Data Storage Devices

Not being able to use any of the data storage devices will simply undermine the use of computers. Every day zillions of data bytes are generated through the events of the world. Data generated from the research conducted, business transacted, cash withdrawn or deposited at the banks needs to be saved securely for future references. The advancements in technology have made various types of computer data storage devices possible. The following paragraphs gives information about them.

List of Data Storage Devices

Hard Disc Drive
In the world of computers, a hard disc is considered as a non-volatile, secondary storage device. It is an important computer part that is used to store operating systems, rest of the program, and data. This data storage device can be of removable (external hard drives) or non-removable types. In a hard drive, magnetic discs or platter are used to store data. Presently, the amount of data that this device can store has been increasing rapidly which, now, is expressed as in terms of terabytes.

CD/DVD Writer
CD writer and DVD writer are two different devices that uses CD's and DVD's, respectively, to store data and carry it. These devices are bundled together to make a combo drive. One can use a typical CD (compact disc) to store as much as 700 MB of data on it. On the other hand, a DVD can make room for data up to 4 GB. There are separate programs which makes using these data storage devices possible, once they are installed on the computer system.

Tape Drive
It is thought prudent to make an extra copy of the important data, to recover from its accidental loss. The data storage device used for this task, when the data is too large, is the tape drive. This backup data storage device is found as: the one that uses magnetic tape or the one that employs cartridge as a storage media. A USB cable is used to connect this device to the computer system whenever it is required. The drawback of this device is that the time (seek or the read) needed to locate and read the data on it, is considerable which negates its use as mainline data storage device.

USB Flash Drive
USB flash drive is a very useful portable storage device which can be plugged into a computer system and used immediately. This plug-and-play type device is connected to the system with the help of a USB port and comes in a variety of data storage capacities. Because of the improved computer strategies and the techniques which, cleverly, capitalizes on the storage place available with the flash drives, it is now possible to install operating systems (thin clients) on this device. This allows one to plug this device in someone's computer, and use it without interfering with any of the data on the host computer.

Floppy Drive
Floppy drives are the data storage devices of the past and can hardly be seen in today's computers. In their heydays, this device was widely used and were available with almost every computer system sold. This device was used to read and store data on the computer floppies (51/4 and 31/2 inch) which then were used as portable data storage devices. The computer floppies were available in variety of data sizes. Data storage capacity of the 51/4 inch computer floppies was up to1.2 MB and that of 31/2 inch floppies was1.44 MB. These floppies used magnetic media to store data.

The list of the data storage devices for computers presented in this article is not a complete one. The list depicts important devices that eased the task of storing and carrying the data.