Chapter 08: Secondary Storage

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 Competencies (Page 1 of 2)
• Distinguish between primary and secondary storage
Computing Essentials 2012: Making IT Work for You

• Discuss the important characteristics of secondary

storage, including media, capacity, storage devices, and
access speed
• Describe hard disk platters, tracks, sectors, and head
crashes
• Compare internal and external hard drives
• Discuss performance enhancements including
disk caching, RAIDs, file compression, and
file decompression

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 Competencies (Page 2 of 2)
• Define optical storage including compact, digital versatile,
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and high-definition discs

• Define solid-state storage, including solid-state drives,
flash memory, and USB drives
• Define cloud storage and cloud storage services
• Discuss mass storage devices, enterprise storage systems,
and storage area networks

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 Introduction
• Data storage has expanded from text and numeric
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files to include digital music files, photographic

files, video files, and much more.
• These new types of files require secondary storage
devices with much greater capacity.
• In this chapter, you learn about
the many types of secondary
storage devices including their
capabilities and limitations.

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 Storage
• Primary storage • Secondary storage
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– Volatile storage – Nonvolatile storage

– Temporary storage – Permanent storage
– Random Access • Secondary storage
Memory (RAM) characteristics
– Media
– Capacity
– Storage devices
– Access speed

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 Secondary Storage Devices
• Provides permanent or nonvolatile
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storage
• Data and programs can be retained
after the computer has been shut of
• Most desktop microcomputer systems
have both hard and optical disk drives

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 Hard Disks
• Use rigid, metallic platters for storage
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• Files organized using tracks, sectors, and cylinders

• Large capacity (terabytes)
• Sensitive instruments
• Two types of hard disks:
– Internal Hard Disk
– External Hard Disks
• Performance enhancements

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 Materials that Cause a Head Crash
• A head crash is a disaster for a hard disk,
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not to mention the data stored on the disk

Return

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 Internal Hard Disk
• Located inside system unit and often
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designated as the C: drive

• Used to store programs and data files
• Advantages over removable media
– Capacity
– Access speed

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 External Hard Disks
• Removable hard disks
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• Used to complement internal hard disk with an

unlimited amount of additional storage
• Capacities extend into the terabytes (TBs)

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 Performance Enhancements
• Disk caching to improve
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hard disk performance

• Redundant arrays of
inexpensive disks (RAID)
to expand storage and
to improve access speed
• File compression
and decompression
to increase capacity
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 Optical Disks
• Hold over 100 gigabytes (GB) of data
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• Attributes
– Lands
– Pits
• Three types
– Compact Disc (CD)
– Digital Versatile Disc (DVD)
– Blu-Ray (Hi-Def) Disc

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 Compact Disc (CDs)
• Optical format
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• Capacity of 650 MB to 1 GB
• Rotation speeds vary
• Three basic types
– Read only (CD-ROM)
– Write once (CD-R)
– Rewriteable (CD-RW)

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 Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs)
• Like CDs, but newer format called digital
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versatile disc or digital video disc (DVD)

• Capacity of 4.7 GB to 17 GB
• Three basic types
– Read only
(DVD-ROM)
– Write once
(DVD+R and DVD-R)
– Rewriteable
(DVD+RW, DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM)
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 Blu-ray Disc (BDs)
• Next generation optical disc for recording
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high-definition (hi def) video

• Capacity of 25 GB to 100 GB
• Blu-ray optical drives are usually capable of
reading standard DVDs and CDs in addition
to Blu-ray discs

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 Solid-State Storage
• Solid–state drives (SSDs)
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– Faster and more durable

• Flash memory cards
– Widely used in computers, cameras,
and portable devices such as mobile
phones
• USB Drives (or Flash Drives)
– Compact and easily transported
– Capacity of 1 GB to 256 GB

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 Making IT Work for You
Flash Camcorders, YouTube, and MySpace
• Flash-based camcorders have made creating
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digital video simpler and more afordable

• Easily upload your creations to photo- and
video-sharing Web sites on the Internet

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 Cloud Storage
• Cloud computing is where the Internet
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acts as a “cloud” of servers

– Applications provided as a service rather than a product
(for example, cloud or online storage)
• Cloud storage services
make it easy to
upload and share
files with anyone

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 Mass Storage Devices
• Organizations require tremendous amounts of
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secondary storage called mass storage

• Enterprise storage systems ensure data security
using specialized strategies and devices, such as
– File servers
– Networked attached storage (NAS)
– RAID systems
– Tape libraries
– Organizational cloud storage
– Storage Area Network (SAN)

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 Enterprise Storage Systems
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 Careers In IT
• Software engineers analyze users’ needs and
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create application software

• General employer requirements
– Bachelors degree in
computer science
– Extensive knowledge of
computers and technology
– Communication and analytical skills
• Annual salary of $63,000 to $98,500

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 A Look to the Future
Your Entire Life Recorded on a Single Disk

• Future secondary storage disks will

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eventually store terabytes (TB) or

petabytes (PB)
– Your entire life captured in
digital video on a single disc
– Currently developing programs
that can scan photos and videos
for a particular person’s face

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 Open-Ended Questions(Page 1 of 2)
• What are the two types of hard disks? Describe
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three ways to improve hard disk performance.

• Compare solid-state and hard disk storage.

• List and compare the three most common optical

disc formats?

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 Open-Ended Questions (Page 2 of 2)
• Describe cloud computing and cloud storage.
Computing Essentials 2012: Making IT Work for You

• Discuss mass storage systems including enterprise

storage systems and storage area networks.

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