| Term | Explanation |
| ACE | archive or backup application |
| AFR | Annual Failure Rate or Average Failure Rate |
| AMD | AMD Corporation |
| Apple | Apple Corporation |
| Apricorn | Company Name |
| ARJ | archive or backup application |
| ATAPI | EIDE extension to accomodate for CD & DVD devices |
| b | bit |
| B | byte |
| boot sector | data on the harddisk with startup instructions |
| Canon | Company Name |
| Casio | Company Name |
| Cisco | Company Name |
| cluster | the smallest amount of disk space that can be allocated to hold a file, typically 4096 bytes |
| Compaq | Company Name |
| Corel | Corel Corporation |
| DMA | Direct Memory Access, IDE data storage device interface |
| DPPM | Defective Parts per Million |
| DRP | Data Recovery Procedure |
| ECC-OTF | Error Checking Correction--On-the-Fly |
| EFR | Early-life Failure Rate (first 30 or 90 days of operation) |
| EIDE | enhanced IDE |
| EMI | Electromagnetic Interference |
| ESD | Electrostatic Discharge |
| FAT | file system, used by Microsoft DOS |
| FAT table | list or database of files & locations for FAT & FAT16 |
| FAT16 | file system, used by Microsoft DOS |
| FAT32 | file system, used by Microsoft Windows 95 OSR2 & 98 |
| file table | list or database of files & locations |
| FIT | Failure in Time (in failures per billion hours) |
| flashcard | magnetic card for digital cameras & portable devices |
| FMEA | Failure Mode and Effect Analysis |
| GB | 1024 GB |
| HALT | Highly Accelerated Life Test |
| hard disk | hard drive |
| HASS | Highly Accelerated Stress Screen |
| Hewlett-Packard | Company Name |
| HFS | file system, used by Apple MAC OS |
| HPFS | file system, used by IBM OS/2 |
| IBM | IBM Corporation |
| IDE | common data storage device interface for PC's & workstations |
| Intel | Intel Corporation |
| Iomega | Company Name |
| Jazz | Magnetic cartridge used by Iomega JAZZ drives |
| KB | 1024 bytes |
| Kingston | Company Name |
| Lexar | Company Name |
| Lotus | IBM Lotus Corporation |
| MB | 1024 KB |
| memorystick | magnetic card for digital cameras & portable devices |
| MFT table | list or database of files & locations for NTFS |
| Microdrive | magnetic card for digital cameras & portable devices |
| Microsoft | Microsoft Corporation |
| MR | Magnetoresistive |
| MS | Microsoft |
| MTBF | Mean Time Between Failure |
| multimediacard | magnetic card for digital cameras & portable devices |
| NTFS | file system, used by Microsoft Windows NT4, 2000, XP |
| Office | Microsoft Office |
| OQA | Outgoing Quality Audit |
| ORT | Ongoing Reliability Test |
| OS | Operating System |
| OS/2 | IBM OS/2 |
| OSR | OEM Service Release |
| partition | part of a hard disk, designated to a file system |
| partition table | list of partitions on a hard disk |
| PFA | Predictive Failure Analysis |
| PIO | Programmed (or Polled) Input/Output, IDE data storage device interface |
| pkZIP | archive or backup application |
| PPM | Parts per Million |
| PPM/MM | Parts per Million per Machine Month |
| RAID | Redundant Array of independent disks |
| RAID0 | striping, aka load distribution, spreads data acros sets of 2*N disks |
| RAID0+1 | combined mirroring & striping acros sets of 2*N+2 disks |
| RAID1 | mirroring, copies data acros sets of 2*N disks |
| RAID3 | combinatin of mirroring & striping + advanced data parity acros 2*N+1 disks |
| RAID5 | combinatin of mirroring & striping + advanced data parity acros 2*N+3 disks |
| RAR | archive or backup application |
| RAS | Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability |
| RDT | Reliability Demonstration Test |
| Sandisk | Company Name |
| SCSI | data storage device interface for workstations & servers |
| sector | smallest partition section, typically 512 bytes |
| securedigitalcard | magnetic card for digital cameras & portable devices |
| SMART | Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology |
| smartmedia | magnetic card for digital cameras & portable devices |
| Sony | Company Name |
| SPC | Statistical Process Control |
| TB | 1024TB |
| WinACE | archive or backup application for ACE |
| WinARJ | archive or backup application for ARJ |
| Windows | Microsoft Windows OS |
| WinRAR | archive or backup application for RAR files |
| WinZIP | archive or backup application for ZIP files |
| ZIP | archive or backup application |
| ZIP100 | Magnetic cartridge used by Iomega ZIP drives |
| ZIP250 | Magnetic cartridge used by Iomega ZIP250 drive |
Data Recovery
