Chapter 6

Storage: Holds data, instructions and

information for future use.
Storage medium: also known as secondary
storage

Physical material on which a computer keeps data,

instructions and information

Storage device: the computer hardware that

records and/or retrieves items to and from
storage media

Reading: process of transferring these items from

storage medium into memory
Writing: process of transferring data, instructions and
information from memory to a storage medium.

Storage Term

Approximate No of
Bytes

Exact Number of
Bytes

Kilobyte (KB)

1 thousand

210 or 1,024

Megabyte (MB)

1 million

220 or 1,048,576

Gigabyte (GB)

1 billion

230 or 1,073,741,24

Terabyte (TB)

1 trillion

240 or
1,099,511,627,776

Petabyte (PB)

1 quadrillion

250 or
1,125,899,906,842,62
4

Exabyte (EB)

1 quintillion

260 or
1,152,921,504,606,84
6,976

Capacity: the number of bytes a storage

medium can hold
Access time: measures:

The amount of time it takes a storage device to

locate an item on a storage medium
The time required to deliver an item from memory
to the processor.
Transfer rate: the speed with which data,
instructions and information transfer to and from
a device.
Affects access time; KBps, MBps, GBps

Storage devices are slow compared with the

access time of memory
Memory chips access items in billionths of a
second (nanoseconds)
Storage devices access items in thousandths of a
second (microseconds)

Hard disk drive or hard drive

Storage device that contains one or more
inflexible, circular platters that use
magnetic particles to store data,
instructions or information
Current PC hard disk storage capacities
ranges from 160 GB to 3 TB
Access time is 8.5 ms.

A separate
freestanding hard
disk that connects
with a cable to a
USB port or FireWire
port on the system
unit or
communicates
wireless

External hard disk

Hard disk that you

insert and remove
from a drive.

Removable hard disk

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

A storage system that links any number of
disk drives so that they act as a single disk.
An ideal solution for user who must have
the data available when they attempt to
access it.

Three common techniques used:

Striping (RAID 0), provides the user with rapid
access by spreading data across several disks.
Mirroring (RAID 1), data is written to two or more
disks simultaneously, providing a complete copy
of all the information on multiple drives in the
event one drive should fail
Striping with parity (RAID 4), data is spread over
multiple disks. Provides the speed of striping with
the safety of redundancy because the system
stores parity information that can be used to
reconstruct data if a disk drive fails.

Server connected to a network with the sole

purpose of providing storage
Any user or device connected to the
network can access files on the NAS device.

Consist entire of electronic components

such as IC and contain no moving parts.
More durable and shock resistant than other
types of media
Capacity ranges from 16 GB to 256 GB
Access time is about 0.1 ms, which is more
than 80 times faster than a hard disk.

Enable users easily to transport digital

photos, music or files to and from mobile
devices and computers or other devices.
Various Types:

Secure Digital (SD)

microSD
xD Picture card
Memory stick PRO Duo

A flash memory storage device

Makes it easy for users to transfer
documents, photos, music and videos from
one computer to another.

Removable device commonly used in

notebook computers.

An Internet service that provides storage to

computer users.
Some provide storage for specific types of files
where others store any type of file
Examples:
Flicker, Picasa stores digital photos
Facebook, myspace digital photos, digital videos,
messages, personal information
Google Docs documents, spreadsheets, presentations
Gmail E-mail messages
Youtube-Digital videos
Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Nirvanix Enterprise-level
storage

A newer, more expensive DVD format

Has higher capacity and better quality than
standard DVDs especially for high-definition
audio and video.
BD ROM has storage capacities of 100 GB

Magnetically coated ribbon of plastic

capable of storing large amounts of data
and information at a low cost.
Business users utilize tape most often for
long-term storage and backup.

Stores digital images on the film

The stored images are so small that you
can read them only with a microfilm
reader.
Used by libraries to store back issues of
newspapers, magazines and genealogy
records
Have the longest life of any storage media

Use computers and computer networks to

manage and store huge volumes of data
and information about customers, suppliers
and employees.
One or more servers on the network have
the sole purpose of providing storage to
connected users.