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Storage Devices

There are two types of computer storage: primary storage (e.g. RAM) and secondary storage (e.g. hard drives). Secondary storage can be removable, internal, or external. Common storage devices include magnetic hard drives and flash memory devices like SSDs and USB drives, as well as older technologies like floppy disks, CDs, and DVDs. The largest storage capacities are found in hard drives, SSDs, tape drives, cloud/network storage, and storage area network devices.

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762 views11 pages

Storage Devices

There are two types of computer storage: primary storage (e.g. RAM) and secondary storage (e.g. hard drives). Secondary storage can be removable, internal, or external. Common storage devices include magnetic hard drives and flash memory devices like SSDs and USB drives, as well as older technologies like floppy disks, CDs, and DVDs. The largest storage capacities are found in hard drives, SSDs, tape drives, cloud/network storage, and storage area network devices.

Uploaded by

Josh Andrei Unciano
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Storage device

Updated: 06/30/2019 by Computer Hope

There are two types of storage devices used


with computers: a primary storage device,
such as RAM, and a secondary
storage device, such as a hard drive.
Secondary storage can
be removable, internal, or external.

Examples of computer storage


Magnetic storage devices

Today, magnetic storage is one of the most


common types of storage used with
computers. This technology found mostly on
extremely large HDDs or hybrid hard drives.

Floppy diskette

Hard drive

Magnetic strip

SuperDisk

Tape cassette

Zip diskette
Optical storage devices

Another common storage is optical storage,


which uses lasers and lights as its method of
reading and writing data.

Blu-ray disc

CD-ROM disc

CD-R and CD-RW disc.

DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW

disc.
Flash memory devices

Flash memory has replaced most magnetic


and optical media as it becomes cheaper
because it is the more efficient and reliable
solution.

USB flash drive, jump drive, or thumb

drive.

CF (CompactFlash)

M.2

Memory card

MMC

NVMe

SDHC Card

SmartMedia Card

Sony Memory Stick


SD card

SSD

xD-Picture Card

Online and cloud

Storing data online and in cloud storage is


becoming popular as people need to access
their data from more than one device.

Cloud storage

Network media
Paper storage

Early computers had no method of using any


of the above technologies for storing
information and had to rely on paper. Today,
these forms of storage are rarely used or
found. In the picture to the right is an
example of a woman entering data to a
punch card using a punch card machine.

OMR

Punch card

Note

A hard copy could be considered a form of paper storage that is still


widely used although it cannot be easily used to input data back into a
computer without the aid of OCR.
Why is storage needed in a computer?
Without a storage device, a computer
cannot save or remember any settings or
information and would be considered a dumb
terminal.

Although a computer can run with no storage


device, it would only be able to view
information unless it was connected to
another computer that had storage
capabilities. Even a task such as browsing
the Internet requires information to be
stored on your computer.

Why so many different storage devices?


As computers advance, the technologies used
to store data do too, right along with higher
requirements for storage space. Because
people need more and more space, want it
faster, cheaper, and want to take it with
them new technologies have to be invented.
When new storage devices are designed, as
people upgrade to those new devices the
older devices are no longer needed and stop
being used.

For example, when punch cards were first


used in early computers, the magnetic media
used for floppy disks was not available. After
floppy diskettes had been released, they
were replaced by CD-ROM drives, which were
replaced by DVD drives, which have been
replaced by flash drives. The first hard disk
drive from IBM cost $50,000, was only 5 MB,
big, and cumbersome. Today, we
have smartphones that have hundreds of
times the capacity at a much smaller price
that we can carry with us in our pocket.

Each advancement of storage devices gives a


computer the ability to store more data, as
well as save and access data faster.

What is a storage location?


When saving anything on a computer, it may
ask you for a storage location, which is the
area where you would like to save the
information. By default, most information is
saved to your computer hard drive. If you
want to move the information to another
computer, save it to a removable storage
device such as a flash drive.

Which storage devices are used today?


Most of the storage devices mentioned
above are no longer used with today's
computers. Most computers today primarily
use an SSD to store information and have
the options for USB flash drives and access
to cloud storage. Some desktop computers
with disc drives use a disc drive that is
capable of reading and writing CDs and
DVDs.

What storage device has the largest capacity?


For most computers, the largest storage
device is the hard drive or SSD. However,
networked computers may also have access
to larger storage with large tape
drives, cloud computing, or NAS devices.
Below is a list of storage devices from the
smallest capacity to the largest capacity.

Note

Many storage devices have been available in many different capacities.


For example, over the evolution of the hard drive, there have been
drives that range from the first hard drive of 5 MB to hard drives today
that are several terabytes in size. Therefore, the below list is only
meant to give a general understanding of the size differences between
each storage devices today and is not an exact list. For example, the
earliest hard drives are smaller than a CD.

1. Punch card
2. Floppy diskette
3. Zip disk
4. CD
5. DVD
6. Blu-ray disc
7. Flash jump drive
8. Hard drive / SSD
9. Tape drive
10. NAS / Cloud Storage

Are storage devices input and output devices?


No. Although these devices do send and
receive information, they are not considered
an input device or output device. It is more
proper to refer to any device capable of
storing and reading information as a storage
device, disk, disc, drive, or media.

How do you access storage devices?


Accessing a storage device on your computer
depends on the operating system your
computer is using and how it's being used.
For example, with Microsoft Windows, you
can use a file manager to access the files on
any storage device. Microsoft Windows
uses Explorer as its default file manager.
With Apple computers, Finder is considered
the default file manager.

How to see all drives available on the

computer.

What is the latest storage device?


One of the most recent storage device
technologies to be introduced
is NVMe with SSDs and cloud storage also
being a recently developed storage devices.
Also, older technologies like hard disk drives
and tape drives are always developing new
techniques to allow for the devices to store
more data.

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