This chapter introduces you to disks: what they are,
how
to lake care
of
them, and how to usc them. You'll also find a discussion
of
important
disk
utility
commands toward the
end
of
the chapter.
Introducing
disks
Apple computers work with two types
of
disk-the
traditional 5.25-
inch
disk (also known
as
a
floppy
disk)
and the more recent 3.5-inch
disk. TIle
525-indl
disk can store
14QK
043,360
bytes). The
3.5"
inch disk has an
BOOK
(819,200 bytes) capacity.
A
disk acts like a file cabinct
in
which you can store information.
In
fact, any grouping
of
information with a name
is
callcd a flle. Files
include programs, lellers you write with
word
processing software,
budgets created with spreadsheets,
and address lists created with a
data base
program
Just
as
with paper
files,
the flies you keep
on
disk
can
be
saved, changed, sorted, or thrown away.
A disk, regardless
of
its
size,
is
basically a place to
keep
information. Just as you store documents in a filc cabinet, you can
store information
on
a disk. Files that you save
on
a disk are
recorded magnetically. Nonetheless,
computer
users normally
refer to
wrtttng data to disk and reading data from disk. Some
programs refer to disk files
as
documents.
Two other common terms are
program
disk and
data
disk. The
difference between the two lies in their contents. Typically a
program
disk
contains
one
or
more programs, such as a word
processing program. A
data
disk
conlains the information that you
create with a program. Storing different flles by topic (addresses,
lellers, budgets,
for
example)
on
different data disks
is
a
good
way
to classify information for easy access. People with two drives often
run their programs from the startup drive
and
store their data
on
a
disk
in
the
second
drive.
48
Chapter
3:
More
About
Disks
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