A hard disk is divided into tracks, which are further subdivided into:

2013

A hard disk is divided into tracks, which are further subdivided into:

Answer: B. SectorsConcept — the fixed geometry of a magnetic disk. Each platter surface of a hard disk is coated with magnetic material and is given a permanent physical layout…

  1. A.

    Clusters

  2. B.

    Sectors

  3. C.

    Vectors

  4. D.

    Heads

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B

Concept — the fixed geometry of a magnetic disk. Each platter surface of a hard disk is coated with magnetic material and is given a permanent physical layout when the drive is manufactured. The surface is organised into concentric rings, and every ring is then divided by low-level formatting into equal arc-shaped pieces of identical capacity. That arc is the smallest piece of the surface the disk controller can read or write in a single operation, so it is the unit in which every physical disk address is expressed.

Applying it here. The stem asks for the level that sits directly below a track in that physical layout. Low-level formatting cuts each track into sectors, so a track is further subdivided into sectors. A sector classically holds 512 bytes of user data; drives using the Advanced Format standard hold 4096 bytes per sector.

The physical hierarchy, largest to smallest:

  1. Platter — a rigid magnetic disc mounted on the spindle. A drive stacks several platters, each with two usable surfaces.

  2. Track — one concentric ring on a single surface. The tracks at the same radius on every surface together form a cylinder.

  3. Sector — one arc-shaped segment of a track, and the smallest addressable unit on the disk. A physical location is named by the CHS triple: cylinder, head, sector.

Cross-check against the other three terms:

Term

What it is

Which layer

Sector

Arc-shaped segment of a track; smallest addressable block

Physical disk geometry

Cluster

Group of sectors treated as one allocation unit for a file

File system, set at high-level formatting

Vector

Quantity with magnitude and direction; also vector graphics and the interrupt vector table

Mathematics and software, not disk layout

Head

Read/write transducer on the actuator arm, one per surface

Drive hardware that accesses a track

Result: a hard disk is divided into tracks, and each track is further subdivided into sectors.

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