Block vs. Sector — What's the Difference?

A large, continuous segment of data.

The smallest unit that can be addressed on a disk.

A unit of data storage handled by file systems.

A fixed storage size in physical disks.

Used abstractly in various storage contexts.

A subdivision of a track on a magnetic disk.

Fundamental unit for data handling in databases.

Used specifically in reference to hard disks and optical media.

A group of sectors in a storage device.

Physically defined by the disk’s geometry.

A solid piece of a hard substance, such as wood, having one or more flat sides.

An area or portion that is distinct from others

Such a piece used as a construction member or as a support.

The plane figure enclosed by two radii of a circle or ellipse and the arc between them.

Such a piece upon which chopping or cutting is done

A mathematical instrument consisting of two arms hinged at one end and marked with sines, tangents, etc. for making diagrams.

Such a piece upon which persons are beheaded.

A part or division, as of a city or a national economy

One of a set of small wooden or plastic pieces, such as a cube, bar, or cylinder, used as a building toy.

The portion of a circle bounded by two radii and the included arc.

(Printing) A large amount of text.

A measuring instrument consisting of two graduated arms hinged together at one end.

(Sports) A starting block.

(Computers) A portion of a storage device making up the smallest addressable unit of information.

A stand from which articles are displayed and sold at an auction

A division of a defensive position for which one military unit is responsible.

A mold or form on which an item is shaped or displayed

A division of an offensive military position.

A substance, such as wood or stone, that has been prepared for engraving.

To divide (something) into sectors.

A pulley or a system of pulleys set in a casing.

Section

An engine block.

Zone (designated area).

A bloc.

(geometry) part of a circle, extending to the center; circular sector

A set of like items, such as shares of stock, sold or handled as a unit.

(computer hardware) fixed-sized unit (traditionally 512 bytes) of sequential data stored on a track of a digital medium (compare to block)

A group of four or more unseparated postage stamps forming a rectangle.

(military) an area designated by boundaries within which a unit operates, and for which it is responsible

(Canadian) A group of townships in an unsurveyed area.

(military) one of the subdivisions of a coastal frontier

A usually rectangular section of a city or town bounded on each side by consecutive streets.

(science fiction) a fictional region of space designated for navigational or governance purposes.

A segment of a street bounded by consecutive cross streets and including its buildings and inhabitants.

(calculation) an instrument consisting of two rulers of equal length joined by a hinge.

A large building divided into separate units, such as apartments.

A field of economic activity

A length of railroad track controlled by signals.

(engineering) A toothed gear whose face is the arc of a circle.

Something that obstructs; an obstacle

(motor racing) A fixed, continuous section of the track, such that sectors do not overlap but all sectors make up the whole track.

(Sports) An act of bodily obstruction, as of a player or the ball.

(climbing) An area of a crag, consisting of various routes

(Football) An act of legally using one's body to obstruct or move a defensive player so that a player in possession of the ball may advance downfield, pass, or otherwise execute an offensive play.

A part of a circle comprehended between two radii and the included arc.

(Medicine) Interruption or obstruction of a physiological function

A mathematical instrument, consisting of two rulers connected at one end by a joint, each arm marked with several scales, as of equal parts, chords, sines, tangents, etc., one scale of each kind on each arm, and all on lines radiating from the common center of motion. The sector is used for plotting, etc., to any scale.

(Psychology) A sudden cessation of speech or a thought process without an immediate observable cause, sometimes considered a consequence of repression. Also called mental block.

An astronomical instrument, the limb of which embraces a small portion only of a circle, used for measuring differences of declination too great for the compass of a micrometer. When it is used for measuring zenith distances of stars, it is called a zenith sector.

(Slang) The human head

A plane figure bounded by two radii and the included arc of a circle

To stop or impede the passage of or movement through; obstruct

A body of people who form part of society or economy;

To prevent from happening, succeeding, or progressing

A particular aspect of life or activity;

To shut out from view

The minimum track length that can be assigned to store information; unless otherwise specified a sector of data consists of 512 bytes

To stop the passage of (a motion or bill) in a legislative assembly.

