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Operating System MCQs

1K+ questions with answers

801

The time taken for the desired sector to rotate to the disk head is called ____________

a positioning time
b random access time
c seek time
d rotational latency
Medium
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802

When the head damages the magnetic surface, it is known as _________

a disk crash
b head crash
c magnetic damage
d all of the mentioned
Medium
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803

What is the host controller?

a controller built at the end of each disk
b controller at the computer end of the bus
c all of the mentioned
d none of the mentioned
Medium
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804

______ controller sends the command placed into it, via messages to the _____ controller.

a host, host
b disk, disk
c host, disk
d disk, host
Medium
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805

What is the disk bandwidth?

a the total number of bytes transferred
b total time between the first request for service and the completion on the last transfer
c the total number of bytes transferred divided by the total time between the first request for service and the completion on
d none of the mentioned
Medium
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806

Whenever a process needs I/O to or from a disk it issues a ______________

a system call to the CPU
b system call to the operating system
c a special procedure
d all of the mentioned
Medium
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807

If a process needs I/O to or from a disk, and if the drive or controller is busy then ____________

a the request will be placed in the queue of pending requests for that drive
b the request will not be processed and will be ignored completely
c the request will be not be placed
d none of the mentioned
Medium
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808

Consider a disk queue with requests for I/O to blocks on cylinders. 98 183 37 122 14 124 65 67 Considering FCFS (first cum first served) scheduling, the total number of head movements is, if the disk head is initially at 53 is?

a 600
b 620
c 630
d 640
Medium
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809

Consider a disk queue with requests for I/O to blocks on cylinders. 98 183 37 122 14 124 65 67 Considering SSTF (shortest seek time first) scheduling, the total number of head movements is, if the disk head is initially at 53 is?

a 224
b 236
c 245
d 240
Medium
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810

Random access in magnetic tapes is _________ compared to magnetic disks.

a fast
b very fast
c slow
d very slow
Medium
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811

Magnetic tape drives can write data at a speed ________ disk drives.

a much lesser than
b comparable to
c much faster than
d none of the mentioned
Medium
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812

SSTF algorithm, like SJF __________ of some requests.

a may cause starvation
b will cause starvation
c does not cause starvation
d causes aging
Medium
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813

In the ______ algorithm, the disk arm starts at one end of the disk and moves toward the other end, servicing requests till the other end of the disk. At the other end, the direction is reversed and servicing continues.

a LOOK
b SCAN
c C-SCAN
d C-LOOK
Medium
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814

In the _______ algorithm, the disk head moves from one end to the other, servicing requests along the way. When the head reaches the other end, it immediately returns to the beginning of the disk without servicing any requests on the return trip.

a LOOK
b SCAN
c C-SCAN
d C-LOOK
Medium
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815

In the ______ algorithm, the disk arm goes as far as the final request in each direction, then reverses direction immediately without going to the end of the disk.

a LOOK
b SCAN
c C-SCAN
d C-LOOK
Medium
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816

The process of dividing a disk into sectors that the disk controller can read and write, before a disk can store data is known as ____________

a partitioning
b swap space creation
c low-level formatting
d none of the mentioned
Medium
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817

The data structure for a sector typically contains ____________

a header
b data area
c trailer
d all of the mentioned
Medium
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818

The header and trailer of a sector contain information used by the disk controller such as _________ and _________

a main section & disk identifier
b error correcting codes (ECC) & sector number
c sector number & main section
d disk identifier & sector number
Medium
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819

The two steps the operating system takes to use a disk to hold its files are _______ and ________

a partitioning & logical formatting
b swap space creation & caching
c caching & logical formatting
d logical formatting & swap space creation
Medium
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820

The _______ program initializes all aspects of the system, from CPU registers to device controllers and the contents of main memory, and then starts the operating system.

a main
b bootloader
c bootstrap
d rom
Medium
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821

For most computers, the bootstrap is stored in ________

a RAM
b ROM
c Cache
d Tertiary storage
Medium
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822

Defective sectors on disks are often known as __________

a good blocks
b destroyed blocks
c bad blocks
d none of the mentioned
Medium
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823

In SCSI disks used in high end PCs, the controller maintains a list of _________ on the disk. The disk is initialized during ________ which sets aside spare sectors not visible to the operating system.

a destroyed blocks, high level formatting
b bad blocks, partitioning
c bad blocks, low level formatting
d destroyed blocks, partitioning
Medium
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824

