Secondary Storage

Secondary Storage

1. magnetic storage: Data is stored by magnetising the surface of flat, circular plates called platters. These platters rotate at a very high speed

   • High capacity [stores a lot of data].
   • tape drive
   • Floppy diskette
   • Hard drive
   • Not as durable due to moving parts and reads/writes data slower in comparison to solid state

2. Optical storage: is any storage method in which data is written and read with a laser.

   • CD
   • DVDs
   • Blu-Ray
   • Cost effective and very portable.
   • Not very durable and has a limited capacity.
   • Optical can hold a lot more data in comparison to Solid state storage.

3. Solid state storage: Uses microchips to store data instead of magnetised disks and do not contain any moving parts.

   • More durable and can read and write data much faster than magnetic storage. It is also more energy efficient.
   • Less cost effective in comparison to magnetic storage because it has a much smaller capacity. It also has a limited read/write lifespan
   • USB memory
   • Phone

4. It is non-volatile storage. It is needed in a computer system to store your programs, operating systems and files.

   • Non-volatile means that the data is not deleted when the computer system has no power connected to it.