Edit Devices, ContinuedDisk drivesAlso inside the system unit, there is the disk drive or a combination of diskdrives. A disk drive provides direct access to data on a disk for electronicstorage and retrieval. The two basic types of disk drives are the floppy diskand the hard disk drive. Hard disk drives can be removable as aprecautionary measure of protection for the data stored on the drive.Floppy diskFloppy disk drives play and record on floppy diskettes. There are openingsdriveon the face of the system unit for the insertion of a floppy disk. Inside thedisk drive are electronic heads that read and write. Single-sided disk drivesread/write on one side of the disk. Double-sided disk drives have read/writeheads on both sides. The electronic heads in each floppy disk driveread/write slower than those of a hard disk drive.Floppy disksFloppy disks are round, flexible platters covered with magnetic oxide andencased in a sturdier plastic envelope. The envelope is lined with a softmaterial that continuously cleans the disks, as it spins inside the envelope.The diskette has a hole in the middle, called a center hub. Also on theenvelope, there is a recording window that allows the read/write heads accessto the disk surface. Disks have a notch in the upper right-hand comer whichis a write protect feature to prevent the user from accidentally recording overexisting data. New disks are blank; therefore, you must initially formatevery disk you use in your computer. The diskettes used with a floppy diskdrive come in two sizes: 5 1/4 and 3 ½ inch. The following table explainsother diskette features:FeatureMeaningSingle-sidedRecords on one side onlySingle density256 byte capacity per sectorDouble-sidedRecords on both sides of diskDouble density512 byte capacity per sectorQuad density1,024 byte capacity per sectorContinued on next page3-15
Integrated Publishing, Inc. - A (SDVOSB) Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business
