Advanced Format

Advanced Format is a generic term pertaining to any disk sector format used to store data on magnetic disks in hard disk drives (HDDs) that exceeds 512 to 528 bytes per sector, such as the 4096-byte (4 KiB) sectors of the first-generation Advanced Format hard disk drives. Larger sectors use the storage surface area more efficiently for large files but less efficiently for smaller files, and enable the integration of stronger error correction algorithms to maintain data integrity at higher storage densities.