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A disk is further divided by sectors. To understand what a
sector is, picture the spokes on a bicycle wheel radiating from
the center of the wheel to the tire. The space between one
spoke and the next is like a sector on a diskette. (See the figure
below.) Each track on a 1.2MB diskette has 15 sectors, and
each sector holds 512 bytes.
Figure 3-3. Sectors and Tracks
Your computer uses the read/write heads in a disk drive to store
and retrieve data on a disk. There is one head above the
diskette and one below, so the drive can write to both sides of
the diskette. To write to a disk, the computer spins it in the
drive to a position where one of the read/write heads can access
the diskette through the read/write slot. The read/write slot on
a diskette exposes the diskette’s magnetic surface so the
read/write head can write on the appropriate area.
Because data is stored magnetically, you can retrieve it, record
over it, and erase it — just as you play, record, and erase music
on a cassette tape.
Using Your Computer
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