Robust Data Storage Devices

 

The most prominent data storage devices are discussed below.

 

Floppy Drives

 

The name “floppy drive” was derived from the soft and thin film of plastic that was coated with a thin coat of magnetic paint and over which data was actually stored. The floppies have a storage capacity of 1.4 MB which from today’s standards look ridiculously low.

 

For many years, floppy drives ruled the roost as the data-storage media of choice for computer users. However, they couldn’t evolve further and have become almost extinct now, their place taken over by compact disks. Today, most new computers that are shipped do not even carry a floppy drive and it looks as if the floppies will not be around much longer.

 

Tape Drives

 

Tape drives are very popular with businesses for taking backups and long-term archiving of data. They are quite durable and easily stored for a number of years. Their cost per MB of data stored is also very competitive. A tape cartridge consists of a long and narrow ream of magnetic tape wound around a couple of spools, enclosed within a tough plastic case. The cartridge is inserted in the drive where the tape brushes past a read / write head. The latter accesses the data and creates or deletes files.

 

The main drawback of a tape drive is that it offers sequential data access. To extract a single file, the tape has to move back and forth till the desired location is reached. This makes it quite useless for use as a primary storage device in computers. However, sequential access is not a problem for taking data backups or archiving of files. Tape drives were introduced decades ago. They are still very much around and going strong.

 

Hard Disks

 

Hard disks are the primary storage media that comes pre-installed in all computers and laptops. These are very reliable and have huge data capacities of anywhere from 80 GB to 1 TB. They also offer fast data-access speed and seek time as well as random access to any file stored anywhere on the data-recording surface.

 

The disks store data on circular platters made of glass or metal whose surface is coated with magnetic paint. There is a separate read / write head for each platter which hovers above, moving all over the recording surface accessing and modifying data. The platters are spun by a spindle motor at a very rapid rate of either 5,400 or 7,200 revolutions per minute though disks with a RPM of 15,000 have also been introduced in the market.

 

Portable Hard Disks

 

Hard disks offer phenomenal benefits to computer users in terms of data-storage capacity, reliability and random access. However they are firmly screwed inside the CPU and cannot be taken from one place to another. Portable hard disks solve this problem. These are stand-alone hard disks that are made rugged for use as transportable devices. They usually connect to the computer through the USB port and come with a data-backup software. They are ideal for taking regular backups of computer hard drives without much user intervention. They are small enough to fit into a shirt pocket and have awesome storage of 240 GB and above.

 

Optical Disks

 

Optical disks define the current standards for removable storage media. These are thin circular disks made of tough polycarbonate plastic which are no bigger than a man’s palm. The data resides on one side of their surface as a pattern of pits which is read by a laser beam. Each pit represents one and its absence zero, thus making recording of digital data possible. Optical disks are of two types – compact disks (CDs) and digital video disks (DVDs). The former is older technology that can hold about 700 MB of data per disk. DVDs were introduced only a few years back and boast of a phenomenal capacity of 4.6 GB. CDs and DVDs both are very popular storage devices and there is hardly any computer today which does not sport an optical drive.

 

USB Drives

 

USB drives are the latest storage media technology to hit the market. These have no moving or magnetic parts inside. They instead store data on a Flash memory chip. Because of this, they hardly consume any electricity and are no larger than a thumb (hence also called thumb drives). As their capacities increase, analysts predict that they are going to soon give hard disks a run for their money as primary storage devices inside computers and laptops.

 

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