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Overview of Storage Devices and Media

The document provides an overview of primary storage devices, including RAM and ROM, highlighting their characteristics. It also discusses various types of storage media, such as magnetic, optical, and solid-state, detailing their functionalities and capacities. Additionally, it compares sequential and random access methods across different storage types.

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15 views16 pages

Overview of Storage Devices and Media

The document provides an overview of primary storage devices, including RAM and ROM, highlighting their characteristics. It also discusses various types of storage media, such as magnetic, optical, and solid-state, detailing their functionalities and capacities. Additionally, it compares sequential and random access methods across different storage types.

Uploaded by

tharags
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Storage Devices and Media

PRIMARY STORAGE DEVICES


• RAM AND ROM
RAM ROM
Volatile 
Expensive 
Read and write 
Current applications 
BIOS 
Higher speed 
Higher capacity 
Storage media

Magnetic Media Optic Media Solid State Disk


Magnetic storage media uses a magnetized surface
area to store information
• Examples
Optical storage media uses a laser light source to
read and write data onto a disc
• CD-ROM/DVD-ROM
• is a type of optical media that contains data (Eg: songs,
movies, games, software etc.).
• Using CD/DVD drives in computers, we can read the data from
these media —but not write or erase data from this type of
optical media.
• ROM stands for ‘Read Only Memory’.
• CD-R/DVD-R
• is an optical media that can be written once and read many times.
• The letter “R’ means recordable once only.
• Once the disc has data recorded, it becomes CD/DVD-ROM.
• CD-RW/DVD-RW
• is a type of optical media which is recordable and erasable
many number of times. (reused around 1000 times)
• RW stands for ‘Re-Writable’.
• Unlike CD/DVD-R’s these discs do not become ROMs once
burned.
• DVD-RAM
• With DVD-RAM writing and reading of the data
can happen at the same time.
• DVD-RAM can be re-written over many many
times (over 100,000 times)
• Blu-Ray
• It works in a similar way to DVD-ROMs but the
laser used to read the data is blue rather than
red.
Solid state media are based on electronic circuits with
no moving parts
Sequential access and Random access

CD Internal Hard disk External Hard disk DVD Magnetic Tape


Random Random Random Random Sequential
Access Access Access Access Access
CD 700 MB Storage
capacity
DVD 4-8 GB
Blue-ray 25 GB
Hard disk 2-3 TB

Magnetic tape 10TB

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