Definition of computer storage devices
A storage device is any type of computer hardware used to store, port or extract data files and objects. Storage devices can hold and store information both temporarily and permanently. A Storage device for a computer allows its user to store and securely access data and applications on a computer device. These computer storage devices act as an integral part of the system. A hardware device which can be used to store digital data and application which may be in the form of image, video, audio etc. is called storage device. They may be internal or external to a computer, server or computing device.
Usage of storage devices
Why we use the storage devices
One of the purposes of storage devices is to back up your important data. In the business world, there is a need to secure and store data in a way that is not easily destroyed, corrupted or damaged. Different storage media can be used for backup or storage.
Storage devices provide many uses to uses as it provides great flexibility to the uses.
It helps to check all records and also keep track of the number of uses who have access to the data.
Storage devices also helps to protect the confidential data which is very important to the user.
With the use of data storage and other storage, It is easy to cross-examine and audit records.
IN business side, storage devices can help to provide evidence of a concept to other business partner and it is able to analyze the market situation and help the business to win the competition.
Advantages of using storage devices
Storage devices helps to increase efficiency and performance and it helps to reduce the weight of the human brain in remembering things.
It is easy to analyze and compare past reports and transaction and based on those reports we can also predict future situations.
Its also helps to reduce the overall cost of dealing or activities in everyday life.
It gives the user great flexibility and mobility and can easily move the data stored in the repository from one place to another.
Analyzing and storing the reason for doing a task or task can improve management decisions several times over.
Type of the storage
§ Primary Storage
§ Secondary Storage
§ Tertiary Storage
§ Offline Storage
Primary storage
The primary storage of a computer is its main memory. It is the built-in memory designed to store data and instruction. Primary storage is component of the computer that holds data, programs and instruction that are currently is use. This memory is easily and directly accessible by CPU. It is located on the motherboard. As a result, data can be read from and written to primary storage extremely quickly. This gives the processor fast access to the data and instructions that the primary storage holds. The main memory is classified three types which are:
ü RAM (Random Access Memory)
ü ROM (Read only Memory)
ü Cache Memory
RAM (Random Access Memory)
RAM is used to read and write data. RAM can be constantly overwritten with new data. It is referred to as volatile memory, meaning is it holds data only when the power is on, when the power is off, RAM’s contents are lost.
Data can be extracted from RAM faster than an external hard drive, and the CPU typically takes 10 nanoseconds to read from RAM. Most computers limit the size to 1 GB. Each location in RAM is uniquely identified by an address, so the instruction or data stored in it are directed to the processor, and these addresses are stored in CPU registers during operations.
ROM (Read Only Memory)
ROM is used only to read the data from the memory. The contents read the data from memory. The contents in the ROM are permanent. They are not lost when the computer is switched off.
ROM stores the important programs that are necessary to start the computer. It also consists of programs that check the proper working of all the computer parts, when a computer is turned on. The RM is referred to as the non-volatile memory.
Cache Memory
Frequently addressed instructions and data are stored in a special fast memory in the CPU due to wasted effort and the time it takes to retrieve it from the slow main memory. Such storage is called catch memory and ranges in size from 2KB to 64KB. The size of this memory is much smaller than the main memory and the cost is higher than the main memory but lower than the resistors. (GEEKSFORGEEKS, n.d.)
Secondary memory
The secondary storage is used to store a large amount of information permanently in a computer’s memory. It is not directly accessible to the CPU. These devices store almost all types of programs and applications. This can include items such as operating system, device drives, applications and user data.
Secondary storage is non-volatile, long- term storage. It is used to keep programs and data indefinitely. Without secondary storage all programs and data would be lost the moment the computer is switched off.
Tertiary Storage
Tertiary memory is lower than Secondary storage. It is usually involves robotic mechanism that attached a removable mass storage medium to a storage device as required by system; Such data is copied to secondary storage before use. This is primarily useful for unusually large databases that can be accessed without human operators. Typical examples include tape libraries and visual jukeboxes. Tertiary storage primarily used to store information that is rarely accessible because it is slower than secondary storage (e.g. 5–60 second vs. 1–10 seconds).
When a Computer needs to read information from a tertiary storage, it will first ask the directory database to determine which tape or disk contains that information. The computer will then instruct the robot to take the media and place it in a drive. Once the computer has finished reading the information, the robot will transfer the media into the library.
Offline Storage
Offline storage means, any storage medium that a user must physically add to a system whenever they need to retrieve or edit data. This storage can be type of internal or external storage that can be easily removed from a computer. Offline storage is also known as removable storage.
Offline storage is any repository that is currently online, live or offline. Data stored in offline storage remains permanently on the storage devices even if it is disconnected or disconnected from the computer. Offline storage is generally portable and can be used on a variety of computer system. Common examples of offline storage are floppy disks, CDs, USB sticks and SD cards. Offline storage can also be used to create backups. Many organizations will back up some of the older technologies, such as digital data storage. Digital data storage uses digital magnetic stripe technology and can be used as an inexpensive data backup method that can be used offline until the tape is inserted to retrieve data.
