| A | B |
|---|
| Magnetic | The type of pattern used to store data on a hard drive. |
| Spiral | Pattern used to store data on optical disks. |
| Read/Write Head | Actually puts data onto the disk using a coil to increase the magnetic field. |
| Format | To prepare a disk to receive data. |
| Sector | Smallest division of a track, about 512 bytes. |
| Cluster | One or more sectors, the smallest allowed file size. |
| Track | A concentric circle of sectors on a disk. |
| Cylinder | A verticle column of tracks. |
| FDISK | Command used to partition a disk. |
| Master Boot Record | Contains info on disk physical characteristics. |
| Partition | A "logical" drive, simulates a separate drive on a disk. |
| FAT16 | Limited to 2GB partitions |
| FAT32 | Limited to 2TB partitions |
| Dual Boot | When more than one operating system exist on a drive. |
| File Allocation Table | Contains info on where files are stored on the disk. |
| NTFS 4.0 | Limited to 16EB partitions |
| NTFS 5.0 | Called "Dynamic Disk", can view multiple physical disks as folders on one drive. |
| Scandisk | Program used to check the surface of the disk for bad sectors. |
| Defragmenter | Program used to put file sectors in sequential order. |
| Fragmentation | When a file's sectors are not in sequential order. |
| Benchmark | Performance test for hardware or software. |
| PATA | Parallel AT Attachment also called IDE. |
| IDE | Integrated Drive Electronics, allows two drives per channel. |
| SATA | Serial ATA, much faster than PATA, allows one drive per channel. |
| Master | Primary disk on an IDE channel. |
| Slave | Secondary drive on an IDE channel. |
| SCSI | Small Computer System Interface, allows 8 devices per channel. |
| SCSI ID | Binary disk ID formed by jumper pattern. |
| SSD | Solid State Drive, no moving parts, replacing hard disks. |
| CD | Compact Disk, holds 700 MB. |
| Infrared | Laser used on CD players. |
| CD-R | CD that can be written to once. |
| CD-RW | CD that can be written to multiple times. |
| DVD | Digital Versatile Disk, holds about 4.7 GB. |
| Red | Thpe of laser used on DVD players. |
| Bluray | Improved DVD tech, holds over 40 GB. |
| Blue | Type of laser used on Bluray players. |
| Data Transfer Rate | Amount of data transferred from CD to RAM in one second. |
| Access Time | Time between read command and first bit read on CD. |
| UDF | Universal Disk Format, current format used on optical disks. |
