Disk

The collective term for diskettes and hard disks, the devices on which the computer stores data magnetically.

Disk drive

The electromechanical device that reads data from and writes data to a disk, tape, or other storage media. A diskette drive accepts removable diskettes in its disk slot while a hard disk is sealed inside a protective casing.

Diskette

A flat piece of flexible plastic coated with magnetic material used to store the data written to it by the diskette drive. A diskette can be transferred from one computer to another.

Display adapter card

A circuit board that can be installed in one of the computer’s option slots to control the way a monitor displays text and graphics. A VGA display adapter is built into your computer’s main system board and video daughterboard. Also called video card.

DOS

Disk Operating System. The generic term for the operating system software that controls a computer and directs its input and output functions. See also MS-DOS and Operating system.

Double-density

A type of diskette format that allows you to store twice as much data as the standarddensity format. A 5.25-inch double-density diskette can store 360KB of data. A 3.5-inch double-density diskette can store 720KB of data.

8 Glossary