OFFLINE

STORAGE
- diya kaliyambath
What is offline storage?

It refers to any storage medium that are not connected to the computer
or network but rather needs to be plugged or physically inserted into the
device. Only after this will the user be able to gain access to the data
stored on said portable storage. Offline storage can also be called
removable storage 

There are many types of offline storage. The types in detail are in the upcoming slides.
 Magnetic Storage
• It was one of the first forms of offline storage,
dating back to cassette tapes!

These then evolved into hard disk

drives and floppy disk drives. But
these aren’t as popular and widely
used anymore with the introduction
of newer technology
 How does it work?
• On the drive/device the materials are magnetized. The motor
in the drive reads the information using small heads. These
heads have electromagnets and will create a magnetic field.
The fluctuations in these fields creates a signal which is then
converted to binary and sent to the computer.

Advantages:
- It is a form of non-volatile memory which means
the data is not lost easily
- Magnetic storage units are mainly used as they are
much cheaper
- They are read-write storage which makes it
possible to re-use the storage.
- Has a large amount of storage (around a terabyte
or so)
Disadvantages:
- It is the slowest of all the data storage types,
especially to access which is why it is used for
archiving and needed data retrieval
- The magnetic tape, although it can re-write itself
multiple times, the quality constantly degrades.
- It can also be very easily damaged and hence must be
handled with care
 Optical Storage:
Most common optical devices are:
CD/DVD (compact disk/ digital versatile disk. Initially these
were read only disks which meant you couldn’t add on more
information on existing or blank

It is quite similar to CDs and DVDs but the

working of the Blu-Ray Disk is a little
different
How it works?
• The data is burned onto the disk using a
laser beam. A laser is also used to read the
information. The data is stored in pits and
bumps in a spiral (in CD’s) or concentric
circles (DVD’s). The Blu-ray disks use
blue-violet lasers and this helps burn
smaller pits which means more storage.
Advantages: Disadvantages:
- Optical Storage is much more durable than magnetic - The disk capacity and storage is one of the
tapes and can withstand longer times.
- It is also cheap as the main components are aluminium biggest disadvantages as it has very less
and plastic. compared to the magnetic tape
- They are much more portable and they are quicker than - -Slower data access than SSD
magnetic tapes in accessing data.
- The data (especially video) is high quality
Solid State Storage
• Solid state storage replaces traditional methods of hard disk
based drives and uses flash memory

Instead of using moving parts like optical and magnetic they use it
electronically to make silicon microchips
How does it work?
• They use a special chip called NAND and flash memory
works on a technology called Electronically-Erasable
Programmable Read-Only Memory(EEPROM).
Although it is like a ROM , data can be changed and
manipulated

Advantages:
-These are very small and hence the most
portable out of the three.
- It offers very fast access to data
- Resistant to pressure, temperature, etc and
makes it very durable
- Has more storage than optical
Disadvantages:
- Retrieval of data is quite slow compared to
magnetic tapes because speed is restricted
by the link/connection.
- Unlike the other storages it also has
limited read-write cycles
- It is also much more expensive.