Types of diskette drives – Epson Endeavor User Manual

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Double-sided and high-density diskettes have 80 tracks on each

side and double-sided, double-density diskettes have either 40

or 80 tracks on each side. Diskettes can have 8, 9, 15, or 18

sectors per track.

A hard disk consists of two or more platters stacked on top of

one another and thus has four or more sides. In addition, a hard

disk has many more tracks per side than a diskette, but the

number of tracks depends on the capacity of the hard disk. The

number of sectors depends on the type of hard disk.

Your computer uses the read/write heads in a disk drive to

store and retrieve data on a disk. To write to a disk, the

computer spins it to the position under the read/write head

where the data is to be written. A diskette has an exposed area

where the read/write head can access it.

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.

Types of Diskette Drives

The following list describes the types of diskette drives you can

use in your computer and which diskettes to use with them:

1.44MB drive-Use 3.5-inch, double-sided, high-density,

135 TPI, 144MB diskettes. These diskettes contain 80 tracks

per side, 18 sectors per track, and hold up to 1.44MB of

information (approximately 600 pages of text).

Note

MB stands for megabyte, which equals 1024KB (or

1,048,576 bytes). KB stands for kilobyte, which equals

1024 bytes. Each byte represents a single character, such

as A, $, or 3.

Using Your Computer

1-7

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