Storage Media (P1, P2)

There are many types of storage media and all of them are used to store data long after the computer has been turned off or if it has been removed from the computer all together. The most common of these storage mediums is the hard drive. The hard drive is a disk that has all the data written to the surface of the disk and is then read by a head that is on a moveable arm; although hard drives nowadays often have more than one platter and more than one head. The hard drive will hold all the information stored to it, such as the operating system, software and any other data, until you either tell it to delete something or until a magnet is passed over the disk; causing the tracks saved on the disk to be erased.

Hard Drive

The hard drives are connected to the motherboard through a cable that is often made of many wires formed into a ribbon. This ribbon is known as an IDE ribbon, Integrated Drive Electronics ribbon. The IDE ribbon is a 40-pin, 80-conductor data cable that connect into the back of the hard drive. The ribbon has two female ends that connect to devices, a master and a slave. The master gets all the information passed to and through it whereas the slave only sees what the master wants it to see. The IDE ribbon connects directly into the motherboard, via a bus, meaning that it is a quick as it can be without the hard drive slotting into the motherboard itself. The newest form of hard drive connection is a Serial ATA, or SATA, connection and is nowhere near as big or flat. It connects to the motherboard, via a bus, like the IDE ribbon, although it is much faster at transferring data as the cable is a high speed cable and the cable is over two pairs of conductors. This is becoming an more popular choice of hard drive connection as it does not have a master and slave so everything is just independent.

SATA Cable

The other types of storage media are:

·         CD – Compact disks (Optical)

·         USB pen drives

·         USB external hard drives – Powered and non-powered

·         SD cards

·         Floppy disks – Legacy (both 3.5” and 5” disks)

External USB hard drive

The USB pens and hard drives are mainly used for portable storage devices as they are smaller than a normal hard drive and you do not need to re-install the hard drive inside the computer every time you change computer. SD cards are often used in cameras as they are the smallest types of storage media but can store enough photos. Floppy disks are rarely found anymore as CDs and DVDs have taken over that corner of the market for saving data to an external disk you can take places and use in other devices.