Secondary Storage or Backing Storage Devices

Syllabus Ref: section 1, specific obj. 3, 5

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SECONDARY STORAGE OR BACKING STORAGE
DEVICES

It is the non-volatile storage / memory that is

external to the main memory of a computer.

It is used to store large amounts of data or

backups / copies of data / programs for extended
or permanent time periods.

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Secondary storage media and devices

The Secondary storage media is the physical hardware on which a

computer keeps data and programs.

The Secondary storage devices are used to retrieve data and programs
from Secondary storage media.

Many types of Secondary storage devices, permanently contain the

secondary storage media within the devices, for example Hard Disk
Drives or HDD drives and Solid State Drives or SSD drives, Flash drives,
etc.

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How the Computer stores data

Data is stored on the computer, as series of On/Off signals.

These signals are represented as Binary digits or Ones and
Zeros.

A One or a Zero is called a Binary Digit or a BIT.

8 Bits or 1 Byte, is sufficient to store a single character on

the computer for example the letter ‘A’ can be
represented by the binary number 0100 0001
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 Units of Storage and Memory

UNIT Approximately Exactly

Nibble 4 Bits 4 Bits

Byte (B) 8 Bits 8 Bits

Kilo Byte (KB) 1000 Bytes 1024 Bytes

Mega Byte (MB) 1000 KB 1024 KB

Giga Byte (GB) 1000 MB 1024 MB

Tera Byte (TB) 1000 GB 1024 GB

Peta Byte (PB) 1000 TB 1024 TB

Exa Byte (EB) 1000 PB 1024 PB

Zetta Byte (ZB) 1000 EB 1024 EB

Yotta Byte (YB) 1000 ZB 1024 ZB

Bronto Byte (BB) 1000 YB 1024 YB

Geop Byte 1000 BB 1024 BB

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 Electronic Storage
• Flash memory
• USB Flash memory
• Solid State Flash memory
• Secure Digital Flash memory

Magnetic Storage

Categories • Floppy disks

• Hard disks
• Zip disks

of Storage • Magnetic tape

Optical Storage

media • CD
• DVD
• HD-DVD
• Blu-ray disc

Hybrid
• Magneto-optical disks
• Solid State Hybrid Drives
Cloud Storage
 This type of storage uses an array of
memory chips in order to store data and
programs e.g. USB Flash Drives, Solid State
Hard Drives (SSD), Secure Digital Cards (SD)

Electronic
Storage Flash memory is a data-storage medium
used with computers and other electronic
devices. Unlike previous forms of data
storage, flash memory is an EEPROM
(electronically erasable programmable
read-only memory) form of computer
memory and thus does not require a power
source to retain the data.
Electronic Storage
 • This type of media stores data by using
magnetic particles usually a type of Iron
Magnetic Oxide material is used to coat a plastic disk
or tape. The alignment of the North and
Storage South poles on the magnetic particles,
determine the binary value stored, either a
one (1) or a zero (0) value.

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 • A plastic disk is coated with a magnetic material
constituting of very fine magnetic particles (ferrous
oxide /cobalt compound).
• Bits (0,1) are represented in terms of the small
magnetic particles’ polarity i.e., N (1) S(0).
• Data is organized (stored/read) along a series of
concentric magnetic tracks around the disk within
Magnetic areas (sectors) that divide the disk into equal parts
(like a pie).
Storage: • Types:
Floppy Disks • Low density 5 ¼, 3 ½
• High density 5 ¼, 3 ½
• Capacity: 1.44 MB
• Floppy disks are read and written to by using a Floppy
Disk drive.
• Floppy Disks and Floppy Disk drives are now
OBSOLETE.

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Magnetic
Storage: Floppy
Disks

Sectors

Rotating Disk

Tracks

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Magnetic Storage: Floppy Disks

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Magnetic Storage: HDD
(Hard Disk Drive)
• Data is stored on multiple disks or platters held
vertically above each other.
• The data is stored on concentric tracks just as
on a floppy disk.
• Each disk surface has a read-write head placed
above and below each disk platter.
• A cylinder is a set of matched tracks on all disks
within the hard disk array.
• Types
• IDE: - Integrated Drive Electronics
• EIDE: - Extended IDE
• SATA: - Serial Advanced Technology
Attachment (New technology)
• Capacity
• Commonly 500GB – TB
• Hard Disks are fixed permanently within the
Hard Drives which read and write to the disks
• Magnetic Hard Disk Drives are slowly giving way
to electronic Solid State Drives (SSDs)

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Magnetic Storage: HDD (Hard Disk Drive)

