Storage Devices

What are storage devices?

Alternatively referred to as digital storage, storage, storage media, or storage medium, a storage device is any hardware capable of holding information either temporarily or permanently.

There are two general types of storage devices used with computers: a primary storage device, such as RAM, and a secondary storage device, like a hard drive. Secondary storage can be removable, internal, or external storage.

A. Magnetic Storage Devices

Today, magnetic storage is one of the most common types of storage used with computers and is the technology that many computer hard drives use.

Examples:

• Floppy diskette

• Hard drive

• Magnetic strip

• SuperDisk

• Tape cassette

• Zip diskette

B. Optical storage devices

Another common storage is optical storage, which uses lasers and lights as its method of reading and writing data.

Examples:

• Blu-ray disc

• CD-ROM disc

• CD-R and CD-RW disc

• DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW disc

C. Flash memory devices

Micro USB Flash DriveFlash memory has started to replace magnetic media as it becomes cheaper as it is the more efficient and reliable solution.

Examples:

USB flash drive, jump drive, or thumb drive

Memory card

Memory stick

SSD

D. 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.

Examples:

• Cloud storage – e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive

• Network media

Which of these storage devices will you use as your back up for your important files?

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