blocking factor
Microsoft Computer Dictionary
n. 1. The size of the chunks in which data is transferred to or from a block device such as a disk. If fewer bytes are requested, the disk drive will still read the whole block. Common blocking factors on personal computers are 128, 256, and 512 bytes. 2. The number of file records in one disk block. If the record length for a file is 170 bytes, a block on the disk contains 512 bytes, and records do not span blocks, then the blocking factor is 3, and each block contains 510 (170 x 3) bytes of data and 2 unused bytes.
