3.5 - Storage

The most common type of long-term storage that uses thick magnetic disks encased in a protective housing to store data.

• Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

• Optical Drive

• Flash Storage

• Solid State Devices (SSD)

A storage device that uses light instead of magnetism to store information. This include CD-ROM, DVD, and Blu-ray devices.

• Optical Drive

• Flash Storage

• Solid State Devices (SSD)

• External Hard Disk Drives

A compact, portable storage device that uses special memory chips to store data.

• Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

• Optical Drive

• Flash Storage

• Solid State Devices (SSD)

A device with similar capacity to an HDD that uses flash storage instead of magnetic disks to store data. SSDs are much faster and more durable than hard disk drives but usually are more expensive.

• Optical Drive

• Flash Storage

• Solid State Devices (SSD)

• External Hard Disk Drives

An HDD that can be connected as a peripheral to a computer.

• Flash Storage

• Solid State Devices (SSD)

• External Hard Disk Drives

• Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording

Type of drive that allows bits of data to become smaller and more tightly packed together while still retaining data. It uses a tiny laser to briefly heat the recording surface of the hard drive to write the data making it more receptive to the effects of magnetism, which allow writing on much smaller areas than were possible before.

• External Hard Disk Drives

• Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording

• 3D Flash Memory

• Synthesized DNA Strands

Type of memory that implements tiers of solid-state flash memory stacked on top of each other allowing for much greater storage capacity at a lower cost than 2D flash memory.

• Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording

• 3D Flash Memory

• Synthesized DNA Strands

• File

Synthetically produced artificial DNA that is capable of storing vast amounts of information and may be a solution to long-term massive storage.

• Synthesized DNA Strands

• File

• File Format

• File System

The smallest container within a computer's storage system that is used to store information such as data, settings, and commands used in a computer program. A file is the smallest container that can be copied, deleted, or moved within a file system.

• File

• File Format

• File System

• Compression

The way a file is organized. File formats are indicated by an extension such as .jpg, .gif, .png., .mp3, .wav, .wma, .mp4, .avi, and .wmv.

• File Format

• File System

• Compression

• Encryption