Quote:

I notice that 32,256/512 = 63.



Exactly the problem! A disk's architecture is built using >>>>64<<<<< sector tracks. In earlier operating systems Microsoft decided to use the first 63 sectors for the disk structure information when creating a partition. Thereafter creating partitions starting at the beginning of sector 64. This is a problem because the >>>>next track starts one more sector over at the beginning of sector 65.<<<<

Starting the beginning of a partition at sector 64 - at the end of the track - causes an extra in/out operation for the drive mechanism. It has to write or read a 4kb (4096 bytes) block of data spread across a barrier of two tracks at the track boundary between sectors 64 & 65. Read / write to sector 64 - stop, reposition to the next track (starting at sector 65) - continue the read / write operation.

Last edited by Lawrence.1955; 12/10/10 01:19 AM.