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Disk sector

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429: 711:. Increasing the length of the data field through the implementation of Advanced Format using 4096-byte sectors removed this impediment; it increased the efficiency of the data surface area by five to thirteen percent while increasing the strength of the ECC which in turn allowed higher capacity. The format was standardized by an industry consortium in 2005 and by 2011 incorporated in all new products of all hard drive manufacturers. 471: 40: 388: 264:(CRC) replacing parity per character detection of prior generations. These IBM physical records have three basic parts, a Count field which acts as an ID field, an optional Key field to aid in searching for data and a Data field; in practice, most records had no Key field, indicated by a key length of zero. The structure of these three fields is called the 313:) started work to define the implementation and standards that would govern sector size formats exceeding 512 bytes to accommodate future increases in data storage capacities. By the end of 2007 in anticipation of a future IDEMA standard, Samsung and Toshiba began shipments of 1.8-inch hard disk drives with 4096 byte sectors. In 2010 IDEMA completed the 620:. For cluster sizes which are small versus the average file size, the wasted space per file will be statistically about half of the cluster size; for large cluster sizes, the wasted space will become greater. However, a larger cluster size reduces bookkeeping overhead and fragmentation, which may improve 679:
If a sector is defined as the intersection between a radius and a track, as was the case with early hard drives and most floppy disks, the sectors towards the outside of the disk are physically longer than those nearer the spindle. Because each sector still contains the same number of bytes, the
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than the inner ones, which is an inefficient use of the magnetic surface. The solution is zone bit recording, wherein the disk is divided into zones, each encompassing a small number of contiguous tracks. Each zone is then divided into sectors such that each sector has a similar physical size.
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The sector is the minimum storage unit of a hard drive. Most disk partitioning schemes are designed to have files occupy an integral number of sectors regardless of the file's actual size. Files that do not fill a whole sector will have the remainder of their last sector filled with zeroes. In
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A consequence of zone bit recording is that contiguous reads and writes are noticeably faster on outer tracks (corresponding to lower block addresses) than on inner tracks, as more bits pass under the head with each rotation; this difference can be 25% or more.
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Prior to the 1980s, there was little standardization of sector sizes; disk drives had a maximum number of bits per track and various system manufacturers subdivided the track into different sector sizes to suit their OSes and applications. The popularity of the
211:, had ten 100 character sectors per track; each character was six bits and included a parity bit. The number of sectors per track was identical on all recording surfaces. There was no recorded identifier field (ID) associated with each sector. 601:) is a unit of disk space allocation for files and directories. To reduce the overhead of managing on-disk data structures, the filesystem does not allocate individual disk sectors by default, but contiguous groups of sectors, called clusters. 233:(ZBR) which allowed the number of sectors per track to vary as a function of the track's diameter – there are more sectors on an outer track than on an inner track. In the late 1980s ZBR was again used in disk drives then announced by 275:
replaced the CRC on the data field of each record with an error correcting code (ECC) to improve data integrity by detecting most errors and allowing correction of many errors. Ultimately all fields of disk sectors had ECCs.
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A cluster is the smallest logical amount of disk space that can be allocated to hold a file. Storing small files on a filesystem with large clusters will therefore waste disk space; such wasted disk space is called
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by IBM, and added to each record a record address field separate from the data in a record. All modern disk drives have sector address fields, called ID fields, separate from the data in a sector.
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standard for 4096 sector drives, setting the date for the transition from 512 to 4096 byte sectors as January 2011 for all manufacturers, and Advanced Format drives soon became prevalent.
