1.3 Storage

Question 1

What is secondary storage?

Answer 1

A Storage location which permanently stores OS, programs and data.

Question 2

What is the purpose of secondary storage?

Answer 2

To use the data later.
To use the software.
To interact with the computer.

Question 3

How do optical drives work?

Answer 3

A laser light marks patterns into the disk which represent 0’s and 1’s.
Then the laser light detects where the marks are and translates them into a readable format.

Question 4

How do magnetic drives work?

Answer 4

They read / write across the medium and change how magnetised that part of the medium is.
Each level of magnetism represents 0’s or 1’s.

Question 5

What are the properties (made up of and characteristics) of solid state/flash drives?

Answer 5

They are made up of silicon microchips (switches).
They are fast but the most expensive and have no moving parts.
On = 1.
Off = 0.

Question 6

How much data does one character represent?

Answer 6

1 byte per character.

Question 7

What percentage overheads do you need when calculating data?

Answer 7

10%.
However, only use this if the question specifies.