Types of infromation storage media

Question 1

What is paper used for?
Characteristics
Advantage
Disadvantage

Answer 1

• Used as a material to write and print on e.g: forms, handwritten notes, maps, telephone directories.
• Color, weight, grade or type, brightness, reluctance, opaque, smoothness, and grain.
• Papers cheap, easy to use, recyclable, duplication, physical copies easier to interpret.
• Easily lost, massively used high demand = less trees.

Question 2

What is optical media used for?
Characteristics
Advantage
Disadvantage

Answer 2

• Used for to produce CD & DVD.
• Written and read by laser
• Goof to store song, videos & films on, big storage capacity.
• Requires specific drives not compatible with all, costly depending on storage capacity.

Question 3

What is magnetic media used for?
Characteristics
Advantage
Disadvantage

Answer 3

• Used for magnetic hard drives and tapes.
• Magnetic patterns to store data,
• Cheapest & largest form to store data on.
• Slow when accessing data on hard drives due to so much stored on it. Needs specific equipment to work i.e tape need a tape player. Tapes easily corrupted when being placed by a big magnetic.

Question 4

What is solid state media used for?
Characteristics
Advantage
Disadvantage

Answer 4

• Used for SSD hard drive & memory cards.
• no moving parts, speed, energy efficient,
• Faster boot up, no noise when operating, lower power consumption, compact devices
• Costly, limited storage complicity, short lifespan.