Components of a computer system - Secondary Storage

Question 1

Name the 4 main types of secondary storage

Answer 1

• Hard disk drive (HDD)
• Solid state drive (SDD)
• Optical disk
• Magnetic tape

Question 2

Explain some of the advanteges of using HDDs or SSDs

Answer 2

Hard disk drives:
* Are cheaper
* Have a higher capacity than SSDs
* Have a longer read/write life than SSDs

Solid state drives:
* Are faster
* Don’t need defragmenting
* Are more shock-proof than HDDs
* Are completely silent unlike HDDs

Question 3

What are the three forms of optical disks?

Answer 3

• Read only (CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, BD-ROM)
• Write once (CD-R, DVD-R, BD-R)
• Rewritable (CD-RW, DVD-RW, BD-RW)