Storage Media (Edexcel IGCSE ICT)

Storage media

What is storage media?

• Storage media is the physical media that holds non-volatile data

• Storage devices have a specific read/write mechanism built in to interact with a particular storage media

• For example, magnetic tape media is read by a magnetic storage device

Media

Hard disks

• Hard disks are a magnetic storage media

• Made up of platters that spin on a central spindle

• A read/write head moves on an arm across the platter to read/write data

• The amount of time taken to read/write data is influenced by:

  • How fast the platters spin (measured in revolutions per minute (RPM))

  • How fast the head moves across the platter

• Used in personal computers, servers and backups

"Image of hard disk coming soon"

Optical media

• