Digital Forensic Certification Practice Exam

Which term describes a pie-shaped part of a circle on a hard-disk platter?

1. Track

2. Cylinder

3. Sector

4. Block

The correct answer is: Sector

The correct term to describe a pie-shaped part of a circle on a hard-disk platter is "sector." A sector is the fundamental unit of storage on a disk, typically consisting of 512 bytes or more, depending on the formatting and specifications of the disk. Each sector is a subdivision of a track, which is a circular path on the platter, and multiple sectors are grouped together within a track. Understanding the structure of a hard disk is crucial in digital forensics, as sectors are where data is actually stored and retrieved. During the forensic analysis, sectors may contain crucial evidence, and knowing how they are organized allows forensic professionals to recover and analyze that data effectively. In comparison, the term "track" refers to the complete circular pathway on the disk where data can be written and read, while "cylinder" is a term used to describe the collection of all the tracks aligned vertically from multiple platters at a given radius. "Block" generally refers to a collection of contiguous sectors, often used in larger file systems or storage systems rather than in the context of a disk platter.