
Computer interfacing
A 5.25 in disk will be formatted to have either 40 or 80
tracks per side with 10 sectors per track. Assuming each
sector holds 256 bytes of data so that, with an 80 track,
single-density recording, the total capacity is: 256 x 80 x
10 x 2 = 400 kilobytes. Using double-density recording
the capacity becomes 800 kilobytes, naturally.
Files and directories
Programs and data stored on disks are held in blocks
whose size, in K-bytes, depends upon the size of the pro-
gram or data file. Each block has its own unique track/
sector start address and a filename. The latter is usually
restricted to a maximum of eight alpha-numeri