Intended Audience

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This book has been prepared in such a way as to provide value for IT veterans as well as less technically savvy individuals. For students, business executives, or less experienced IT staff, it gives plenty of definitions and explanations of the basics, including chapters on disk organization, file systems, and basic disk maintenance actions. In order to make it more accessible, technical words are defined and key concepts explained (and a glossary is provided in Appendix A). Veteran IT staff can skip those explanations and still find plenty of useful information on keeping disks rolling (or spinning) in the most efficient way and for maximum performance. But, be warned, IT vets. It never hurts to go over material again, and you should be wary of the dangers of thinking you already know everything. At the very least, the chapters on hard disk reliability, fragmentation, and optimization, as well as the trend chapters at the end, should provide plenty of food for thought and, more importantly, some material you can use to do an even better job.

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