ITPEC FE Morning October 2022 Question 13

Source exam: ITPEC FE Morning October 2022Topic: Computer Systems & Hardware

ITPEC FE Morning October 2022 — Question 13 of 80

Disk Sector Size Calculation — find bytes per sector from total capacity and disk geometry.

Given: 8 GB disk, 5 platters, 2 surfaces/platter, 10,000 tracks/surface, 200 sectors/track, 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes.

Step-by-step:
- Total surfaces: 5 × 2 = 10

- Total sectors: 10 × 10,000 × 200 = 20,000,000

- Bytes per sector: 8,000,000,000 ÷ 20,000,000 = 400

Answer: (c) 400

Why not others:
- (a) 100 — incorrectly uses only 1 surface total

- (b) 200 — treats each platter as 1 surface instead of 2

- (d) 800 — uses only 1 surface per platter (5 total instead of 10)

Key rule: Each platter has 2 surfaces. Total sectors = platters × 2 × tracks_per_surface × sectors_per_track. Then divide total capacity by total sectors.

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