Disk: Typically refers to a magnetic or optical storage medium on which information can be accessed, for example, the Hard Disk, Floppy Disk, CD, or DVD.

 

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Disk: Typically refers to a magnetic or optical storage medium on which information can be accessed, for example, the Hard Disk, Floppy Disk, CD, or DVD.

Optical Disk: A disk that encodes data as a series of reflecting pits that are read and written by a laser beam.

Virtual Disk: A RAM disk in which a section of system memory is set aside to hold data, as though it were a number of disk sectors. Sometimes used for bootable operating systems and applications to function.

Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID): A category of disk drives that employ two or more drives in combination for fault tolerance and performance. RAID disk drives are used frequently on servers but aren't generally necessary fo . . . View Full Definition

Disk Cache: A portion of memory on the motherboard or another card or controller that is used to store information that is frequently accessed in order to speed up disk access. The large the cache, the . . . View Full Definition

Hard Disk: High-capacity disk storage unit with a non-removable hard storage medium. The platters in a hard disk are normally made out of aluminum or glass and ceramic.

Boot Disk: This refers to a diskette that is formatted to actually boot your computer from. They were created as a backup tool in case the normal boot method (hard disk) has failed.

Compact Disk (CD): A 12cm optical disk that contains digitally encoded information.

FDISK: A disk partitioning program used by several different operating systems to create the master boot record and set partitions for the operating system. Most commonly used as: FDISK /MBR, which . . . View Full Definition

Floppy Disk: A removable disk using a flexible magnetic media in a plastic case. 3.5'' floppy disks are sometimes seen in modern computing, but are quickly being replaced as their predecessors were.