Determining Fixed Disk Size from Physical Parameters (78920)
This article was previously published under Q78920
SUMMARY
If the physical characteristics of a fixed disk are known, it is
possible to calculate the size of the disk in megabytes. The
following information is needed to make the determination:
Cylinders (CYL) (Physical number of cylinders [tracks])
Heads (HDS) (Physical number of read/write heads)
Sectors/Track (SPT) (Logical number of sectors per track)
Bytes/Sector (BTS) (Usually 512 for MS-DOS systems; other
values may apply for OEM and/or third
party partition schemes.)
Given the above information, the size of the fixed disk in megabytes
may be calculated as follows:
[(CYL)*(HDS)*(SPT)*(BTS)]/[(1024)*(1024)] = size in megabytes
The physical characteristics of a fixed disk may be determined in some
cases by using the system setup program provided by the system
manufacturer, or by contacting the fixed disk manufacturer.
Modification Type: |
Major |
Last Reviewed: |
7/30/2001 |
Keywords: |
KB78920 |
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