A portion of a military position

(Sports) To prevent or slow the movement of (an opponent) by using one's body, as by making a block in football.

Measuring instrument consisting of two graduated arms hinged at one end

(Sports) To stop or deflect (a ball or puck) by using one's body.

(Medicine) To interrupt or obstruct the functioning of (a physiological process), especially by the use of drugs.

(Psychology) To fail to remember.

To support, strengthen, or retain in place by means of a block.

To shape, mold, or form with or on a block

To indicate broadly without great detail; sketch. Often used with out

To run (trains) on a block system.

To obstruct the movement of an opponent by using one's body.

To stop or deflect a ball or puck by using one's body.

To suffer a mental block. Often used with on

A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.

A chopping block: a cuboid base for cutting or beheading.

A wig block: a simplified head model upon which wigs are worn.

A mould on which hats, bonnets, etc., are shaped.

A piece of hard wood on which a stereotype or electrotype plate is mounted.

A case or frame housing one or more sheaves (pulleys), used with ropes to increase or redirect force, for example as part of lifting gear or a sailing ship's rigging. See also block and tackle.

A section of split logs used as fuel.

A set of sheets (of paper) joined together at one end, forming a cuboid shape.

(falconry) The perch on which a bird of prey is kept.

A physical area or extent of something, often rectangular or approximately rectangular.

(philately) A joined group of four (or in some cases nine) postage stamps, forming a roughly square shape.

(viticulture) A discrete group of vines in a vineyard, often distinguished from others by variety, clone, canopy training method, irrigation infrastructure, or some combination thereof.

A logical extent or region; a grouping or apportionment of like things treated together as a unit.

(computing) A logical data storage unit containing one or more physical sectors (see cluster).

(programming) A region of code in a program that acts as a single unit, such as a function or loop.

(cryptography) A fixed-length group of bits making up part of a message.

(chemistry) A portion of a macromolecule, comprising many units, that has at least one feature not present in adjacent portions.

(rail) A section of a railroad where the block system is used.

(computing) A contiguous range of Unicode code points used to encode characters of a specific type; can be of any size evenly divisible by 16, up to 65,536 (a full plane).

A contiguous group of urban lots of property, typically several acres in extent, not crossed by public streets.

The distance from one street to another in a city or suburb that is built (approximately) to a grid pattern.

A roughly cuboid building.

A cellblock.

Something that prevents something from passing.

Interference or obstruction of cognitive processes.

(sports) An action to interfere with the movement of an opposing player or of the object of play (ball, puck).

A temporary or permanent ban that prevents access to an online account or service, or connection to or from a designated telephone number, IP address, or similar.

(slang) The human head.

(UK) Solitary confinement.

(obsolete) A blockhead; a stupid fellow; a dolt.

(transitive) To fill or obstruct (something) so that it is not possible to pass.

(transitive) To prevent (something or someone) from passing.

(transitive) To prevent (something from happening or someone from doing something).

To impede (an opponent or opponent's play).

To specify the positions and movements of the actors for (a section of a play or film).

To hit with a block.

To play a block shot.

(transitive) To bar (someone undesirable) from connecting via telephone, instant messaging, etc., or from accessing an online account or service, or similar.

(transitive) To bar (a message or communication), or bar connection with (an online account or service, a designated telephone number, IP address, etc.).

To wait for some condition to become true.

(transitive) To stretch or mould (a knitted item, a hat, etc.) into the desired shape.

(transitive) To shape or sketch out roughly.

To knock (a person's hat) down over their eyes.

A piece of wood more or less bulky; a solid mass of wood, stone, etc., usually with one or more plane, or approximately plane, faces; as, a block on which a butcher chops his meat; a block by which to mount a horse; children's playing blocks, etc.

The solid piece of wood on which condemned persons lay their necks when they are beheaded.

The wooden mold on which hats, bonnets, etc., are shaped.

A large or long building divided into separate houses or shops, or a number of houses or shops built in contact with each other so as to form one building; a row of houses or shops.

A square, or portion of a city inclosed by streets, whether occupied by buildings or not.