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is an abstraction over disk sectors possibly encompassing multiple sectors. In other contexts, it may be a unit of a data stream or a unit of operation for a utility. For example, the
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is used to ensure that the mechanics of the drive have positioned the read/write head over the correct location. The data area contains the sync bytes, user data and an
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area (typically called "ID") and the data area. The sector header contains information used by the drive and controller; this information includes sync bytes,
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In 1998 the traditional 512-byte sector size was identified as one impediment to increasing capacity which at that time was growing at a rate exceeding
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has been used loosely to refer to a small chunk of data. Block has multiple meanings depending on the context. In the context of data storage, a
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DASD. CKD DASD supported multiple variable length sectors while the IBM FBA DASD supported sector sizes of 512, 1024, 2048, or 4096 bytes.
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IBM 1301, Models 1 and 2, Disk Storage and IBM 1302, Models 1 and 2, Disk Storage with IBM 7090, 7094, and 7094 II Data Processing Systems
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IBM 1301, Models 1 and 2, Disk Storage and IBM 1302, Models 1 and 2, Disk Storage with IBM 1410 and 7010 Data Processing Systems
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in the late 1980s led to a 512-byte sector becoming an industry standard sector size for HDDs and similar storage devices.
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Because outer zones have a greater circumference than inner zones, they are allocated more sectors. This is known as
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and writing speed overall. Typical cluster sizes range from 1 sector (512 B) to 128 sectors (64
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This article is about sectors on magnetic disk drives. For sectors on magnetic drum drives, see
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On a disk that uses 512-byte sectors, a 512-byte cluster contains one sector, whereas a 4-
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Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.
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In modern disk drives, each physical sector is made up of two basic parts, the sector
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is used, may even be discontiguous within a track. This should not be confused with
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A "lost cluster" occurs when a file is deleted from the directory listing, but the
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A cluster need not be physically contiguous on the disk; it may span more than one
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allows one to set the block size to be used during execution with the parameter
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305 RAMAC Random Access Method of Accounting and Control Manual of Operation
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Porter, James (October 1988). "Rigid Magnetic Disk Drive Specifications".
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Porter, James (June 1997). "Rigid Magnetic Disk Drive Specifications".
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by IBM. They detected errors in all fields of their records with a
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Also in 1961 Bryant with its 4000 series introduced the concept of
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While sector specifically means the physical disk area, the term
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in 1964 used self-formatting variable length sectors, termed
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International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association
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4.0. However the term cluster is still widely used.
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of parts of this article (those related to article)
495:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. 172:(Figure 1, item C) refers to the intersection of a 355:In Linux, disk sector size can be determined with 968:Reference Manual for IBM 3330 Series Disk Storage 643:, as the sectors are still logically contiguous. 444:may be compromised due to out-of-date information 145:practice, operating systems typically operate on 1172: 1048:"Difference between block size and cluster size" 985: 983: 981: 241:and by 1997 its industry usage was ubiquitous. 284:beginning in the 1980s and the advent of the 29:Logical or physical division of storage media 978: 133:. Newer HDDs and SSDs use 4096 byte (4  1072:"Disk Sector and Block Allocation For File" 416:Learn how and when to remove these messages 218:introduced variable length sectors, termed 366: 1140: 953:1997 DISK/TREND REPORT, RIGID DISK DRIVES 938:1988 DISK/TREND REPORT, RIGID DISK DRIVES 832:Computer Science Handbook, Second Edition 801: 573:Learn how and when to remove this message 555:Learn how and when to remove this message 305:In 2000 the industry trade organization, 1150:, National Semiconductor, archived from 325: 38: 1010: 14: 1173: 950: 935: 919:Technical Data - Series 4000 Disk File 828: 359:and block size can be determined with 1028:from the original on 14 December 2020 1004: 668: 493:adding citations to reliable sources 464: 422: 381: 940:. DISK/TREND, Inc. p. 63, 122. 248:and other DASDs announced with the 149:, which may span multiple sectors. 24: 696: 612:) cluster contains eight sectors. 357:sudo fdisk -l | grep "Sector size" 137:) sectors, which are known as the 34:Track (moving medium) § Drums 25: 1197: 1011:Skinner, Heather (29 June 2010). 925:. Bryant Computer Products. 1963. 397:This section has multiple issues. 469: 427: 386: 320: 1134: 1113: 1088: 1064: 1040: 991:"The Advent of Advanced Format" 974:. IBM. March 1974. GA26-1615-3. 959: 829:Tucker, Allen B. (2004-06-28). 802:Hamington, Suzie (2004-01-01). 480:needs additional citations for 405:or discuss these issues on the 361:sudo blockdev --getbsz /dev/sda 207:The first disk drive, the 1957 944: 929: 910: 891: 872: 849: 822: 795: 771: 13: 1: 764: 296:Direct Access Storage Devices 753:Hard disk drive partitioning 7: 1121:Upgrading and repairing PCs 808:. Lotus Press. p. 42. 714: 298:(FBA DASDs) to its line of 121:(HDDs), and 2048 bytes for 43:Figure 1: Disk structures: 10: 1202: 1144:DP8459 Zoned Bit Recording 1141:Kern Wong (January 1989), 700: 672: 370: 202: 31: 835:. CRC Press. p. 86. 680:outer sectors have lower 367:Sectors versus clusters 293:fixed-block architecture 291:In the 1970s, IBM added 152:Geometrically, the word 1119:Mueller, Scott (2002). 593:(sometimes also called 262:cyclic redundancy check 1052:unix.stackexchange.com 193:address identification 189:address identification 160:between a center, two 101:is a subdivision of a 90: 1181:Computer file systems 747:File Allocation Table 648:File Allocation Table 373:clustered file system 326:Sectors versus blocks 273:IBM 3330 disk storage 216:IBM 1301 disk storage 197:error-correcting code 156:means a portion of a 42: 1186:Units of information 732:Cylinder-head-sector 489:improve this article 209:IBM 350 disk storage 164:and a corresponding 687:zoned bit recording 637:sector interleaving 955:. DISK/TREND, Inc. 779:"UDF - OSDev Wiki" 675:Zone bit recording 669:Zone bit recording 91: 64:Geometrical sector 1076:stackoverflow.com 583: 582: 575: 565: 564: 557: 539: 463: 462: 420: 16:(Redirected from 1193: 1165: 1164: 1163: 1162: 1156: 1149: 1138: 1132: 1117: 1111: 1110: 1108: 1107: 1098:. Archived from 1092: 1086: 1085: 1083: 1082: 1068: 1062: 1061: 1059: 1058: 1044: 1038: 1037: 1035: 1033: 1017: 1008: 1002: 1001: 999: 998: 987: 976: 975: 973: 963: 957: 956: 948: 942: 941: 933: 927: 926: 924: 914: 908: 907: 906:. IBM. A22-6788. 905: 895: 889: 888: 887:. IBM. 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IDEMA 868:. 1957. 655:cluster 635:or, if 622:reading 591:cluster 529:scholar 343:program 254:records 239:Quantum 220:records 203:History 131:BD-ROMs 123:CD-ROMs 87:Cluster 81: ( 71: ( 58: ( 52:) Track 48: ( 1127:  839:  812:  531:  524:  517:  510:  502:  185:header 178:sector 154:sector 141:(AF). 99:sector 79:  69:  56:  46:  1155:(PDF) 1148:(PDF) 1016:(PDF) 972:(PDF) 923:(PDF) 904:(PDF) 885:(PDF) 862:(PDF) 749:(FAT) 633:track 599:block 536:JSTOR 522:books 332:block 311:IDEMA 174:track 162:radii 115:bytes 105:on a 103:track 1125:ISBN 1034:2020 837:ISBN 810:ISBN 589:, a 508:news 436:The 340:Unix 244:The 237:and 158:disk 129:and 117:for 97:, a 866:IBM 663:DOS 661:in 628:). 626:KiB 610:KiB 597:or 491:by 375:or 300:CKD 256:or 222:or 166:arc 135:KiB 109:or 1177:: 1074:. 1050:. 1024:. 1018:. 980:^ 864:. 781:. 689:. 411:. 363:. 346:dd 282:PC 180:. 125:, 85:) 62:) 1131:. 1109:. 1084:. 1060:. 1036:. 1000:. 845:. 818:. 791:. 608:( 576:) 570:( 558:) 552:( 547:) 543:( 533:· 526:· 519:· 512:· 485:. 456:) 452:( 446:. 418:) 414:( 379:. 309:( 83:D 73:C 60:B 50:A 36:. 20:)

Index

Data cluster
Track (moving medium) § Drums

Geometrical sector
Cluster
disk storage
track
magnetic disk
optical disc
bytes
hard disk drives
CD-ROMs
DVD-ROMs
BD-ROMs
KiB
Advanced Format
blocks of data
sector
disk
radii
arc
header
error-correcting code
IBM 350 disk storage
IBM 1301 disk storage
zoned recording
Imprimis
Quantum
disk drives
IBM System/360

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