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Types of diskette drives – Epson EQUITY 3865X/20 PLUS User Manual

Page 78

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Your computer uses the read/write heads in a disk drive to store
and retrieve data on a disk.

To

write to a disk, the computer

spins it in the drive to position the

disk

so that the area where

the data is to be written is under the read/write head. A diskette

has an exposed area where the read/write head can access it.

Because data is stored magnetically, you can retrieve it, record

over it, and erase it-just as you play, record, and erase music on

a cassette tape.

Types of Diskette Drives

The following list describes the four types of diskette drives you

can use in your computer and which diskettes to use with them:

1.2MB drive-Use 5

double-sided, high-density,

96 TPI (tracks per inch), 1.2MB diskettes. These diskettes

contain 80 tracks per side, 15 sectors per track, and hold up
to 1.2MB of information, which is approximately 500 pages

of text.

Note
MB stands for megabyte, which equals 1024KB (or

1,048,576 bytes). KB stands for kilobyte, which equals
1024 bytes. Each byte represents a single character, such

as A, $, or 3.

1.44MB drive-Use 3

double-sided, high-density,

135 TPI, 1.44MB diskettes. These diskettes contain 80

tracks per side, 18 sectors per track, and hold up to 1.44MB

of information, which is approximately 600 pages of text.

3-12

Using Your Computer