Calculating the Capacity of a Hard Disk with 25 Platters: A Comprehensive Analysis

Understanding the capacity of a hard disk is crucial for anyone dealing with data storage and management. The capacity of a hard disk is determined by several factors, including the number of platters, tracks per platter, sectors per track, and the amount of data each sector can hold. In this article, we will delve into a comprehensive analysis of how to calculate the capacity of a hard disk with 25 platters, each having 200 tracks, with each track having 60 sectors, and each sector capable of holding 1.5KB of data.

Understanding the Basics

Before we proceed with the calculations, it’s important to understand the basic terms related to hard disk storage:

• Platter: A platter is a flat, circular disk where data is written. A hard disk can have multiple platters.
• Track: A track is a circular path on the platter where the data is written and read.
• Sector: A sector is a segment of a track, typically the smallest unit that can be written or read.
• Data Capacity: This refers to the amount of data a sector can hold, usually measured in bytes (B), kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), or terabytes (TB).

Calculating the Capacity of a Hard Disk

To calculate the capacity of a hard disk, you need to multiply the number of platters, tracks per platter, sectors per track, and the data capacity per sector. Here’s how:

1. Multiply the number of tracks per platter by the number of platters to get the total number of tracks. In this case, 200 tracks/platter * 25 platters = 5000 tracks.
2. Multiply the total number of tracks by the number of sectors per track to get the total number of sectors. In this case, 5000 tracks * 60 sectors/track = 300,000 sectors.
3. Multiply the total number of sectors by the data capacity per sector to get the total capacity. In this case, 300,000 sectors * 1.5KB/sector = 450,000KB.

Converting the Capacity to More Usable Units

While the capacity of the hard disk is 450,000KB, it’s more common to express hard disk capacity in larger units like MB, GB, or TB. Here’s how to convert:

• To convert KB to MB, divide by 1024. So, 450,000KB = 439.45MB.
• To convert MB to GB, divide by 1024. So, 439.45MB = 0.43GB.
• To convert GB to TB, divide by 1024. So, 0.43GB = 0.00042TB.

In conclusion, the capacity of a hard disk with 25 platters, each having 200 tracks, with each track having 60 sectors, and each sector capable of holding 1.5KB of data is approximately 0.43GB or 0.00042TB.