In SCSI disks used in high end PCs, the controller maintains a list of bad blocks on the disk. The disk is initialized during low-level formatting which sets aside spare sectors not visible to the operating system. The scheme used is known as _______ or ________

a sector sparing & forwarding
b forwarding & sector utilization
c backwarding & forwarding
d sector utilization & backwarding
Medium
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825

An unrecoverable error is known as _________

a hard error
b tough error
c soft error
d none of the mentioned
Medium
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826

Virtual memory uses disk space as an extension of _________

a secondary storage
b main memory
c tertiary storage
d none of the mentioned
Medium
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827

Using swap space significantly _________ system performance.

a increases
b decreases
c maintains
d does not affect
Medium
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828

Linux __________ the use of multiple swap spaces.

a allows
b does not allow
c may allow
d none of the mentioned
Medium
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829

A single swap space ______ reside in two places.

a can
b cannot
c must not
d none of the mentioned
Medium
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830

If the swap space is simply a large file, within the file system, ____________ used to create it, name it and allocate its space.

a special routines must be
b normal file system routines can be
c normal file system routines cannot be
d swap space storage manager is
Medium
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831

For swap space created in a separate disk partition where no file system or directory structure is placed, _____________ used to allocate and deallocate the blocks.

a special routines must be
b normal file system routines can be
c normal file system routines cannot be
d swap space storage manager is
Medium
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832

In UNIX, two per process ________ are used by the kernel to track swap space use.

a process tables
b swap maps
c memory maps
d partition maps
Medium
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833

It is __________ to reread a page from the file system than to write it to swap space and then to reread it from there.

a useless
b less efficient
c more efficient
d none of the mentioned
Medium
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834

RAID level 3 supports a lower number of I/Os per second, because _______________

a Every disk has to participate in every I/O request
b Only one disk participates per I/O request
c I/O cycle consumes a lot of CPU time
d All of the mentioned
Medium
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835

RAID level _____ is also known as block interleaved parity organisation and uses block level striping and keeps a parity block on a separate disk.

a 1
b 2
c 3
d 4
Medium
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836

A performance problem with _________ is the expense of computing and writing parity.

a non-parity based RAID levels
b parity based RAID levels
c all RAID levels
d none of the mentioned
Medium
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837

In RAID level 4, one block read, accesses __________

a only one disk
b all disks simultaneously
c all disks sequentially
d none of the mentioned
Medium
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838

The overall I/O rate in RAID level 4 is ____________

a low
b very low
c high
d none of the mentioned
Medium
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839

A write of a block has to access ____________

a the disk on which the block is stored
b parity disk
c a parity block
d all of the mentioned
Medium
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840

RAID level ____ spreads parity and data among all N+1 disks rather than storing data in N disks and parity in 1.

a 3
b 4
c 5
d 6
Medium
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841

The potential overuse of a single parity disk is avoided in RAID level _______

a 3
b 4
c 5
d all of the mentioned
Medium
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842

RAID level 0+1 is used because, RAID level 0 provides ______ whereas RAID level 1 provides ________

a performance, redundancy
b performance, reliability
c redundancy, performance
d none of the mentioned
Medium
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843

If a disk fails in RAID level ___________ rebuilding lost data is easiest.

a 1
b 2
c 3
d 4
Medium
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844

Where performance and reliability are both important, RAID level ____ is used.

a 0
b 1
c 2
d 0+1
Medium
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845

A large number of disks in a system improves the rate at which data can be read or written if ____________

a the disks are operated on sequentially
b the disks are operated on selectively
c the disks are operated in parallel
d all of the mentioned
Medium
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846

RAID stands for ____________

a Redundant Allocation of Inexpensive Disks
b Redundant Array of Important Disks
c Redundant Allocation of Independent Disks
d Redundant Array of Independent Disks
Medium
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847

If the mean time to failure of a single disk is 100,000 hours, then the mean time to failure of some disk in an array of 100 disks will be ____________

a 100 hours
b 10 days
c 10 hours
d 1000 hours
Medium
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848

The solution to the problem of reliability is the introduction of __________

a aging
b scheduling
c redundancy
d disks
Medium
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849

The technique of duplicating every disk is known as ____________

a mirroring
b shadowing
c redundancy
d all of the mentioned
Medium
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850

The mean time to failure of a mirrored disk depends on ____________ I) the mean time to failure of individual disks II) the mean time to repair

a Only I
b Only II
c Both I and II
d Neither I nor II
Medium
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