A hard drive system has 2 circular disks with a total of 4 surfaces. The disk has 5000 tracks, each with 2000 sectors. How many sectors can be read without the reading head having to make a mechanical movement?
Explanation
The correct answer is 4. 8000.
Explanation:
In a hard disk drive, a "mechanical movement" typically refers to the seek operation, where the actuator arm moves the read/write head to a different track.
When the read/write head is positioned at a specific radial position, it is simultaneously positioned over the same track number on all available disk surfaces. This set of tracks at the same radial distance across all surfaces is collectively known as a cylinder. Therefore, without any physical movement of the actuator arm (seeking), the system can access all the sectors contained within that specific cylinder.
Calculation:
Total surfaces = 4
Sectors per track = 2000
To find the total number of sectors accessible without moving the head:
Total Sectors=Number of surfaces×Sectors per track
Total Sectors=4×2000=8000
Thus, the reading head can access 8000 sectors without needing mechanical movement.
