Hard drives
Tracks are circles around the platter (Tracks are numbered; they start from the value 0 which is the outside of the platter); tracks are then broken down into smaller sections called sectors, which are 512KB in size. Sectors are the smallest amount of data that can be accessed at a given time, to read a single bit of information means you need to read a sector, and then from that sector information take the required data. Tracks and sectors allow for the searching of data quicker than it would be without sectors.
A cluster is the smallest amount of space on the hard drive that a file can take up. So if you have cluster size of 256KB and a file that is 384KB in size, it will be stored in 2 clusters and act as if 512KB is taken up. This means that 128KB of space is wasted unless that file grows in size, wasted space is known as slack space. This is why having smaller cluster sizes is a good idea.
Sound right or wrong? Because when I read up about sectors and clustors I so get confused!
Regards
DislexiK
