Transcript Understanding Computers, 11/e, Chapter 3

Storage Medium
The physical material on which a computer keeps data, instructions and
information.
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Can be removable or nonremovable
Measured by capacity:
 Capacity is the number of
bytes a storage medium
can hold, ex: KB, MB
Examples include:
 Floppy discs
 Zip disks
 Hard disks
 CDs, DVDs
 Tape
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PC Cards
Flash memory cards
USB
Flash Drives
Microfiche
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Storage Device
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Storage Device is the
hardware that
records/retrieves items to
and from storage media
Writing transfers data from
memory to the storage
medium
Reading transfers data from
the storage medium to
memory
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Measured by it’s access time
Sequential Access
Random Access
Access Time measures
 the amount of time it
takes a storage device to
locate the storage
medium
 Time required to deliver
data from memory to the
processor
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Magnetic Tape
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Magnetic tape: plastic tape with a magnetizable
surface that stores data as a series of magnetic spots
 Uses: primarily for backup and archival purposes
(sequential access only)
 Advantage: low cost per megabyte
 Most tapes today are in the form of cartridge tapes
 Read from and written to via a tape drive
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Magnetic Disks
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Magnetic disk: storage medium that records data using
magnetic spots on disks made of flexible plastic or rigid
metal
With magnetic media, such as floppy disks, data is stored
magnetically; the data (0s and 1s) is represented using
different magnetic alignments
Disks must first be formatted by dividing the disk into tracks
and sectors
Two common types:
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Floppy disks (common removable storage medium in the past;
not widely used today)
Hard disks (included on nearly all PCs today)
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Floppy Disks and Drives
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Floppy disk characteristics
 3½ inches in diameter
 Holds 1.44 MB of data
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Approx. 500 double
spaced pages of text
Disk organized into
tracks, sectors, and
clusters
All files take up at least
one cluster of space
on the disk
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Hard Disk Drives
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Hard disk drive (hard drive): storage system consisting of one
or more metal magnetic disks permanently sealed with an access
mechanism inside its drive
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Hard drive characteristics
 Drive C is designated if there is only 1 hard disk drive
 Stores data magnetically
 One or more disks made out of metal
 Disks are permanently sealed inside the hard drive to avoid
contamination and to enable the disks to spin faster
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Hard Disk Drives, Cont’d
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Hard drive characteristics, Cont’d
 Organized into clusters, sectors, tracks, and cylinders (the collection
of tracks located in the same location on a set of hard disk surfaces)
Hard drive speed
 Disk access time: total time that it takes for a hard drive to read or
write data
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Hard Disk Drives, Cont’d
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Hard disk cache: a dedicated part of RAM used to
store additional data adjacent to data retrieved during
a disk fetch to improve system performance
Read/write head doesn’t touch the surface of the disk
RPM: 5,400 to 15,000
Usually are installed inside system unit but can also
be external and portable
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Hard Disk Drives, Cont’d
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Partitioning: enables you to logically divide the
physical capacity of a single drive into separate
areas, called partitions or logical drives. Used to:
 Install more than one operating system
 Create a recovery partition
 Create a new logical drive for data
 Increase efficiency (smaller drives can use smaller
cluster sizes)
 The cluster size, maximum drive size, and
maximum file size are determined by the file
system being used
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High-Capacity Removable Magnetic Disks
and Cartridges
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Superdiskettes: high-capacity removable storage
media, usually proprietary (can only be used with
their respective drives)
 Most widely used = Zip disk; holds 100, 250, or
750 MB
Hard disk cartridges: removable hard disk so higher
capacity, but also proprietary
 REV disk is one example; holds 35 GB
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Optical Disc Systems
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Optical discs (such as CDs and DVDs) store data
optically—using laser beams—instead of
magnetically
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Divided into tracks and sectors like magnetic disks
but use a single grooved spiral track
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Can be read-only, recordable, or rewritable
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High-capacity (usually at least 650 MB)
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Optical Disc Systems
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Burning: the process of recording data onto an optical
disc
 Spots on the disc (pits) are used to represent the
data’s 1s and 0s; the unchanged areas on the disc
are called lands
 Pits can be molded into the disc surface or
created by changing the reflectivity of the disc
 The transition between a pit and a land represents
a 1; no transition represents a 0
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Read-Only Discs: CD-ROM and DVDROM Discs
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Can be read from, but not written to, by the user
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CD-ROM (compact disc read-only memory) disc
 Usually holds about 650 MB
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DVD-ROM (digital versatile disc read-only
memory) disc
 Holds 4.7 GB (single-sided); 8.5 GB (doublesided)
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Recordable Discs: CD-R, DVD-R,
DVD+R, and DVD+R DL Discs
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Can be written to, but cannot be erased and reused
Recordable CDs are typically CD-R discs;
recordable DVDs are either DVD-R discs or DVD+R
discs
CD-R discs are commonly used for back up, sending
large files to others, and creating custom music CDs.
DVD-R/DVD+R discs are used for similar purposes
when more storage space is needed, such as large
backups and for home movies and other video files
DVD+R DL discs use two recording layers (8.5 GB
capacity)
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Rewritable Discs: CD-RW, DVD-RW,
DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, and Blue Laser
Discs
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Can be recorded on, erased, and overwritten just like
magnetic disks
Most common: CD-RW, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW
discs
The newest rewritable technology uses blue lasers
instead of infrared (CDs) or red (DVDs) lasers to
store data more compactly (23 GB+)
To record and erase rewritable optical discs, phasechange technology is used
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Mobile Storage Media
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Smart card: Credit card-sized piece of plastic that contains some
computer circuitry (processor, memory, and storage)
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Flash memory media
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No moving parts so more resistant to shock and vibration and
require less power (solid state)
Very small and so are very appropriate for use with digital
cameras, digital music players, handheld PCs, notebook
computers, smart phones, etc.
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Mobile Storage Media, Cont.
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Remote storage (using a storage device directly a
part of the PC being used)
 Network storage: accessible through a local
network
 Online storage: accessed via the Internet and
used for
 Backup
 Transferring files to others or to another PC
 Sharing files with others (online photo sites,
etc.)
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Mobile Storage Media, Cont.
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Holographic storage: Emerging type of 3D storage
technology
 Uses multiple blue laser beams to store data in
three dimensions
 Potential initial applications for holographic data
storage systems include:
 High-speed digital libraries
 Image processing for medical, video, and
military purposes
 Any other applications in which data needs to
be stored or retrieved quickly in large quantities
but rarely changed
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Large computer systems
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RAID (redundant arrays of independent disks):
storage method that uses several small hard disks
in parallel to do the job of a larger disk
 Usually involves recording redundant copies of
stored data
 Helps to increase fault tolerance
 Different levels of RAID, use combination of
disk striping and disk mirroring
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