1. Storage Devices and Media The Kingsway School

2. Backing Storage Backing storage is used to keep data or programs. Different circumstances require different methods. Backing storage devices are the hardware peripherals used to store data. These devices write data onto backing storage media and read it back. You will need to know all of these types of backing storage and their advantages and disadvantages.

3. Magnetic Disks (Floppies) Floppy disks are removable and easy to carry around. Most computers have a floppy disk drive built into the case. Floppy disks are small plastic disks held in a rigid plastic cover. Floppy disks hold data on both sides. Most disks have only 1.44Mb storage space which is relatively small Data from floppy disks is retrieved relatively slowly. Floppy disks are used for backing up data and for transferring data between computers.

4. Magnetic Disks (Hard Drives) These are usually built into the computer itself. A hard disk is made from more than one disk, making a pack. Hard disks can hold a lot of data usually many Gigabytes. Data from hard disks is retrieved very quickly. Hard disks normally store the computers operating system, applications and the users data. They are not transferable.

5. Optical Disks (CD-ROM) CD-ROMs are read only. They can usually only be written to once. CD-ROM’s can store about 650Mb of data. Retrieving information is quicker than from a Floppy disk but not as quick as a hard drive. CD-ROM’s are very useful for distributing software. CD-ROM’s are portable You may be asked to compare a CD-ROM to a hard drive or a floppy describing the advantages and disadvantages of each!

6. DVD’s Digital Versatile Disks These are becoming more popular. They have huge storage capacity upto 17 Gigabytes. They can store movies because of their very high quality digital technology.

7. Magnetic Tape and Zip Drives These are backup media. Tapes are written to read by a tape drive. Tapes can hold upto 50 Gigabytes of data, Zip disks cannot hold as much but they are removable and transferable. Tapes cannot be used for random access. Transfer of data is quite slow.

8. Internet Resource 1.ROMROM 2.RAMRAM 3.Backing store - magnetic disksBacking store - magnetic disks 4.Backing store - optical disksBacking store - optical disks 5.Backing store - magnetic tapeBacking store - magnetic tape 6.Sample QuestionsSample Questions 7.GlossaryGlossary A computer has two different types of storage: the computer's memory (ROM and RAM) a backing store Data storage