This article discusses some inconsistencies in sector numbering.
Sector counting starts at 1 when referring to the physical disk geometry.
The first sector is reference by head 0, cylinder 0, sector 1. When people
refer to absolute sectors on a physical volume, however, they typically
refer to sector 0 as the first sector. Many applications (for example,
Norton Disk Doctor) refer to the first sector as sector 0. Other tools use
different conventions.
Documentation often references sector 0, as it is less ambiguous than using
sector 1. Sector 0 is clearly the first sector, even if you disagree with
the convention. Sector 1 is the first sector to some people, and the second
sector to others.
On a disk with 37 sectors per track, 8 heads, and 512 cylinders, Windows NT
would look at the numbering as follows:
absolute
cylinder head sector sector address
0 0 1 0
0 0 2 1
0 0 3 2
0 0 4 3
0 0 36 35
0 0 37 36
0 1 1 37
0 1 2 38
0 1 36 72
0 1 37 73
0 2 1 74
0 2 2 75
0 7 36 294
0 7 37 295
1 0 1 296
1 0 2 297
511 7 36 151550
511 7 37 151551