Secondary Storage Flashcards
Why is secondary storage needed
Non volatile storage used to save and store data such as (the OS, applications and user files)when the power is turned off.
What are three types of secondary storage
Magnetic disc(HDD), SSD, and optical storage
What is magnetic disc(HDD)?
High capacity’, reliable storage that stores data magnetically by moving its arm to read/write or edit data’. It is split into tracks and sectors.
is relatively cheap, able to transfer large amount of data and is long lasting however is not durable has a slow access speed and can be very sensitive to movement making it not portable.
What is SSD?
A fast and reliable secondary storage with no moving parts(fast access speed’).
used for internal/external storage but is a type of flash memory making it non-volatile
Can boot up and open programs/files much quicker then HDD(high capacity’’)
And has a fast read/write’’ (durable/portable USB)
However they are very expensive compared to HDD
What is Optical Storage?
Cheap and robust secondary storage(e.g CD, DVD and Blue-ray). Optical discs come in three forms read-only, write-only and rewritable .
They are portable and won’t be damaged by water but are easily scratched corrupting data. However they have a low capacity , are very slow and have a poor reliability.
What are the characteristic of HDD(3)
They have a high capacity, are relatively cheap and have a fast read-write speed.
(And are very reliable, can transport large amount of data)
However they have a slow access speed, are not portable and durable as they are sensitive to movement.
What are the characteristics of SSD(3)
They have a very fast access speed, are portable(USB) and durable. However they have a lower capacity and read-write speed then HDD and are very expensive.
What are the characteristics of Optical disc
They are very cheap, won’t be damaged by water. But they have a low capacity, have a very low read-write speed and poor reliability.
They also have moving parts so are not portable or durable.
Rank the capacity of secondary storages.
1)HDD
2)SSD
3)OD
Rank the cost of secondary storages.
1)SSD
2)HDD
3)OD
Rank the speed of secondary storages.
1)SSD
2)HDD
3)OD
