Data Storage
This article lists the various computer information systems/storage types and how they work. This article includes definitions of various types of storage, from hard drives and flash memory, such as USB drives and solid state drives (memory cards), to optical discs and smart cards. We currently use smart cards more than this article suggests.
Storage System
Clusters, Sectors, and Tracks
Disk structure showing a track (A), a sector (B) and a sector of track (C) and a cluster of sectors(D).
Hard disks have many circular pieces called platters inside them. These platters have two sides are made up of tracks, sectors, and clusters. A cluster is a group of sectors, and a sector divides tracks into pie shaped sections. Each cluster, sector, and track is numbered in order to help the computer quickly locate where specific stored data is. For example, data can be saved to side 2, sector 1, track 5. A track can be compared to the grooves on a music record, because there are physical indents where the data is actually stored. Data is read and written by a read/write head, also commonly referred to as a "head". Each platter has a head. When data is to be stored on a hard disk, the heads will align with the same track on every platter, and write the data across each one. There are a few measurements you can take to see how well a hard disk preforms. The most important measurement is calculating seek time. Seek time will tell you how long it takes for a head to move from one track to another. The quicker the seek time the better because that would mean data can be reached faster.