HardDrives, CDRoms and Tapes

HardDrives, CDRoms and Tapes Info Center:

Storage Standards:

EIDE Interface:

The Enhanced IDE FAQ (http://thef-nym.sci.kun.nl/~pieterh/storage.html)is an attempt to answer the most common questions concerning EIDE harddisks, CD-ROMs, tapes, interfaces and setup. (by Peter den Haan)
EIDE VERSUS SCSI (http://thef-nym.sci.kun.nl/~pieterh/eide-vs-scsi.html) Why purchase SCSI? (by Peter den Haan)

ATA, ATA-2, ATAPI, SCSI:

ATA, ATA-2, ATAPI, SCSI and other standards are available from Symbios (ftp://ftp.symbios.com/pub/standards/io/) and Western Digital (ftp://fission.dt.wdc.com/pub/standards/).
Hale Landis' How It Works documents are archived at www.ata-atapi.com (http://www.ata-atapi.com/hiw.htm).
The Phoenix Enhanced Disk Drive specification, El Torito bootable CD-ROM spec and more can be found at Phoenix' web site (http://www.ptltd.com/products/specs.html).

Basic Information:

Misc Information:

Quantum Basic Resources (http://www.quantum.com/src/resources.html) has an excellent tutorial on storage basics. If basic terminology confuses you, this will rapidly get you up to date on the most important concepts.
Quantum Technical Information Papers (http://www.quantum.com/products/whitepapers/tips.html) deal with the 528MB barrier, harddrives and system performance, and PRML read channels, among other things. The White Paper (http://www.quantum.com/products/whitepapers/) section has a large number of well written papers on S.M.A.R.T., MR heads and PRML read channels, Ultra-ATA (DMA/33) (http://www.quantum.com/products/whitepapers/ultraata/) and so forth. There are also a number of specifications online.
Seagate Technology Papers and Technical Fact Sheets (http://www.seagate.com/support/papers.shtml) give excellent information about Enhanced IDE and Fast-ATA, MR heads, S.M.A.R.T. and a lot more.

Storage Resources:

Learn Everything about Storage from The PC Technology Guide (http://www.pctechguide.com/storage.htm) (DVD HD CDROM TAPE)
www.windrivers.com - A really cool place with greatest collection of HW Drivers, HardDrive and Memory Info
Anand's Hardware Tech Page (http://www.anandtech.com/)
The comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage WWW site (http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/ata) maintained by Daniel Tauritz (http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/~dtauritz/).
Tom's Hardware Page (http://sysdoc.pair.com/) provides a wealth of information and links for the enthusiast assembling his own PC compatible. And wanting to squeeze the last ounce of performance out of it 8^) For those still struggling to get Intel Triton busmastering EIDE to work, his harddrive section (http://sysdoc.pair.com/hdd.html) is the #1 place to look.
The HardDisk Guide (http://sysdoc.pair.com/hdd.html)

How does a HDD work?
The Interface (IDE / SCSI)
Performance File Systems
The Bus Master DMA Feature
Bus Master DMA Drivers
Troubleshooting Bus Master DMA Drivers

Frank Condron's World O'Windows (http://www.conitech.com/windows/) is an invaluable resource for Win95 and WinNT drivers and tips.
MicroHouse's specs and jumper settings page (http://www.microhouse.com/hdsearch/hd.htm) locates harddrive specifications. Blue Planet also maintains a page with "jumpers and specifications for every drive ever made (http://www.blue-planet.com/tech/index.html)".
Many problems are due to an outdated or buggy BIOS and can be fixed with a (flash) BIOS upgrade. An excellent starting point is Wim's BIOS page (http://www.ping.be/bios/bios.html).
Commercial sites: AMI (http://www.megatrends.com), Asus (http://asustek.asus.com.tw), CMD (http://ftp.cmd.com), Conner (http://www.conner.com), DTC (http://www.datatechnology.com), EliteGroup (http://www.ecs.com.tw), EliteGroup USA (http://www.ecsusa.com), Fujitsu (http://www.fujitsu.com), Hewlett-Packard (http://www.hp.com), IBM (http://www.ibm.com), IBM (PC Company) (http://www.pc.ibm.com), Intel (http://www.intel.com), Iomega (http://www.iomega.com), Maxtor (http://www.maxtor.com), MicroHouse (http://www.microhouse.com), Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com), Microid Research (MR BIOS) (http://www.mrbios.com), Novell (http://www.novell.com), Novell (http://www.novell.com), Novell Netware (http://www.netware.com), OnTrack (http://www.ontrack.com), Opti (http://www.opti.com), Phoenix (http://www.ptltd.com), PowerQuest (http://www.powerquest.com), Promise (http://www.promise.com), Quantum (http://www.quantum.com), SCO (http://www.sco.com), Seagate (http://www.seagate.com), Tekram (http://www.tekram.com), Tyan (http://www.tyan.com), Unicore (http://www.unicore.com), Wearnes (http://www.asiabiz.com.sg/wtk/), Western Digital (http://www.wdc.com), Winbond (http://www.winbond.com.tw).
Mitsumi Peripherals (http://www.mitsumi.com/)
CD Recorders FAQ (ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/comp.publish.cdrom.hardware/)
Eide/Fast ATA FAQ (http://thef-nym.sci.kun.nl/cgi-pieterh/atazip/atafq.html)
Comp.periphs.SCSI FAQ (http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/scsi-faq/top.html)

Technical Information:

Data recovery services and hard drive reprair from Data Recovery Group. (http://www.datarecoverygroup.com)

The Technician's Guide to PC Hard Disk Subsystems (http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/ata/hdtech.html) by Nicholas Majors of Data Recovery Labs is an excellent piece of work. Originally geared toward tech support personnel, but of much wider interest, it discusses history, principles, installation and configuration in a lucid no-nonsense style. Includes glossary and references.
TheRef (http://theref.c3d.rl.af.mil/)- Harddrives & controllers specifications.(by F. Robert Falbo)