The computer keeps track of where all the parts of files are with what is called a file-allocation table, or F.A.T. Problems can arise if the file allocation tables are not updated or clusters on your disk are lost.
It is believed the disks were lost as a result of human error.
The disks were lost by an official and the information on them is feared to be so sensitive that security cleared Treasury solicitors have been drafted to assess the scale of the potential damage.
The other half - those airy highs and the hefty bass contained on the better digital disks - may simply be lost, due to the limitations of your speakers.
When he arrived, faulty disk drives were crashing, customers were screaming and EMC was losing money.
Their department, which made peripherals such as disk drives and printers for IBM's Series 1minicomputers, had missed the PC boom and was losing money.
He recounts that when he ran Hitachi's hard-disk-drive unit, he persuaded his superiors to invest $800m in a business that was losing $400m a year.
Signed, Lost Data.' Data can be lost in a disk, in a system, it can be lost in a standard somewhere.
The disks were said to have been lost in the post and contained information about the Duggan inquest, as well as the official inquiry into the police shooting of Azelle Rodney, and the inquiry into the killing of Robert Hamill in Northern Ireland.