Type of computer storage devices
Magnetic storage devices
Magnetic storage devices store all data using magnetic media, and the types of data stored in binary modes 0 and 1. Magnetic storage is from of non-volatile storage. It means that the data is not lost when the data is not when the storage devices is not powered. Today most people prefer magnetic media because they can read/write on magnetic storage devices which makes it possible to re-use the storage capacity over and over again by deleting older data. This storage devices have a large storage capacity and very attractive feature. This storage devices are less expensive and data access is slow, this magnetic mechanism can also be used for RAM and provides better data access than others. Several types of magnetized media are used computer system, including Hard Drive, Floppy Disk, Magnetic Tape and Magnetic Drum.
Hard Drive
Hard disk, also known as hard disk drive or hard drive is a magnetic storage medium for a computer. Hard disks are flat round plates made of aluminum or glass and coated with magnetic material. Hard disks for personal computers can store terabytes of information.
Floppy Disk
Floppy disks, sometimes called flexible disks, can store hundreds of thousands, millions and millions of pieces of information. It takes a tenth of a second for a floppy disk drive to received any piece of data directly.
Magnetic tape
A magnetically coated strip of plastic on which data can be encoded.
A device that stores computer data on magnetic strips is called a tape drive. Magnetic recording revolutionized sound recording and reproduction and transmission.
Optical storage devices
Optical storage also known as “optical media” or “optical memory” or “optical media”, allows all reading and writing to be done by laser beams. Optical disc is any storage media that holds content in digital format and is read using a laser assembly is considered optical media as well as optical storage devices all data is left as easy-to-read dotted patterns using lite. The laser beam is used as the “light source”.
All recording information is stored on an optical disk in the optical memory. In the opinion of the data scientist, compact space is more useful for storing large data. Unlike a removable hard drive, its main advantages are high cost, low weight and ease of transport. It has ultra data stability and countable or uncountable storage unit. Example for storage devices,
CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, Blue Ray, HD DVD, DVD-RAM
Flash memory devices
It is used data-storage medium used with computers and other electronic devices. Flash memory known as flash storage, is a type of non-volatile memory that erase data in units called blocks and rewrites data at the byte level. It is widely used for storage and data transfer in consumer devices and industrial applications. Flash memory retains data for a long time regardless of whether a flash-enabled device is activated or not.
The two main types of flash memory, NOR Flash and NAND Flash, are named for NOR and NAND logic ports. The floating gates uses a single cell design or flash consisting of MOSFETs. At the circuit level they vary depending whether the position of the bit line or word line is down up or down.
Portable devices such as digital cameras, smartphones and MP3 players typically use flash memory. Uses flash memory to store USB drives (also known as thumb drives and flash drives) and memory card data. In the early 21st century as it became cheaper, flash memory in laptops began to appear as hard disks.
Online cloud storage device
Cloud storage is the storage of data at a remote location that can be accessed from any device. Cloud storage increases efficiency and productivity for backing up and securing data. Cloud storage is a from of cloud computing that stores data over the internet through a cloud computing provider that manages and activates data storage as a service. This gives fast, global scale and durability with data access “anytime, anywhere”.it delivers on demand with capacity and cost on time and eliminates the need to purchase and manage your own data storage infrastructure.
Cloud storage is virtual storage service which is very different from the other storage device attached to the computer. Its also referred to as online storage. Data like photos, videos, music, files etc. can be stored online and shared easily with friends. The internet stands as the basis for the cloud storage concept.
Most used storage devices
Hard Disk
Hard disk, also called hard disk drive or hard drive. The hard disk drive is the main and usually largest data storage devices in a computer. Hard disk is a non-volatile data storage device. It is usually installed internally in a computer, attached directly to the disk controller of the computer’s motherboard. It can store from 160 gigabytes to 2 terabytes. Disk access time is measured in milliseconds. Hard disk speed is the speed at which content can be read and written on a hard disk. A hard disk unit comes with a set rotation speed varying from 4500 to 7200 rpm.
Hard disks are flat circular plates made of aluminum or glass and coated with a magnetic material. Data are stored on their surface in concentric tracks. A small electric gun also known a magnetic head, write binary digit (1or 0) by magnetizing tiny spots on the spinning disk in different directions and reads digit by detecting the magnetization direction of the spots. Hard drive also consisting of several hard disks, read/write heads, drive motor to spin the disks and small amount of circuitry. Hard disk is also used to refer to the whole of a computer’s internal data storage.
Before a magnetic disk can be used, it must be formatted- a process that maps the disk’s surface and determines how data will be stored. During formatting, the creates circular tracks around the disk’s surface, then divides each track into sectors
USB Flash drive
A USB flash drive may also be known as a flash drive or USB drive. USB flash drive is used to store data, including flash memory and an USB interface (integrated Universal Serial Bus). Most t USB flash drives are removable and rewritable. Physically they are small, durable and reliable. USB flash drive have more storage space, the fast they tend to run. It is mechanically very strong as there are no moving parts. They receive activation power from a device connected via a USB connector (usually a computer).
