Allocation unit and block of memory

[rever]

Hi everyone!

I am trying to learn about storage and I have a question that may look simple but I really can't find an answer: is the allocation unit and the block of memory the same?

From Wikipedia:

Allocation unit: is the smallest logical amount of disk space that can be allocated to hold a file.

Block of memory: Unit of memory read and written by the disk driver.

For me it sounds the same with the difference maybe that the block of memory is the allocation unit from the driver point of view. Is that the difference? In that case, could the unit be different?

Thanks

 

[JHM]

bye

 

[TrainTrackHack]

The definition for allocation unit is right, but I'm not sure where you got the definition for memory block from... a memory block is just that, a block of memory. Any arbitrarily sized continuous chunk of storage on any arbitrary storage device (though volatile memory is usually implied) would fit in the definition, it depends entirely on context. A "unit of memory read and written by the disk driver" is indeed a block of memory, but not the only kind of block of memory and the definition is pretty much meaningless (not knowing the context, anyway).

I would wager a guess that "block of memory" in this case refers to the actual data read from the disc (or data that is to be written to the disc) that resides in the system RAM, while allocation unit refers to the unit of storage on the disc itself.