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Storage Devices
■ Storage device stores information to be
recalled and used at a later time
■ Storage device consists of:
■Storage medium
■Storage device
■ Three major technology types for
information storage:
■Magnetic
■Optical or laser
■Flash memory
SimNet Concepts Support CD: “Storage Concepts”
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Bits and bytes
■ A computer only understands the
numbers 0 or 1, or whether a switch is on
or off.
■ We call those 1s and 0s ‘bits’ – binary
digits
■ A byte (made up of 8 bits) is enough
computer memory to store a single
character of data (e.g. the letter F).
■ The computer uses a code to understand
what each bit pattern means.
■ Using the ASCII code, for instance, the
letter F is 70 and has a bit pattern of
01000110.
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Magnetic and Optical Storage
Storage
Media
Magnetic
Storage
Media Sealed
Inside Drive
Internal Hard
Drive
External
hard Drive
Removeable
Storage
Media
Floppy Disk Zip Disk
Optical
Storage
Media
CD
CD-ROM CD RW CD R
DVD
DVD ROM DVD RW
Blue Ray
Disk
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Magnetic Storage Media
■ Magnetic storage devices can be
either internal or external
• Internal magnetic hard disks are
fixed inside the system unit
• External magnetic hard disks are
portable
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Magnetic Disks
■ A read/write head travels across a spinning magnetic disk, retrieving or
recording data
The organization of a magnetic disk
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Internal Magnetic Hard Disk
■ Internal hard disk is a magnetic storage device
with
• One or more thin platters that store
information sealed inside the disk drive.
• Read/write heads access the information on
surface
• Heads read information while copying it from
disk to RAM
• Heads write information when copying it
from RAM to disk
■ Long term storage system and application
software
■ Operating system and application software are
copied from the hard disk to memory
■ Capacity measured in gigabytes
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Hard Disk
■ The hard drive is the main and usually largest data storage
device in computer.
■ It can store anywhere from 160 GB to 2TB.
■ Hard disk speed is the speed at which content can be read
and written on a hard disk.
■ A hard disk unit comes with a set rotation speed varying from
4500 to 7200 rpm.
■ Disk access time is measured in milliseconds.
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Disk Storage
Cylinder X: Track X
from all 12 surfaces
(2 per platter)
Each circle represents
two tracks: one for top surface
and one for bottom surface
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External Magnetic Hard Disk
■ External hard disks are magnetic
storage media which are portable
storage units that you can connect to
your computer as necessary
• Great for backup storage devices
• Ability to transport your hard disk
from one computer to another
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Types of backing storage
The medium is what the data is actually stored on. Examples of media include
floppy disks, CD-ROMs and zip disks.
Floppy disks hold about
1.44 MB of data.
Zip disks store up to
750 MB of data.
CDs hold around 700 MB of data.
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Removable Magnetic Storage: Floppy Disk
■ Floppy Mylar disk
– Housed inside a hard plastic
casing
– Thin, flexible plastic disk
■ 3.5 inch floppy disks
– also called floppies,
diskettes, floppy disks
– Holds about 1.44
megabytes of
information
■ High-capacity disks
– Zip® disk
p. 5.144 Fig. 5.15
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Removable Magnetic Storage: Zip Disk
■ High capacity plastic platter disk
– Called removable hard disks
– Provide a higher storage capacity than Mylar disks
■ Example - Zip® disk with capacity of 100MB, 250MB,
and 750MB
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Flash Memory Cards
■ Flash memory cards have
high-capacity storage
laminated inside a small
piece of plastic
■ Flash flash memory cards
do not need a drive with
moving parts to operate
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Data is stored using binary code (0 and 1).
Computer memory is measured in kilobytes.
Read Only Memory (ROM) is non-volatile because it cannot be
changed.
Random Access Memory (RAM) is volatile because it only works
when the computer is switched on.
There are three types of storage device: those that use magnetic
media, others that use optical media, and those that use flash
memory.
Different types of media have different storage capacities.
Storage devices can also be divided into those that are fixed and
those that are removable.
Summary