How does the operating system interact with disk devices?

The operating system interacts with disk devices through device drivers and the file system. Drivers provide low-level control of hardware, accepting requests from the OS and converting them into commands understandable by the disk (e.g., reading or writing from specific sectors). The file system organizes data on the disk in a user- and application-friendly form — files and directories.

The interaction process typically looks like this:

1. The application makes a system call to read or write a file.
2. The OS, through the file system, determines where on the disk the required data is located.
3. The OS calls the disk driver, which sends commands to the disk controller.
4. The controller performs the operation and returns data to the OS.

Thus, the OS abstracts the complexity of working with physical devices, providing a convenient interface for working with files.