a few questions about Drives....

[SerialThriller]

wondering a lil about how drives are powerd...the 12v (yellow) powers the motor, the 5v (red) power the "electronics" which i do not understand. the black wire is ground which...does....what? stops you from being electricuted? also...what is it that the motor powers?

 

[tdg]

12 volt runs the motor, which spins the platters inside the hard drive. The 5 volt usually powers the controller card.

 

[SerialThriller]

1. the platters are what the data is stored on?

2. what does the controller card do?

3. what exactly is the ground wire? any ideas on how it works?

 

[SerialThriller]

help? anyone?

 

[BoogerBomb]

1. Yes the platters are what the data is stored on.

2. When hes says the controller he means the electronics you see on the bottom of the drive which control the flow of data in and out of the hard drive.

3. Ground wire is meant to help prevent the drive from getting fried. If I remember right the way that the ground works is that when the device is given too much power the extra power is sent through the ground wire back to PSU which then probably sends it through its ground wire to be dispersed. BEfore ground wires became common when power only went from the source to the device with no return trip or any place for extra power to go to. So if a spike was sent to the device the extra power had no place go and fried that device.