There are three main categories of storage devices: optical, magnetic and semiconductor. The earliest of these was the magnetic device. Computer systems began with magnetic storage in the form of tapes (yes, just like a cassette or video tape). These graduated to the hard disk drive and then to a floppy disk.
Five common storage devices are:
- USB flash drives.
- Hard disks.
- Optical disk.
- RAM (volatile memory)
- Floppy disk.
Solid-state storage devices include thumb drives, memory cards, and the high-speed solid-state drives or SSDs that are beginning to replace hard drives in many uses. A third is optical storage, typically in the form of removable discs.
Optical – The optical output is a very commonly used output on many music sources. Again, it can be found on most PCs and almost all Apple computers and laptops where it shares the connection with the 3.5mm analog connection. USB – The audio USB output is available on virtually every computer.
Magnetic storage: Hard Disc Drive (HDD)
Relatively cheap per unit of storage. Fast access and retrieval times compared to other storage devices.Secondary memory refers to storage devices, such as hard drives and solid state drives. It may also refer to removable storage media, such as USB flash drives, CDs, and DVDs. Additionally, secondary memory is non-volatile, meaning it retains its data with or without electrical power.
Definition and Types of Storage Devices
- hard drive.
- CD-ROM.
- DVD-ROM.
- flash media.
- "thumb" drive.
- memory stick.
- iPOD.
- digital camera.
Cost. Neither magnetic hard disks nor optical disk drives are expensive, though optical drives go for a fraction of what a hard disk costs.
The main difference between flash drive and memory stick is that the flash drive is an ultra-portable storage device with an integrated USB interface while the memory stick is a portable flash memory storage device used with handheld devices.
Storage devices
| Storage device | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|
| Magnetic storage: Hard Disc Drive (HDD) | Relatively cheap per unit of storage. Fast access and retrieval times compared to other storage devices. | Can be easily damaged, will slow down and eventually break over time. Slower access than Solid State Drives. |
Optical Storage Devices:
Optical storage devices are flat, round disks that spins around its center. The difference with magnetic storage device is that in optical storage devices LASER light is used to read and write data in disks. Examples are CD, DVD etc.In this context, magnetic tapes are now living a second youth. This solution is proven and stable – for decades it has been used for data storage and is considered safe and extremely reliable. In the times of pressing for better hardware parameters, particularly speed, tapes were predicted to vanish quickly.
There are three main types of secondary storage in a computer system:
- solid state storage devices, such as USB memory sticks.
- optical storage devices, such as CD, DVD and Blu-ray discs.
- magnetic storage devices, such as hard disk drives.
Storage devices
| Storage device | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|
| Magnetic storage: Hard Disc Drive (HDD) | Relatively cheap per unit of storage. Fast access and retrieval times compared to other storage devices. | Can be easily damaged, will slow down and eventually break over time. Slower access than Solid State Drives. |
Main memory (sometimes known as internal memory or primary storage) is another name for RAM (and ROM). In the case of RAM, it is volatile (this means that when power is switched off all of the data in the memory disappears). Main memory is used to store data whilst it is being processed by the CPU.
Due to their elongated size, they were given the name Pen Drives. They also ran on flash memory and had USB interface to communicate with the computer. Nowadays, the difference in size is no more. All the flash drives and pen drives of today have the same function, the same internals, and the compact form factor.
If your PS4 USB storage device cannot be used, this is due to the limitation of the file system. In other words, it is because your USB drive is formatted to NTFS which is not compatible with PS4. In this case, it is necessary to change the file system to FAT32 or exFAT or format USB drive.
Typically, Memory Sticks are used as storage media for a portable device, in a form that can easily be removed for access by a personal computer. For example, Sony digital compact cameras use Memory Stick for storing image files.
Flash memory is a solid-state chip that maintains stored data without any external power source. Inside the flash chip, data is stored in cells protected by floating gates. Tunneling electrons change the gate's electronic charge in "a flash" (hence the name), clearing the cell of its contents so it can be rewritten.
