Disk Geometry Basics A hard disk platter is divided into concentric tracks. Each track is further subdivided into which fundamental storage unit used by the controller for addressing and reads/writes?

Introduction / Context:
Understanding the physical and logical organization of magnetic storage helps when interpreting low-level diagnostics and formatting concepts. The hierarchy includes platters, tracks, and smaller addressable units within each track. This question targets the name of those smallest units on a track.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Conventional hard drives with CHS (cylinder/head/sector) legacy terminology.
• Modern LBA abstracts CHS, but sectors remain the smallest addressable unit.
• Typical sector size historically 512 bytes (now also 4096-byte Advanced Format).

Concept / Approach:

A track is divided into sectors, each with data plus overhead (sync, header, ECC). File systems group sectors into clusters (allocation units), but at the disk level the controller reads and writes sectors.

Step-by-Step Solution:

Verification / Alternative check:

Low-level tools display sector counts; SMART attributes and disk imaging utilities operate in units of sectors or logical block addresses (LBAs).

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

Clusters are file-system constructs grouping sectors. “Vectors” is not a disk geometry term. “Heads” refer to read/write elements and surfaces, not subdivisions of a track.

Common Pitfalls:

Confusing sectors (hardware unit) with clusters (file system unit) when interpreting capacity and fragmentation.

Final Answer:

sectors