How Disks Store Data - TRIGEM CW3S20A Operation Manual

Care for your diskettes and diskette drives
Insert and remove diskettes
Write-protect diskettes
Make backup copies of your diskettes
Use a single diskette drive
Use a hard disk drive

How Disks Store Data

The diskette you insert in your computer's diskette drive is
made of flexible plastic, coated with magnetic material. It is
enclosed in a square jacket. Your computer stores data on the
diskette by recording on the magnetic surface.
Unlike a diskette, a hard disk is rigid and fixed in place. It is
sealed in a protective case to keep it free from dust and dirt. A
hard disk stores data the same way that a diskette does, but it
works faster and has much larger storage capacity.
All disks are divided into data storage compartments by sides,
tracks, and sectors. Double-sided diskettes — like the ones you
use in your computer — store data on both sides. On your disk
there are concentric rings, called tracks, in which a disk can
store data. Doubledensity diskettes (such as 360KB diskettes)
have 40 tracks, and highdensity diskettes (such as 1.2MB or
1.44MB diskettes) have 80 tracks. But 720KB double density
diskette has 80 tracks.
A hard disk consists of two or more magnetically-coated
platters stacked on top of one another, so it has four or more
sides with many more tracks than a diskette.
Using Your
3-6 Computer