A grooved pulley or sheave incased in a frame or shell which is provided with a hook, eye, or strap, by which it may be attached to an object. It is used to change the direction of motion, as in raising a heavy object that can not be conveniently reached, and also, when two or more such sheaves are compounded, to change the rate of motion, or to exert increased force; - used especially in the rigging of ships, and in tackles.

The perch on which a bird of prey is kept.

Any obstruction, or cause of obstruction; a stop; a hindrance; an obstacle; - also called blockage; as, a block in the way; a block in an artery; a block in a nerve; a block in a biochemical pathway.

A piece of box or other wood for engravers' work.

A piece of hard wood (as mahogany or cherry) on which a stereotype or electrotype plate is mounted to make it type high.

A blockhead; a stupid fellow; a dolt.

A section of a railroad where the block system is used. See Block system, below.

In Australia, one of the large lots into which public land, when opened to settlers, is divided by the government surveyors.

The position of a player or bat when guarding the wicket.

A number of individual items sold as a unit; as, a block of airline ticketes; a block of hotel rooms; a block of stock.

The length of one side of a city block{5}, traversed along any side; as, to walk three blocks ahead and turn left at the corner.

A halt in a mental process, especially one due to stress, memory lapse, confusion, etc.; as, a writer's block; to have a block in remembering a name.

A quantity of binary-encoded information transferred, or stored, as a unit to, from, or on a data storage device; as, to divide a disk into 512-byte blocks.

A number of locations in a random-access memory allocated to storage of specific data; as, to allocate a block of 1024 bytes for the stack.

To obstruct so as to prevent passage or progress; to prevent passage from, through, or into, by obstructing the way; - used both of persons and things; - often followed by up; as, to block up a road or harbor; to block an entrance.

To secure or support by means of blocks; to secure, as two boards at their angles of intersection, by pieces of wood glued to each.

To shape on, or stamp with, a block; as, to block a hat.

To cause (any activity) to halt by creating an obstruction; as, to block a nerve impulse; to block a biochemical reaction with a drug.

A solid piece of something (usually having flat rectangular sides);

A rectangular area in a city surrounded by streets and usually containing several buildings;

A three-dimensional shape with six square or rectangular sides

A number or quantity of related things dealt with as a unit;

Housing in a large building that is divided into separate units;

(computer science) a sector or group of sectors that function as the smallest data unit permitted;

An inability to remember or think of something you normally can do; often caused by emotional tension;

A simple machine consisting of a wheel with a groove in which a rope can run to change the direction or point of application of a force applied to the rope

A metal casting containing the cylinders and cooling ducts of an engine;

An obstruction in a pipe or tube;

A platform from which an auctioneer sells;

(American football) the act of obstructing someone's path with your body;

Render unsuitable for passage;

Hinder or prevent the progress or accomplishment of;

Stop from happening or developing;

Interfere with or prevent the reception of signals;

Run on a block system;

Interrupt the normal function of by means of anesthesia;

Shut out from view or get in the way so as to hide from sight;

Stamp or emboss a title or design on a book with a block;

Obstruct;

Block passage through;

Support, secure, or raise with a block;

Impede the movement of (an opponent or a ball);

Be unable to remember;

Shape by using a block;

Shape into a block or blocks;

Prohibit the conversion or use of (assets);

Data is stored in blocks by the file system, where each block consists of one or more sectors depending on the block size.

Block sizes can be configured depending on the file system, while sector sizes are fixed by the disk's design.

The size of a sector is determined by the physical design of the disk and the standards set by the disk manufacturer.

Blocks increase storage efficiency and performance by reducing the overhead of read/write operations.

Typically, block sizes are equal to or larger than sector sizes to ensure efficient data storage and access.

Yes, the concept of sectors remains relevant, especially in ensuring compatibility and performance in storage technologies.

A block is a file system management unit that can contain multiple sectors, whereas a sector is the smallest physical storage unit on a disk.

While SSDs do not have sectors in the traditional sense, they use similar concepts for data management.

Data in a damaged sector can become unreadable, potentially affecting the entire block of data if not properly managed.

Larger sector sizes can complicate data recovery efforts, as more data is affected in the event of sector errors.