Storage Devices and Media

 Objectives
 Understand the difference between
internal memory & backing storage
 Be able to identify different types of
storage devices & media
 Identify the uses, advantages &
disadvantages of different types of
storage devices & media

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 Difference between internal
memory & backing storage
 Internal memory is the memory that is occupied by the current
data and instruction being dealt with.

 Its contents are lost when the computer is turned off.

 Backing storage is the additional memory which is used to

store data & instructions that we may need to use again.
 Hard Disk & Drive
 Floppy Disk & Drive
 Optical Disk Drive
 USB Storage Devices
 Magnetic Tape

 Its contents are NOT lost when the computer is turned off.

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Difference between internal
memory & backing storage

 Internal memory, also known as Immediate

Access Storage (IAS) is:
 Small
 Fast
 Volatile
 Backing storage is:
 Large
 Non –Volatile
 Not very fast to read from.

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Hard disk drives
 The Hard Drive is the DEVICE which reads & writes to
the Hard Disk
 The Hard Disk is the STORAGE MEDIA
 It’s Magnetic media
 Data is stored magnetically onto tracks on the disk
 Disk rotates at high speed – passing under the
read/write heads
 Read/write heads READ the data into main memory
and WRITE data back to the disk after it has been
dealt with

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Hard disk drives
 Uses
 Stores software
 Stores your data files
 Advantages
 Large storage capacity
 Stored items are not lost when the computer is
switched off.
 Usually fixed inside the computer, so can’t get lost.
 Disadvantages
 Slower than IAS
 If the hard disk crashes the computer will not work &
you have lost your work!!!

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Floppy disks & drives
 Uses
 To keep personal data
 Keep extra copies of data
 Advantages
 Can be carried with you
 Disadvantages
 Limited capacity (typically 1.44Mb)
 Unlikely to store your ICT coursework on one
disk

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Zip Drives
 Zip drives are similar to
floppy drives because the
individual disks are
removable and portable but
they hold much larger
amounts of data
 Typically between 100 MB
and 2 GB.

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 Optical disk drives
 CD Rom
 Compact Disk Read Only Memory
 Known as WORM devices Write Once Read Many times.
 Uses
 Storing software
 Reference material (multimedia)
 Advantages
 Data cannot be erased
 Portable
 Much larger capacity than floppy disks (about 650Mb)
 Disadvantages
 Can get lost
 Can’t write data to a CD Rom
 Data access can be slower than a hard drive.
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 Optical disk drives
 DVD
 Digital Versatile Disk
 Uses
 Storing high quality audio & video
 Advantages
 Data cannot be erased
 Portable
 Much larger capacity than floppy disks and CD Rom (about 4.7 Gb)

 Disadvantages
 Can get lost
 Can’t write data to a standard DVD

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 Optical disk drives
 CD Rewriter
 Uses
 Back up software & data files
 Copy music files
 Advantages
 Portable
 Can store much larger files than floppy disks

 Disadvantages
 Can get lost
 Can’t always be read in some Optical drives

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 Optical disk drives
 DVD Rewriter
 Uses
 Back up software & data files
 Copy video files
 Advantages
 Portable
 Can store much larger files than CD R’s

 Disadvantages
 Can get lost
 Can’t always be read in some Optical drives or DVD players

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USB storage devices

 Recent development
 Fits on a key ring
 Smallest storage capacity is about
32Mb = about 22 floppy disks
 1Gb versions now available
 Is this the end of the floppy disk?

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 Comparing storage device
capacity:
 1 CD-ROM (650 MB) = 451 Floppy
disks (1.44 MB)
 1 DVD (4.7 GB) = 7 CD-ROM's (650
MB)
 Access speed
 Hard drive - 1000 KB/s
 CD-ROM - 100 KB/s
 Floppy disk - 36 KB/s

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Storage used for back-ups

 Magnetic tape
 Comes in two forms; tape reels, and cassettes or
cartridges.
 Large tape reels are used to make backup copies of
programs and data on large mainframe computers.
 Cartridges are used to make backup copies of the
programs and data on personal computers and
networks.
 The main advantage of using magnetic tape as backing
storage is that it is relatively cheap and can store large
amounts of data.

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Direct and serial access
 Floppy disks, hard disks CDs and USB
storage devices all allow direct access to
data.
 Direct access means that the required data
can be found straight away without having to
read through all the data on the disk.
 Magnetic tape allows only serial access to
data. To locate data on a magnetic tape it
has to be searched from the beginning until
the required data is found.
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File compression
 File compression software can be used to make
files smaller so that more data can be stored in the
same amount of space on backing store.
 When a compressed file on backing store needs to
be used it must be decompressed.
 This can be done using decompression software
or by setting files up to be self-extracting which
means that they can automatically decompress
themselves.
 Winzip is an example of software that can be used
to compress and decompress files.

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