9 Most common storage devices you should know about
Computers have been around for decades now. Previously they were big and slow, not everyone could afford them and they were not meant for common people. But with time major developments happen and in 2022 we can see that everyone has one computer in their hand.
People play with their phones all day. While these computers were getting smaller and faster, something else was also getting developed, that is storage devices, which are one of the most important parts of computers.
Popular Storage Devices:
Today we will see the most popular storage devices that have played a role in the history of computers.
Hard Drive Disks – These are very common in present generation computers. HDDs have a spinning disk inside which spins at a very fast RPM, the disk is magnetized. There is a header inside every Hard disk which reads and writes data in it.
Floppy Disks – These were also very famous kinds of storage devices. They also used magnetic storage technology to store information. They were very famous from 1975 to 2000. Some software still uses floppy disks as a save icon.
Tapes – In the past, magnetic tape was often used for digital data storage because of its low cost and ability to store large amounts of data. The technology essentially consisted of a thin, magnetically coated piece of plastic wrapped around wheels.
Compact Discs (CDs) – Initially CDs were used only for music. Slowly CDs became a way of storing data, although they had very small data storage space, mere 700 MBs. They started as read-only storage, but later the writable and read/write versions were also introduced.
DVD and Blu-ray Discs – They can be called the successor of CDs. They look almost similar to CDs. But they have faster read and write speed and a larger storage capacity compared to CDs.
USB Flash Drives – They are more compact, faster, have more memory space, and are better than all the above storage devices in every way (except HDD). They are also more durable due to the lack of moving parts.
Secure Digital Cards (SD Card) – They are very small chips that are used in smartphones and digital cameras. They behave almost similar to USB drives.
Solid-State Drives (SSDs) – It uses flash memory and can attain a very high transfer speed. They are often used as an internal storage devices in computers and laptops. However, they are quite expensive.
Cloud Storage – This is a completely new concept. It is not physical storage that you can touch. This is virtual storage that you will be able to access through the internet. The data will be stored somewhere far away in some data center. Speed depends on your internet connection. Storage-wise, you can buy a very high amount of cloud storage.
