![]() Sharing Block Storage Over Networksīlock data methods are in use on most computer operating systems, and as mentioned earlier this includes smart phones, tablets, etc. This eases the burden on operating systems to make use of various data storage devices. The software that controls access to the storage devices takes care of the abstraction of the blocks of data the operating system is dealing with, and the physical storage of the blocks. Without getting into the physical track and sector layouts of different types of media, computer operating systems use the concept of a block of bits or bytes (8 bits of data) to divide and track chunks of data. Methods were developed as early as the 1960s to track where these bits were placed on the types of magnetic media mentioned previously, and to make it simple to retrieve them when needed. ![]() But how does a computer make sense out of all these bits? #1 Blocks: Why Hard Drives and SSD Store Data in BlocksĪs one can probably imagine, keeping track of where all those bits are and what they mean is a rather large and important task. It is a very ingenious strategy and has served us well for many years. If you could actually see the microscopic insides of these devices, what you would see would be a continuous stream of ones and zeroes. ![]() Solid State disks are basically silicon microelectronic chips and use a somewhat different method to achieve this, but the end result is still a one or a zero. Magnetic storage such as hard drives, floppy drives, and tape, use a magnetic charge to indicate whether a one or a zero is being stored or read back, each position being called a bit.
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