GNU Info

(mtools.info)bigger sectors

---

Next: 2m Prev: more sectors Up: high capacity formats

---

Enter node , (file) or (file)node

Bigger sectors
--------------

   By using bigger sectors it is possible to go beyond the capacity
which can be obtained by the standard 512-byte sectors. This is because
of the sector header. The sector header has the same size, regardless
of how many data bytes are in the sector. Thus, we save some space by
using _fewer_, but bigger sectors. For example, 1 sector of 4K only
takes up header space once, whereas 8 sectors of 512 bytes have also 8
headers, for the same amount of useful data.

   This method allows to store up to 1992K on a 3 1/2 HD disk.

   Mtools supports these formats only on Linux.