USB drive are supported by all operating system and BIOS. It can store and transfer much data faster than optical disk drives and floppy disks and it is equipped with a USB connector and is securely and electrically insulated in a plastic or rubber cover. Inside the cover of the device is a small printed board with integrated circuits mounted on the surface. (COMPUTERHOPE, n.d.)
The main features of a USB flash drive are:
ü Standard USB plug. This connects the flash drive to a device.
ü USB mass storage controller. This is a microcontroller for USB. It has a small amount of RAM and ROM.
ü NAND flash memory chip, data is stored in this component crystal oscillation. Data output is controlled by this feature.
CD, DVD AND Blue Ray Disk
If someone is a lover of music, movie or videos you probably have a collection of CD’s, DVD’s and Blu-ray discs in your house. Although CD, DVD and Blue-Ray are all used to store sensitive data and other entertainment stuffs like music, they all come with different features. Generally, people use CDs to store music, DVD to store standard definition movies, and Blue-ray to store high definition videos.
CD
This is a storage medium commonly used to store video, audio, especially music and information digitally. The CD can also be used to record CDs. A standard compact disc comes with a capacity of about 650–700 MB of Data, or 80 minutes of playback audio. They are many better formats on the market today. With the introduction of computers and their increasing use worldwide, CD formats were adopted for storing data.
DVD
DVDs have larger storage space than CDs and can also be used to store video and digital data. We do not have to how to play the DVD because nowadays computers come with DVD-ROM and we can even use a DVD player for it. DVD allowed people to store what they could not manage on a CD.it has more storage capacity (4.7 GB). DVD is commonly used by the entertainment industry to store high quality videos. it can also be used to store sensitive data, software and so on.
Blue- ray disk
Blu ray disk replaced both CD and DVD with more than 25 GB of storage, allowing for high quality audio and video storage. The name of this model comes from the colors laser, which are required for burning data disks as they comes in violet and blue colors. These discs are more expensive than CD and DVD due to their storage quality and their aspects.
Floppy Disks
Floppy disk also called Flexible disks are storage media capable of holding electronic data, such as computer files. As an alternative to buying hard disks, FBA created floppy disks in 1967, which were very expensive at that time. Floppy disk is a magnetic storage medium for computer system. The floppy disk consists of a flexible magnetic disk sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier. A computer system must have a floppy disk drive to read and write data from a floppy disk.
A number of different types of floppy disks have been developed. The size of floppy disk was smaller and the storage capacity was larger. In the 1990s other media, including hard drives, zip drives, hard disks and USB flash drives, began to be replaced as floppy disk primary storage.
Original computer did not have CD-ROM drives or USB; The only way to install a new program on computer or to back up information is to have floppy disk. floppy disk was also a common place for users to store and backup their files. Example, a word processing file can be copied to a floppy disk, opened on another computer or stored as a backup.
Characteristic of computer storage devices
Once we know that there are different types of storage devices, we also need to be aware of the different characteristics of storage types to allow us to identify the most suitable storage foe particular situation.
1. volatility
Non-volatile memory
Retains stored information even when power is not constantly supplied. It is ideal for long term information storage. Currently used for many secondary, tertiary and offline storage.
Volatile memory
Constant power is required to maintain stored information. Volatile ones are the fastest memory technology available today. Since primary storage needs to be very fast, it mainly uses volatile memory.
2. Speed
When a discussing the speed of a storage device, we are referring to how fast computer can read and write data to a device. This often depends whether the device has moving parts.
Whole computer backup
If the backup is being taken out of the website, the device needs a portable feature.
Moving Homework file to school
Device speed is not always relevant because files are small.
3.Portable
It is often an important factor to be able to carry storage devices as we use many portable devices with us. Feature of a portable device lightweight and compact-Think of a smartphone with a full-size hard drive
4. Cost
Storage costs can be viewed in several ways. We can measure the cost per MB or the cost of the device as a whole. Sometimes the cost of an MB may be higher but the capacity requirements are smaller and the cost of one device is more important — eg, CDs and DVDs
5. Mutability
Read/write storage or, mutable storage
Read/write storage or distorted storage allows you to rewrite information at any time. A computer that does not have the space to read/write a certain amount of primary storage will be useless for many purposes. Modern computers generally use read/write storage for secondary storage.
Read only storage
Retains information stored during production and writes once written (write multiple times) allows you to write information only once at a time after production. These are called non-changing stores. Unchangeable stores are used for tertiary and offline storage. Example CD-ROM and CD-R.
Slow write, fast read storage
Read/write information storage, which allows information to be rewritten several times, but with the writing process much slower than the reading process. Example include CD-RW and flash memory.
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