with tracks and sectors), partitioning and high-level (creation of file system
on a partition).
Hard disk (hard drive). Fixed storage media along with integrated electronics
that consists of several magnetic platters that rotate synchronously on one
spindle. Hard disks have relatively high capacity and high read/write speed.
Hard disk geometry. A set of hard disk parameters that usually includes the
number of cylinders, heads and sectors per track.
Head (magnetic head, read/write head). A hard disk consists of several mag-
netic platters, for each side of each platter there is a head that is used to
read and write information on it.
Hidden partition. A partition that is somehow made invisible to the operating
system. Usually partitions are hidden by changing their type.
Label. An optional name that can be assigned to a partition to simplify its
identification. Usually has the same limitation as file names. For example,
FAT partitions have labels up to 11 characters long, but may contain spaces.
Letter (of a drive, partition). All operating systems that are DOS-compatible
use Latin letters to identify drives and partitions. Letters A: and B: are usually
reserved for floppy drives. Starting with C: letters are assigned to hard disk
partitions that can be recognized by the operating system. Separate letters
may be assigned to CD-ROMs, DVDs, or other disk drives, and to network
drives.
Logical disk is a partition whose file system is recognized by the operating
system. Usually each logical disk is assigned with a letter that uniquely
identifies it.
Logical partition. Partition information about which is located not in MBR, but
in the extended partition table. The number of logical partitions on a disk is
unlimited.
Master Boot Record (MBR) is a special place in the very first sector of the
hard disk to store information about the hard disk partitioning and code to be
loaded with BIOS. All the actions that follow depend on the contents of this
code.
Operating system is a set of programs that usually includes kernel, drivers,
shell and system programs that are used for centralized hardware manage-
ment and hiding the details of hardware management from the user and ap-
plications.
Operating system booting is initiated by loading its boot sector to memory at
0:7C00h address and passing control to it. Since every operating system has
its own boot sector, it is able to perform all the necessary actions to load and
initialize system and configuration files.
78 Appendix B : Glossary
