High Sierra Format

What Does High Sierra Format Mean?

High Sierra Format (HSF) is a file storage format used in early CD-ROMs. The HSF is now obsolete, but ISO 9660 is completely based on HSF for file storage and retrieval. Thus, High Sierra Format became a standard format for organizing data logically on compact discs.

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Techopedia Explains High Sierra Format

Before the ISO 9660 standardization, every CD-ROM manufacturer had its own format for storing files on the disc. This led to confusion and incompatibilities. To avoid this, the most commonly used format, the High Sierra Format, was made a standard with slight modification. This standard enabled the manufacturers to follow one generalization for ease of designing as well as data storage for software and applications. High Sierra Format was made the standard in 1985 by the High Sierra Group. High Sierra Format is explicitly used very rarely, but now globally known to be the basis of the ISO 9660 standard.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…