CHAPTER 3 – STORAGE DEVICES AND MEDIA
1. List the three main types of storage media.
a) Magnetic storage media
b) Optical storrage media
c) Solid-state storage media
2. What is Magnetic storage media?
It is a media that stores data magnetically. The surface of the media is made of magnetic
material and data is stored digitally in the form of tiny magnetised regions or dots. Eg. Hard disk
drive and magnetic tape.
3. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of hard disc drives.
Advantages Disadvantages
1. Access data randomly so Read/write head may hit the disk and
reads/writes data little quickly. corrupt data
2. Can store large amount of Slower to read/write data than solid-state
data. drives
3. Low cost Noisy
5. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of fixed hard disc drives.
Advantages Disadvantages
1. Fast read/write times Disk crash can happen if not shut down
properly.
2. Can store huge capacity of Not portable as it is ‘fixed’
data.
6. State 3 storage devices that use serial data access and Direct access:
A. Serial access Direct Access
1. Video cassettes 1. HDD
2. Music cassettes 2. SSD
3. Magnetic tape cartridges 3. CD/DVD
7. What is magnetic tape drive?
It is a device for collecting, backing up, and archiving data on magnetic tape.
8. List out the uses of magnetic tape.
Used where extremely large amounts of data need to be backed up.
Used where speed of reading/writing of data is not a priority.
Used for backups of computer networks in schools and business.
Optical storage media and devices:
.9. Differentiate Magnetic storage media and optical storage media with examples.
Magnetic storage media Optical storage media
It uses a magnetised surface area in order to It uses a laser light source to read/write data
hold bits of information onto the medium.
Example: Fixed/Portable Hard Disk Drive, Example: CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, Blu-ray disc.
Magnetic Tape
10. List the types of CD and DVD .
a) CD/DVD -ROM – ROM stands for Read Only Memory , These cannot be written to only read from.
b) CD/DVR -R – R stands for recordable, these can be written only once but could be readable at any
number of times.
c) CD/DVD -RW – RW stands for rewritable – these can be read and written multiple times.
11. Write the features of CD-ROM
It is bought with pre-loaded data to store smaller files(up to 800MB).
Example: Music tracks, Movies, Audiobooks
12. Write the features of DVD-ROM
It is bought with pre-loaded data to store larger files(up to 4.7GB).
Example: Movies, Games
13. Write about CD-R and DVD-R.
A thin layer of organic dye is used as recording media. They are cheaper than RW disks but data
can be recorded only once.
Example: Music(CD-R) and films(DVD-R)
15. Write about CD-RW and DVD-RW.
For CD-RW and DVD-RW the data is rewriteable.
RW (Rewriteable) drives uses phase changing dye to record data.
Example: To backup computer files.
13. Write about Blu-ray Disc.
Blue/Violet Laser light is used to read the data and it also allows the information to be stored
with greater density. Data is rewritten as RW with high storage for HD videos but very expensive.
[Link] the advantages and disadvantages of Blu-ray disc.
Advantages Disadvantages
1. can perform high-speed More expensive than standard DVDs.
transfers.
2. Can store larger capacity of Could be damaged when they are being
data than other optical storage moved.
media.
3. Designed to plug in using blu- We could get lost or stolen.
ray drive.
15. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of optical disks.
Advantages Disadvantages
1. They are very cheap Cannot store much data as hard disk drives.
2. Can be easily portable. Slow access speeds
3. Designed to plug in using Stored data degrades over time.
USB ports.
Solid state storage media and devices:
16. Define Solid state storage media:
This is a method of storing data electronically. It has no moving parts.
17. Write about Solid state drives.
Used in desktop PC’s and laptops in place of magnetic hard disks drives to store data
permanently like operating system, software applications. It consists of non-volatile memory
chips containing transistors called floating gate transistors.
18. List out the devices using solid-state storage media.
Solid-state drives
Memory sticks
Pen drives
Flash memory cards
19. What are Memory sticks/pen drives/flash drives?
Memory sticks are pen shaped storage device which are small, robust, light weight and
portable.
It is an external storage device used to store data/transfer data/files between computers
easily and very fast.
20. List out the advantages and disadvantages of SSD.
Advantages of SSD:
They have very fast access speed.
They are small, light and easily portable.
They are quiet and have no moving parts.
Disadvantages of SSD:
More expensive than hard disk.
Storage capacity is less than hard disk
Limited number or erase/write cycles
Flash memory cards are also called as computer flash (CF) cards or secure digital(SD) cards.
21. Difference between memory stick and memory card
Shape of both the unit is different
Connection to parent device is different. Memory stick fits into the USB port while
memory card is flat and slots into a special port.
22. Explain the uses of memory card
It is used in electronic devices such as
digital cameras - to store photographs
mobile phones - to store photographs, telephone number
mp3 players - to store music files
23. List out the different sizes of SD card.
SD (secure digital) cards : 4-32 GB
Micro SD cards: 4-32 GB
SDXC (extended capacity) cards (2 TB)
24. Discuss the two advantages and two disadvantages of flash memory cards.
Advantage Disadvantage
Flash
Memory
Very small in size and More expensive than magnetic hard
cards
easy to transport files. disk drives.
Robust and not easily Lower storage capacity than magnetic
damaged. hard disks.
Easy to connect to mobile Small size makes them easy to be
devices through SD slots. stolen or lose.
Need very little power