Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!MCMANIS%USC-ECLC@sri-nic From: MCMANIS%USC-ECLC%sri-nic@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.micro Subject: Re: hard sectored vs. soft sectored 5 1/4" floppies Message-ID: <13922@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Tue, 22-Nov-83 16:55:00 EST Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.13922 Posted: Tue Nov 22 16:55:00 1983 Date-Received: Sun, 27-Nov-83 02:29:29 EST Lines: 26 From: Chuck McManis A Note on Hard Sectoring Vs. Soft Sectoring. Disks are divided up into tracks, each track is a concentric circle spaced some regular distance from the previos track. The number of tracks you can possibly read or write on a disk is designed into the hardware, typically between 30 and 80 tracks for a 5-1/4" floppy. Each track is then cut into segments called sectors. These vary in length depending on how close to the center you are. EVERY floppy disk has an Index hole to tell the hardware where the first sector starts on all of the tracks, in addition to this some floppie controllers allow you to divide up the track into as many or as few sectors as you want, these are called soft sectord because the the controller writes sector information on the disk, and can change it later if it so desires. However, to simplify hardware requirements some people got the great idea of adding a series of hole on the hub of the disk to indicate where all of the sectors started, then the timeing wasn't so critical since the disk told you when a new sector came up however you could NOT change the size of the sectors. Hence the name "hard" sectored. You will find that word processors need only minimal disk functions and hence every penny one can save is more profit, so that is why their disks are hard sectored because it is cheaper to build interfaces for them. Hope this clears this up somewhat. --Chuck -------