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Disk sector

 

 
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Disk sector
 
 
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In the context of computer
Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
 disk storage
Disk storage

Disk storage is a general category of a computer storage mechanisms, in which data is recorded on planar, round and rotating surfaces . A disk drive is a peripheral device used to record and retrieve information....
, a sector is a subdivision of a track
Track (disk drive)

A disk drive track is a circular path on the surface of a disk or diskette on which information is magnetically recorded and from which recorded information is read....
 (Figure 1, item A) on a magnetic disk or optical disc
Optical disc

In computing, sound reproduction, and video, an optical disc is a flat, circular disc wherein Data is stored in the pits in its flat surface ? sequentially on the continuous, spiral track extending from the innermost track to the outermost track, covering the entire disc surface....
. Each sector stores a fixed amount of data. The typical formatting of these media provides space for 512 bytes (for magnetic disks) or 2048 bytes (for optical discs) of user-accessible data per sector.

Mathematically, the word sector
Circular sector

A circular sector or circle sector, is the portion of a circle enclosed by two radius and an Arc , where the smaller area is known as the minor sector and the larger being the major sector....
 means a portion of a disk
Disk (mathematics)

In geometry, a disk is the region in a plane bounded by a circle.A disk is said to be closed or open according to whether or not it contains the circle that constitutes its boundary....
 between a center, two radii
RADIUS

Remote Authentication Dial In User Service is a networking protocol that provides centralized access, authorization and accounting management for people or computers to connect and use a network service....
 and a corresponding arc
Arc (geometry)

In geometry, an arc is a closed set segment of a differentiable curve in the two-dimensional manifold; for example, a circular arc is a segment of the circumference of a circle....
 (see Figure 1, item B), shaped like a slice of a pie.






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In the context of computer
Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
 disk storage
Disk storage

Disk storage is a general category of a computer storage mechanisms, in which data is recorded on planar, round and rotating surfaces . A disk drive is a peripheral device used to record and retrieve information....
, a sector is a subdivision of a track
Track (disk drive)

A disk drive track is a circular path on the surface of a disk or diskette on which information is magnetically recorded and from which recorded information is read....
 (Figure 1, item A) on a magnetic disk or optical disc
Optical disc

In computing, sound reproduction, and video, an optical disc is a flat, circular disc wherein Data is stored in the pits in its flat surface ? sequentially on the continuous, spiral track extending from the innermost track to the outermost track, covering the entire disc surface....
. Each sector stores a fixed amount of data. The typical formatting of these media provides space for 512 bytes (for magnetic disks) or 2048 bytes (for optical discs) of user-accessible data per sector.

Mathematically, the word sector
Circular sector

A circular sector or circle sector, is the portion of a circle enclosed by two radius and an Arc , where the smaller area is known as the minor sector and the larger being the major sector....
 means a portion of a disk
Disk (mathematics)

In geometry, a disk is the region in a plane bounded by a circle.A disk is said to be closed or open according to whether or not it contains the circle that constitutes its boundary....
 between a center, two radii
RADIUS

Remote Authentication Dial In User Service is a networking protocol that provides centralized access, authorization and accounting management for people or computers to connect and use a network service....
 and a corresponding arc
Arc (geometry)

In geometry, an arc is a closed set segment of a differentiable curve in the two-dimensional manifold; for example, a circular arc is a segment of the circumference of a circle....
 (see Figure 1, item B), shaped like a slice of a pie. Thus, the common disk sector (Figure 1, item C) actually refers to the intersection of a track and mathematical sector.

Early on in various computing fields, the term block
Block (data storage)

In computing , a block is a sequence of bytes or bits, having a nominal length . Data thus structured is said to be blocked. The process of putting data into blocks is called blocking....
 was used for this small chunk of data, but sector appears to have become more prevalent. One quite probable reason for this is the fact block has often been applied to data chunks of varying sizes for many types of data streams, rather than being limited to the smallest accessible amount of data on a medium. For example, the Linux program dd
Dd (Unix)

dd is a common UNIX program whose primary purpose is the low-level copying and conversion of raw data. dd is an abbreviation for "data definition" in IBM Job Control Language, and the command's syntax is meant to be reminiscent of this....
 allows one to set the block size to be used during execution with the parameter bs=bytes. But doing so never changes the actual sector size of a medium, only the size of the blocks that dd will manipulate.

See also

  • CD-ROM format
    CD-ROM

    CD-ROM is a pre-pressed Compact Disc that contains Computer data storage accessible to, but not writable by, a computer. While the Compact Disc format was originally designed for music storage and playback, the 1985 Yellow Book standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of Binary file....
  • Cylinder-head-sector
    Cylinder-head-sector

    Cylinder-head-sector, also known as CHS, was an early method for giving addresses to each physical block of data on a hard disk drive. In the case of floppy drives, for which the same exact diskette medium can be truly disk formatting to different capacities, this is still true....
  • Block (data storage)
    Block (data storage)

    In computing , a block is a sequence of bytes or bits, having a nominal length . Data thus structured is said to be blocked. The process of putting data into blocks is called blocking....
  • Disk storage
    Disk storage

    Disk storage is a general category of a computer storage mechanisms, in which data is recorded on planar, round and rotating surfaces . A disk drive is a peripheral device used to record and retrieve information....
  • Disk formatting
    Disk formatting

    Disk formatting is the process of preparing a hard disk or other storage medium for use, including setting up an empty file system. A variety of utilities and programs exist for this task; pictured to the right is the iconic FORMAT.COM of MS-DOS and PC-DOS....
  • Hard disk drive partitioning
  • File Allocation Table
    File Allocation Table

    File Allocation Table or FAT is a computer file system architecture now widely used on most computer systems and most memory cards, such as those used with digital cameras....