Definition: Cluster


Cluster is a basic allocation unit on a hard drive. It is a group of contiguous sectors. The cluster size (number of sectors per cluster) varies with the storage media and is fixed at time of format. At least one cluster is allocated to each file, regardless of the file's size, that is stored in the DOS environment.




DID YOU KNOW?  DATA RECOVERY FACTS AND TERMINOLOGY:

Data Recovery Fact

Partition

Logical storage unit. One hard disk can be divided into one or more partitions. Each partition is regarded as one logical storage unit, and normally contains one file system. In the Windows operating systems (95/98/NT/2000) each partition is assigned one station letter (C:, D: etc). For the user it looks like there are several hard disks in the computer. The term partition may also be used in tape context, but the interpretation differs slightly. It may have two partitions on tape. one will contain the file data and the other the system information.

Please visit our Data Recovery KB for more facts and terminology.