Mass Storage Devices

Mass storage Devices

Mass storage, or also known as auxiliary storage, refers to different devices which are used to store large amounts of data. It is believed that the earliest devices dates back to the early 1800’s and with no surprise, were not as developed as our modern storage devices are today. The modern mass storage devices include all types of disk and tape drives such as RAID systems, magnetic tape drives, optical disc drives, drum memory and floppy disk drives. Also, they include devices with removable and non-removable media. Even though mass storage devices are very similar to memory, they are not the same. Memory refers to the temporary storage within the computer. Therefore, unlike memory, mass storage devices retain data even when the computer is turned off. It is believed that mass storage devices are characterized by its sustainable transfer speed, seek time, cost and of course capacity. In any case, they are always measured in kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, or terabytes.

Magnetic disks are mostly used at storage media in personal computers. It is magnetically recorded and can be re-recorded over and over again. Magnetic disks approach their information by using one or more read/write heads (pcMag). The most common examples of magnetic storage devices are the hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic recording tape and magnetic stripes on credit cards.

Optical storage devices are almost always used in creating CD’s or DVD’s, were the data is stored, meaning written and read, by light. As optical discs are removable media, they have an advantage over the removable magnetic disks since they weigh less and have higher capacities (pcMag). Optical discs are designed to support one of three recording types; the read only, write once, and rewritable.

A solid state drive or also known as a solid state disk or electronic disk, is a type of data storage device that uses solid state memory to store continued data. They...