Interleave Factor

This factor describes the relation between the number of sectors skipped on a hard disk between write operations. For example, an interleave factor of 4:1 would mean that for every write operation four sectors are skipped before the next write operation.

The disk interleave is set to maximize the ability of the computer and disk drive to synchronize write operations.

While low-level formatting utilities can change the disk interleave, leaving the disk interleave set at what the manufacturer set it at is generally recommended unless you absolutely know what you are doing. Setting it wrong can greatly slow down a computer as instead of writing immediately, the computer may have to wait for the disk to go completely around again for each write operation.

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