Storage & Connectivity

Storage Devices

Storage & Connectivity

Internal / External Hard Drive

• Also known as hard disks• Internal drive stores the operating system software,

application software and the user’s documents• External drives come in various sizes and is connected via a

USB cable and has an external power source• Prices vary depending on size• Is portable

Storage & Connectivity

Solid State Drive• A high-performance plug-and-play storage device that

contains no moving parts• SSD components include either DRAM or EEPROM memory

boards, a memory bus board, a CPU, and a battery card• Because they contain their own CPUs to manage data

storage, they are a lot than conventional hard disks

Storage & Connectivity

Magnetic Tape• Use as external drive for storing large amounts of data on a

magnetized medium• Typically used by organisations for backing up vast amounts

of data• Can be set up to do this automatically

• Sturdy and durable for long term use• Slow to retrieve and search for data

Storage & Connectivity

Optical Storage Device• Read and written to by laser• CDs holds 650-800MB of data• DVDs holds up 17GB of data. Comes in different forms:

• DVD-ROM: Read only• DVD-R: Record• DVD-RW: Re-writable

• Blue-ray disks holds up to 25GB of data (single layer) or 50GB (dual layer)• Used mainly for large and high quality content

Storage & Connectivity

Memory Sticks and Cards• Used for storing and transferring files• Connected via USB• Small, lightweight to carry around and cheap• Large storage capacity for their size• Easy to lose / damage• Now can get encrypted so more secure

Storage & Connectivity

Cloud Storage• Storage capacity accessed through the internet or a wide area

network (WAN) connection• Purchased on an as-needed basis

• Users can expand capacity almost without limit