1.1 Hardware - Secondary Storage Flashcards
What is secondary storage used for?
For storing data for a longer amount of time/permanently. Or to store data that won’t be used for a long time and don’t need to be actively retrieved.
What type of storage is secondary storage?
Non-Volatile, long term storage.
Why is secondary storage so important?
Without it most data would be lost once power is cut.
In what form is data stored on secondary Storages?
Binary
Name the 3 types of secondary storages devices.
Magnetic Storages Devices
Optical Storage Devices
Solid State Storage Devices
Give an example of Magnetic Storage Devices and state how much they hold on an average range.
Hard Disk Drives (HDD) - 320MB-8TB
Tape 200GB-400GB
Give an example of Optical Storage Devices and state how much they hold on an average range.
CD - 650MB
DVD - 9GB
Blu-ray - 50GB
Give an example of Solid State Storage Devices and state how much they hold on an average range.
Solid State Drive (SSD) - 320MB-8TB
USB Memory Stick(Flash Drive) - 2GB-512GB
In general what are the 4 types of Secondary Storage Devices used.
Flash Drive(USB, SSD)
Magnetic Tape(Tape, Internal HDD)
External Hard Drive(External HDD)
CD/DVD/Blu-ray Disks
Order the 4 types of Secondary Storage Devices used by Speed.
Flash Drive
External Hard Drives
Disks
Magnetic Tapes
Order the 4 types of Secondary Storage Devices used by Durability.
Flash Drive
Disks
Magnetic Tapes
External Hard Drives
Describe Magnetic Storage Devices
Magnetic Medium such as tape or a disk which has its data written to using write-head and the data is read using a read-head.
Describe Solid State Storage Devices.
There are no moving parts. It is low power, high access speed and durable. SSD is used for storing data while USB is used to transfer that Data around.
Describe Optical Storage Devices
It uses lasers. If the light is reflected back then the value is a 1 but it the light doesn’t reflect then it is a zero. Laser both read and write information onto disks.
What are the key differences between HDD & SSD?
HDD can hold much more data and lasts much longer. If dropped then it will most likely break due to the moving parts becoming damaged.
SSD is much faster and smaller but tends to hold less data. It won’t break as easily due to the lack of moving parts but it also lacks much less than a HDD.
Unlike an HDD the SSD will stop working after a set amount of tasks are completed by the SSD. This data cannot be retrieved once the SSD dies.
HDD should be used for storing music, pictures or any documents that are important and need to be kept for a long as even if a HDD does break the data can still be retrieved by specialists in a special environment. This means they are also good for being the computers primary storage location as that is where some parts of the computers os and etc would be stored.
SSD should be used for things such as games as they are really fast allowing for better gaming experience and even if the SSD does die then it is okay as the data is backed up virtually on a server.