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Magnetic Storage: Magnetic Tape
• A data storage medium consisting of a magnetizable oxide
(Iron Oxide) coating on a thin plastic strip, commonly used
for backup and archiving.
• Tape is read and written on a tape drive (or "deck") which
winds the tape from one reel to the other causing it to
move past a read/write head.
• Data is written to tape in blocks with inter-block gaps
between them
• Types / formats
• QIC, DAT, and Exabyte
• Capacity
• Commonly 1TB
• Magnetic tape is a form of Sequential storage and to
it must be forwarded or rewinded in order to
retrieve data at various locations along the length of
the tape.
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Magnetic Storage: Magnetic Tape

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 Optical Storage
• A means of storage
whereby the data is
read from or written
to using optics.
• E.g.
• CD
• DVD
• HD-DVD
• Blu-ray Disc

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Optical Storage: CD or Compact Disc

• Consists of a reflective film of aluminum, on which

information is stored, being encased in a clear
plastic (acrylic) material.
• Data is denoted by the presence / absence of
holes/ blisters in the metal layer, created by the
manufacturer’s writing laser burns. 0=burnt spot
(pit), 1= clear spot (land).
• Reading: The Red laser light scatters if it strikes a
pit or is reflected to a light sensor if it strikes a
land.
• Capacity: 700 MB – 800 MB

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Optical Storage: CD

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 • A DVD is very similar to a CD, but it has a much larger
data capacity. A standard DVD holds about seven times
more data than a CD does. This large capacity means
that a DVD has enough room to store a full-length
movie, along with many other information.
• DVDs are of the same diameter and thickness as CDs,
Optical and they are made using some of the same materials
and manufacturing methods. Like a CD, the data on a
Storage: DVD DVD is encoded in the form of small pits and bumps in
the track of the disc.
or Digital • Data read and stored using Red lasers.
Versatile Disk • Storage capacities:
• Single sided DVD: 4.7 GB
• Single sided Double layer DVD: 8.5 GB
• Double sided Double layer DVD: 17 GB
• DVDs are also quickly becoming obsolete.

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Optical Storage: DVD

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 • HD DVDs have the same basic structure as a DVD but
Optical it stores and reads data through the use of Blue-
Storage: HD Violet lasers which allows more data to be stored due
to the smaller wavelength of the light.
DVD or High • Storage capacity:
Definition • Single layer HD DVD: 15 GB
Digital • Double layer HD DVD: 30 GB
Versatile Disk

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Optical
Storage: HD
DVD

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 • This type of disk was introduced in 2006 and the Blu-
Optical ray name is a combination of "blue," for the color of
Storage: Blu- the laser that is used, and "ray," for optical ray. The
"e" in "blue" was purposefully left off, according to
Ray Disk the manufacturers, because an everyday word
cannot be trademarked.
• A Blu-Ray disk can hold lots of information on a single
disk as it uses a Blue-Violet laser to read and write
the information to the disk, similar to that used by
the HD DVD.
• Storage capacity:
• Single layer Blu-Ray Disk: 27 GB
• Double layer Blu-Ray Disk : 50GB

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Optical
Storage: Blu-
Ray Disk

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 • Hybrid storage is any technology that
combines any of the storage technologies
for example a Magneto Optical disk
combines magnetic and optical technologies
and Solid State Hybrid Drives (SSHD)
combines Electronic and Magnetic storage
technologies.
Hybrid • SSHD drives have faster data transfer rates
than normal Magnetic hard drives but
Storage slower transfer rates than Solid state drives.
• SSHD drives also have a significantly greater
storage capacity than a Solid state drive as it
is comparable to the storage capacity of a
Magnetic hard drive.
• Storage capacity:
• Common capacity up to 4 TB

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 Hybrid
Storage:
SSHD
Cloud Storage

• Cloud Storage is a service model whereby data is transferred and

stored on remote Data Centers via the Internet or using web
technologies.
• Users normally pay for cloud storage on a per consumption or per
monthly basis, although many public cloud storage providers offer a
certain amount of free storage and the option to pay for additional
storage over the free storage amount.
• Some examples of public cloud storage providers are: Google Drive,
Microsoft OneDrive, DropBox, Box and iCloud.
• Storage capacity:
• Ranges from 5 GB to about 15 GB free storage
• Paid plans can offer several Terabytes of storage

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Local Storage

Local storage means that the storage medium is

directly connected to the computerized device either
within the device or connected externally to the
device via a USB port.

All the aforementioned storage technologies except

the Cloud storage providers, are typically local storage
media.

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 Comparison of Cloud and Local Storage

Type of Capacity Cost Accessibility Security

Storage
Local 1 GB to 20 TB Cheap for lower capacities Only accessible via the All data can be lost if
and very expensive for particular computerized the drives fail.
high capacities. device. Less vulnerable to
hackers.
Cloud 5 GB to 4 TB Free for low capacities Accessible anywhere as Data cannot be lost as
and a monthly charge for log as there is an Internet long as the user has
high capacities. connection. access to their account.
May be more
vulnerable to hackers.

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