The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
A double-sided disk is a floppy disk on which data can be recorded on both sides. The storage capacity of a double-sided disk is twice that of a disk on which data can be stored on just one side. Double-density, double-sided disks have an average storage capacity of 720,000 bytes, equivalent to approximately 360 printed pages of information. A high-density double-sided disk, on which the tracks used to store information are spaced closer together, can store up to 1,440,000 bytes.
A double-sided disk drive is necessary for data storage on both sides of a disk. A disk drive reads data from and writes data to a disk. This does not often pose a problem, however, since most modern computer systems come equipped with a double-sided disk drive.
A floppy disk is constructed of plastic. With double-sided disks, the plastic is coated on both sides with a material known as magnetic oxide. Data is stored on circular tracks within the magnetic oxide matrix. Each track is divided into arcs called sectors. Formally a physical process, sectors are now made by writing codes on the disk during a process of disk preparation called formatting, or initialization. Following formatting, the computer uses the disk side number, a track number and a sector number to form an address for the data written to each site. The addresses facilitate the subsequent use or retrieval of the data.