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Write Bits Directly Onto a Hard Drive Platter?

Posted by kdawson on from the old-old-skool dept.

kidcharles writes "I'm working on a project that requires writing bits to a magnetic hard drive platter in a completely controlled fashion. I need to be able to control exactly where 1s and 0s will appear physically on the platter. Normally when data is written to a drive the actual bits that get written are determined by the file system being used, as modified by whatever kind of error handling the drive itself is using (e.g. Reed-Solomon). All of the modern innovations in file systems and error handling are great for reliable and efficient data storage, but they are making my particular task quite daunting. My question for Slashdot: is there a way to get down to the 'bare metal' and write these bits? Any good utilities out there to do this? Obviously a free and open source solution would be preferable, but I'm open to anything at this point."

14 of 578 comments (clear)

  1. Real Programmers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Yes!

  2. Butterflies by Nowhere.Men · · Score: 0, Redundant

    http://xkcd.com/378/

  3. DD by LordAzuzu · · Score: -1, Redundant

    I guess the dd utility is not enough for your needs, otherwise you would have already tried it.
    Right?

  4. Butterflies by 16K+Ram+Pack · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Obligatory

  5. too late? by random+string+of+num · · Score: -1, Redundant

    http://xkcd.com/378/

  6. Defrag software? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Doesn't defragging software do something kinda like this? I know there are some open-source things out there for defragging.

  7. Use butterflies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    This might be what you need: http://xkcd.com/378/

  8. Define "exactly" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    You can never place something "exactly", since that is limited by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle!

    So, what do you mean by "exactly" in your application? For example, what are the units in which you are measuring the degree to which it is exact - track+sector, or radius+angle etc etc.

    Do you want to be able to write a single spiral track like a CD?

    What does "exactly" even mean if the bits are spread across the platter due error correcting codes etc?

  9. Have you tried... by wertigon · · Score: -1, Redundant

    C-x M-c M-butterfly yet?

    --
    systemd is not an init system. It's a GNU replacement.
  10. XKCD: Butterflies by Jaydee23 · · Score: -1, Redundant

    http://xkcd.com/378/ So problem solved.

  11. Re:Be careful! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    :/
    No, that is not how a hard drive works. Sheesh. The material distribution on the surface remains constant. Only the magnetic alignment of the magnetic coating on the aluminum platter is affected by the write head; and this does not affect the mass of the coating in any way.

  12. ob XKCD reference by oldfogie · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I'm surprised I haven't see this yet: http://xkcd.com/378/

  13. dd? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Any reason why the *nix "dd" utility won't work?

  14. Re:Really? Do NONE of us read? by godrik · · Score: 0, Redundant

    You mean this one ? http://xkcd.com/378/