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GATE CSE 2026 Session 1 Q59: Disk transfer time for random sectors on tracks 5, 12, 7

Question

Consider a hard disk with a rotational speed of 15000 rpm. The time to move the read/write head from a track to its adjacent track is 1 millisecond. Initially, the head is on track 0. The number of sectors per track is 400. The sector size is 1024 bytes. It is necessary to transfer data from 10 randomly located sectors in each of the following tracks in the order: 5, 12 and 7.

The total time for the data transfer (in milliseconds) from the hard disk is _________. (rounded off to one decimal place)

Try it: numerical answer: type the value

Numerical answer. No negative marking.
Show answer and explanation

Answer: 77.3 (official GATE 2026 final answer key)

Concept used: Total time = seek + (average rotational latency + sector transfer time) per random sector.

First step: One rotation takes 60000/15000=460000/15000 = 4 ms, so average latency is 2 ms and one sector takes 4/400=0.014/400 = 0.01 ms; seek distance is 5+7+55 + 7 + 5 tracks.

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Source: official GATE 2026 Session 1 CS question paper and final answer key, organised by IIT Guwahati. Question paper · Answer key

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