Secondary Storage (Flash Media)

Secondary Storage (Flash Media)

1. Flash is a type of ROM memory. This is because it has the ability to be overwritten many times. This is why it is used for USBs and SD cards. Its main advantage over other secondary storage is that it can read and write at high speeds

2. Flash in Hard Drvies

   • Hard Disks can use Solid State Drives (SSD's) as an alternative to a hard drives moving parts. SSD's don't have to use flash but the majority do. This is because flash is the only format that is hard to damage and writing data cannot be interrupted.

3. Advantages

   • With no moving parts flash consumes less power and won't become damaged like magnetic drives. this makes them suitable for portable devices. However flash does cost a lot more then other secondary storages and can only be written to about100K times. This is why some flash devices will have inbuilt controllers that frequently move files to new locations.
     • Furthermore defragmentation offers no benefit to an SSD and regular defragmentation can decrease its life expectancy.