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Disc Sectors
Data on mass storage devices is written in "sectors". A sector is a set of contiguous bytes
(eight bits, or binary units) on the disc (on the same track). A sector is the smallest unit
of data that can be written and read. If you want to change one byte on a disc, you must
read the entire sector, change the byte, then write the entire sector to the appropriate
location.
Figure 3-8. Discs are Accessed by Sectors
Sector/Volume Size Option
With this BASIC system, sector sizes of 256 and 1024 bytes are available. The "System
Disc Utility" uses the default sector/volume-size option of 1, which specifies 256-byte
sectors. If you want a non-default sector size, then you must use the INITIALIZE
statement.
3-18
Mass Storage Concepts
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