ICT – CSS / Lesson 4

What are Storage Device?

A storage device is any computing hardware that is used for storing, porting and extracting data
files and objects. It can hold and store information both temporarily and permanently, and can be
internal or external to a computer, server or any similar computing device.

Alternatively, Storage Device 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.

Types of Storage Device

There are two 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.

1. Primary Storage
2. Secondary Storage

Primary Storage
Primary storage (also known as main memory or internal
memory). Primary storage typically refers to Random
Access Memory (RAM). RAM, commonly called "memory," is
considered primary storage, since it stores data that is
directly accessible by the computer's CPU. Random
Access Memory (RAM) and cache are both examples of a
primary storage device. Figure 1. DDR4 RAM

Secondary Storage
Secondary storage (also known as external memory or auxiliary storage), differs from primary storage in
that it is not directly accessible by the CPU. The computer usually uses its input/output channels to
access secondary storage and transfers the desired data using intermediate area in primary storage.
Secondary storage does not lose the data when the device is powered down—it is non-volatile.

Examples of secondary storage device

1. Floppy disk - A Floppy Disk Drive, also called FDD or FD for short, is a computer disk drive that
enables a user to save data to removable diskettes. Although 8" disk drives were first made
available in 1971, the first real disk drives used were the 5.25" floppy disk drives, which were
later replaced with the 3.52" floppy disk drives. A 5.25" floppy disk was capable of storing
between 360 KB and 1.2 MB of data, and the 3.5" floppy disk was capable of storing between
360 KB and 1.44 MB of data. For both sizes of floppy disk, the amount of data that could be
stored was dependent on whether the disk was single or double sided, and whether the disk
was regular or high density.

Figure 2. This is a 3.5

floppy disk.

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Figure 3. A 5.25-inch floppy disk
 2. Hard disk drive (HDD) – hard disk, hard drive or fixed disk is an electromechanical data
storage device that uses magnetic storage to store and retrieve digital information using one
or more rigid rapidly rotating disks (platters) coated with magnetic material.

Figure 4. Hard Disk Drive

Figure 5. Inside Hard Disk Drive

3. Optical Disc – Another common storage is optical disc, which uses lasers and lights as its
method of reading and writing data. Optical Disc is a storage device or media such as CDs,
DVDs and Blu Rays. An optical disk drive(ODD) uses a laser light to read data from or write
data to an optical disc. These include CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs. This allows you to play
music or watch movies using pre-recorded discs.

Optical Disc (CD, DVD, Blu Ray) Optical Disc Drive

4. Magnetic Tape – magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic

recording, made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long,
narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in
1928, base on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record
and playback audio and video using magnetic tape are tape

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 recorders and video tape records respectively. A device that stores computer data on
magnetic tape is known as a tape drive.

7-inch reel (magnetic tape)

5. Solid State Drive – a solid state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated
circuit assemblies as memory to store data persistently. It is also sometimes called solid state
disk.

Solid State Drive Inside Solid-State Drive

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

Example of Flash Memory

 USB flash drive, jump drive, or thumb drive

 Memory card
 Memory stick
 SSD

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