FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPUTER

Detailed explanation-1: -A cylinder is a unit of storage on a count-key-data (CKD) device with a fixed number of tracks. Track. Cylinders contain tracks, which are circular paths on the surface of a disk or diskette on which information is magnetically recorded and from which recorded information is read.

Detailed explanation-2: -A track is that portion of a disk which passes under a single stationary head during a disk rotation, a ring 1 bit wide. A cylinder is comprised of the set of tracks described by all the heads (on separate platters) at a single seek position. Each cylinder is equidistant from the center of the disk.

Detailed explanation-3: -Tracks are numbered, starting at 0 (the outermost edge of the disk), and going up to the highest numbered track, typically 1023, (close to the center). Similarly, there are 1, 024 cylinders (numbered from 0 to 1023) on a hard disk. The stack of platters rotate at a constant speed.

Detailed explanation-4: -Each platter of a hard disk is divided into a number of concentric tracks. Each track is divided into a number of sectors, each of which can store the same amount of data. A sector is the smallest physical storage unit on the disk, and on most file systems it is fixed at 512 bytes in size.