nerdexam
EC-Council

312-49 · Question #505

The surface of a hard disk consists of several concentric rings known as tracks; each of these tracks has smaller partitions called disk blocks. What is the size of each block?

The correct answer is B. 512 bytes. A disk block (also called a sector) is the smallest addressable unit of storage on a hard disk. The traditional and standard size of a disk sector/block is 512 bytes. This has been the industry standard since the early days of hard disk design. Modern drives may use 4096-byte…

Submitted by emma.c· Apr 18, 2026Disk Forensics

Question

The surface of a hard disk consists of several concentric rings known as tracks; each of these tracks has smaller partitions called disk blocks. What is the size of each block?

Options

  • A512 bits
  • B512 bytes
  • C256 bits
  • D256 bytes

How the community answered

(31 responses)
  • A
    3% (1)
  • B
    90% (28)
  • C
    6% (2)

Explanation

A disk block (also called a sector) is the smallest addressable unit of storage on a hard disk. The traditional and standard size of a disk sector/block is 512 bytes. This has been the industry standard since the early days of hard disk design. Modern drives may use 4096-byte (4K) sectors (Advanced Format), but 512 bytes remains the classic and exam-expected answer. Note the distinction: the unit is bytes, not bits - 512 bits would be only 64 bytes, which is far too small.

Topics

#Hard disk architecture#Disk block size#Storage units#File system fundamentals

Community Discussion

No community discussion yet for this question.

Full 312-49 Practice