read data? At its most basic, the head is a piece of metal that’s wrapped in wire. As the head moves over the magnetic fields on the platter, changes in magnetism induce a current that is measured and converted into a binary value.