Care for your diskettes and diskette drives

Insert and remove diskettes

Write-protect diskettes

Make backup copies of your diskettes

Use a single diskette drive

Use a hard disk drive

How Disks Store Data

The diskette you insert in your computer’s diskette drive is made of flexible plastic, coated with magnetic material. It is enclosed in a square jacket. Your computer stores data on the diskette by recording on the magnetic surface.

Unlike a diskette, a hard disk is rigid and fixed in place. It is sealed in a protective case to keep it free from dust and dirt. A hard disk stores data the same way that a diskette does, but it works faster and has much larger storage capacity.

All disks are divided into data storage compartments by sides, tracks, and sectors. Double-sided diskettes — like the ones you use in your computer — store data on both sides. On your disk there are concentric rings, called tracks, in which a disk can store data. Double-density diskettes (such as 360KB diskettes) have 40 tracks, and highdensity diskettes (such as 1.2MB or 1.44MB diskettes) have 80 tracks. But 720KB double density diskette has 80 tracks.

A hard disk consists of two or more magnetically-coated platters stacked on top of one another, so it has four or more sides with many more tracks than a diskette.

3-6 Using Your Computer