Information on Storage Devices

Options for computer storage have grown significantly over the last decade. New computer technologies allow for faster, more efficient storage with greater capacity. There are many different ways to store data.

Hard Drives

Hard drives have long been the solution for mass storage on computers. Hard drive capacities have improved significantly over the past couple of years. An internal desktop hard drive can now store up to 2TB of data. External hard drives offer an easy solution for backing up data on your computer.

Aside from traditional hard drives, there are also solid state drives. Rather then storing your data on a rotating disk, solid state drives store information directly to RAM memory.

Flash Drives

Flash drives, or thumb drives, have also became very popular over the last couple of years. These drives connect directly to your computer via a USB port. Flash drives are very small in size, making them ideal for traveling and transporting small files from home to office.

Optical Media

Optical media storage includes items such as CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. Data is stored on removable media that is recorded via an optical drive, such as a CD burner.

Optical media can be played back in devices such as CD players, DVD players and other computers. However, it is more difficult to erase optical media storage, as you must erase and reformat the disc to add new data.

Online Storage

Online storage is a great option for backing up your data. When you use online storage, your data is stored remotely over the Internet. When you transfer your data, it is taken in by an online storage company who writes it to large data servers. Many of these online storage companies offer great deals on high capacity storage. One advantage to online storage is that you can access your data anywhere, just by logging into your storage account.

Memory Cards

A memory card is a storage device that acts as a mode of transportation between other devices and your computer. One example of memory card storage is the SD cards in digital cameras. These cards can hold millions of pictures and hours of video. Many computer companies have been incorporating built-in memory card readers into their computers. This offers a great solution for photographers who use memory card storage on a consistent basis.

Specialty Storage Devices

Specialty storage devices are devices made to particularly store certain types of media. Two good examples of specialty storage devices are MP3 players and video players. These devices can store your entire movie or music collection. Specialty storage devices allow the user to play back media directly within the device. Syncing to a computer is not necessary, unless you are adding or deleting files.

References

• SD Cards
• Optical Data Storage
• Hard Drives