last update on 12/11/2004 by Ashley

Hard disc stores information in a fixed portion called blocks. A block is the least data portion with its own unique address on a hard disc. In order to read or to record the required data into the required place it is necessary to set a block's address as a parameter of an operation given to a controller of a hard disc. A block's size is standard for all hard discs for a long time of 512 bytes. To specify a block address uniquely it is necessary to give all three parameters. This is widely adopted and called CHS (cylinder, head, sector)

Other than storage, hard disc can use to be a virtual memory when we fully utilize the memory in RAM. However it is not as fast as the RAM. So, virtual memory can only use as a spare memory of RAM.

Nowadays, the capacity of hard disc becomes very large. Therefore, people will use partition in hard disc which means divided the disc into different parts. By this method, computer can find a file more effective and we can manage files easier. So, the hard disc can keep efficient all the time.

Know more  Hardware:

Display Card    Sound Card    CD Rom    Ram    Modem

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