One of many difficult things to try to explain to our clients, both technical and non-technical, is how hard drives split the data between heads and platter surfaces. This is something that varies significantly between brands and models of drives. Although we cannot provide an exhaustive list of all the possibilities, we thought we would provide some pictures representing a few variations to help you better visualize what we are talking about. We’ll add more as time permits.
The image below represents a Western Digital WD800JD-00JRA0 with 2 heads.
The green represents head 0, while the white represents head 1.
Below are images, each showing a different head from a Seagate ST3750330AS hard drive with 6 heads.
The image above shows the 1st of 6 heads, showing in green.
The image above shows the 2nd of 6 heads, showing in green.
The image above shows the 3rd of 6 heads, showing in green.
The image above shows the 4th of 6 heads, showing in green.
The image above shows the 5th of 6 heads, showing in green.
The image above shows the 6th of 6 heads, showing in green.