Track0 (pronounced 'track zero') is the area located at the start of a computer disk and is predominantly used to store information regarding the layout of the disk (the
partition table
Disk partitioning or disk slicing is the creation of one or more regions on secondary storage, so that each region can be managed separately. These regions are called partitions. It is typically the first step of preparing a newly installed disk, ...
) and executable code needed to boot an
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...
. Track0 typically consists of the first 64
sectors
Sector may refer to:
Places
* Sector, West Virginia, U.S.
Geometry
* Circular sector, the portion of a disc enclosed by two radii and a circular arc
* Hyperbolic sector, a region enclosed by two radii and a hyperbolic arc
* Spherical sector, a p ...
of the disk (since each sector is normally 512 bytes, this corresponds to 32,768 bytes = 32KiB). Since the first sector of a disk is sector zero, the first 64 sectors are sectors 0 to 63.
The first sector of Track0 is known as the
master boot record (MBR) and contains the initial code used to boot the
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...
(bootstrap code). Near the end of the MBR is the Partition Table: a predefined structure containing the layout of the disk.
Track0 is also increasingly used to store licensing information for particular pieces of software because it is an area of the disk outside of the OS
filesystem
In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is Computer data storage, stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage me ...
and not seen or used by most computer users (and therefore cannot be easily modified or replicated).
The origins of Track0 came about from the original specifications of PCs, where computer hard disks were defined in terms of Cylinders, Heads and Sectors (
CHS system). In this context, Track0 was defined to be all the sectors on the first cylinder and first head. As with many (now legacy) original PC specifications, the terminology stuck and the first 63 sectors of modern hard disks are still referred to as Track0. Track0 is physically located on the outer edge of the disk platter.
Track0 is also the name of a terminate-and-stay-resident
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...
program that allows users to revive
floppy disks with defective first tracks by swapping it with another track under the hood. With DOS, the first track of a floppy disk is used to store system information. If the first track is defective, the whole disk becomes unusable. Track0 tries to work around this limitation.
While it was the first program of its kind, Track0 entered the game when the use of floppy disks had already declined. Even so, a plethora of similar programs appeared shortly after the release of Track0.
External links
(1) Track0 - Retrieved on 26.10.2017*
tp://ftp.bu.edu/pub/mirrors/simtelnet/msdos/diskutil/track0.zip (2) Track0 - Retrieved on 26.10.2017(3) Track0 - Retrieved on 26.10.2017
DOS software