Microsoft KB Archive/78920

= Determining Fixed Disk Size from Physical Parameters =

Article ID: 78920

Article Last Modified on 7/30/2001



This article was previously published under Q78920



SUMMARY
If the physical characteristics of a fixed disk are known, it is possible to calculate the size of the disk in megabytes. The following information is needed to make the determination: Cylinders     (CYL)    (Physical number of cylinders [tracks])

Heads         (HDS)    (Physical number of read/write heads)

Sectors/Track (SPT)    (Logical number of sectors per track)

Bytes/Sector  (BTS)    (Usually 512 for MS-DOS systems; other                         values may apply for OEM and/or third                         party partition schemes.)

Given the above information, the size of the fixed disk in megabytes may be calculated as follows:

[(CYL)*(HDS)*(SPT)*(BTS)]/[(1024)*(1024)] = size in megabytes

The physical characteristics of a fixed disk may be determined in some cases by using the system setup program provided by the system manufacturer, or by contacting the fixed disk manufacturer.

Keywords: KB78920

-

[mailto:TECHNET@MICROSOFT.COM Send feedback to Microsoft]

© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.