1.3 Storage 4: portability, durability and reliability

Question 1

portability of magnetic

Answer 1

not very portable as physical knocks may cause the read/write heads to hit the discs and corrupt data

Question 2

portability of optical

Answer 2

more portable than a hard disc drive but discs are relatively large

Question 3

portability of solid state

Answer 3

very portable

small solid state drives can be fitted inside cameras and mobile phones

Question 4

durability of magnetic

Answer 4

very durable

Question 5

durbility of optical

Answer 5

easily scratched and data can be corrupted

data cannot be overwritten

stored data degrades over time

Question 6

durability of solid state

Answer 6

limited number of erase/write cycles

Question 7

reliability of magnetic

Answer 7

very reliable

Question 8

reliability of optical

Answer 8

very reliable if not scratched

Question 9

reliability of solid state

Answer 9

very reliable and data is not affected by magnetic fields

Question 10

advantages and disadvantages of a hard disc

Answer 10

• high capacity, 2-8TB
• cheap
• fast data access
• damaged by impacts
• large and heavy
• built in/internal storage so can’t easily be moved

Question 11

advantages and disadvantages of an SD card

Answer 11

• can transfer data between devices
• silent
• low power
• no moving parts so more reliable
• quick data access
• small and portable
• limited number of erase/write cycles
• expensive

Question 12

advantages and disadvantages of CDs

Answer 12

• lighweight, easily portable
• very cheap
• can only be written to once
• low capacity
• slow to access data
• can be scratched or broken

Question 13

advantages and disadvantages of SSDs

Answer 13

• can be used as secondary storage instead of a hard disc
• no moving parts
• quicker data access
• high capacity
• larger and heavier than other types of storage
• expensive

Question 14

advantages and disadvantages of blu-ray

Answer 14

• more storage than DVDs
• higher video and audio quality
• lightweight and easily portable
• can be scratched or broken
• medium speed
• more expensive than a CD
• medium storage

Question 15

advantages and disadvantages of DAT tape

Answer 15

• can be stored for a long time
• cheap
• small and lightweight
• tape has to be rewound to access data
• limited lifespan, can be damaged by magnets
• medium capacity
• slow to access data

Question 16

Anna is buying a new laptop computer. She has the choice between a magnetic hard disc drive and a SSD for file storage.

Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of these alternative secondary storage devices [6]

Answer 16

storage capacity of hard disc drives is greater than SSDs so more files could be stored, or bigger files such as video or audio

cost of hard disc drive storage is cheaper

SSD data access speeds are far greater
have no moving parts so they are ideal for laptops as they will not be damaged if they are dropped

as data becomes fragmented, access is slower on hard disk drives as the read/write heads have to move to different platters to access different parts of the same file
fragmentation does not slow data access in SSDs as there are no moving read/write heads

Question 17

Identify four factors, other than cost, that should be considered when choosing a secondary storage device [4]

Answer 17

speed
portability
durability
reliability