STORAGE devices

A hard disk drive stores files for the operating system and software programs as well as user documents, such as photographs, text files, videos, and audio. The hard drive uses magnetic storage to record and retrieve digital information to and from one or more fast-spinning disks.

The floppy disk is another type of storage medium that uses magnetic storage technology to store information. The earliest floppies were 8 inches (203 mm) in size, but these were replaced first by 5.25-inch (133 mm) disk drives and finally by ​3.5-inch (90 mm) versions.

Magnetic tape was often used for digital data storage because of its low cost and ability to store large amounts of data. The technology essentially consisted of a thin, magnetically coated piece of plastic wrapped around wheels.

The compact disc, is a form of optical storage, a technology that employs lasers and lights to read and write data. Initially, compact discs were used purely for music, but in the late 1980s, they began to be used for computer data storage.

The DVD (digital versatile disc) and Blu-ray disc (BD) are formats of digital optical disc data storage which have superseded compact discs, mainly because of their much greater storage capacity.

The USB flash drive is a flash-memory data-storage device that incorporates an integrated USB interface. Flash memory is generally more efficient and reliable than optical media, being smaller, faster, and possessing much greater storage capacity. Flash drives are also more durable due to a lack of moving parts.

SD cards are commonly used in multiple electronic devices, including digital cameras and mobile phones. Although there are different sizes, classes, and capacities available.

A solid-state drive uses flash memory to store data and is sometimes used in devices such as netbooks, laptops, and desktop computers instead of a traditional hard disk drive.

With users increasingly operating multiple devices in multiple places, many are adopting online cloud-computing solutions. Cloud computing basically involves accessing services over a network via a collection of remote servers.

Punch cards (or punched cards) were a common method of data storage used with early computers. Basically, they consisted of a paper card with punched or perforated holes created by hand or machine. The cards were entered into computers to enable the storage and accessing of information.