Storage Devices

A storage device is ny internal (or external) device attached to the computer by a cable, online (cloud storage devises), or wirelessly which can be used to store data and retrieve data from them on some type of media which can be magnetic, optical or otherwise.

Obsolete devices no longer being manufactured but still occasionally found in older systems incude:

  • Diskettes
  • CD-ROM/DVD Drives

Common storage devices and systems in use today include:

  • Hard Disk Drives
  • Solid State Disk Drives
  • USB Drives (or memory keys)
  • NAS Drives
  • Cloud storage

The following table summarizes the physical and storage characteristics of several devices 

Name of Device

Speed (R.P.M.)

Type of Storage Media

Data Storage

IDE or SATA Hard Drive

SSDD

No moving parts or media

5400 or 7200

available for enterprise use only

15,000

High Performance

Hard Disk – Magnetic

 

Solid State

 GB or TB

SCSI Hard Drive

10000 or 15000

Industrial Applications Only

Hard Disk – Magnetic

GB or TB

diskette

1500

obsolete

Vinyl Disk – Magnetic

Up to 1.44 MB

CD – DVD ROM

2000 – 5000

Hard Vinyl – Optical (laser)

Up to 800 MB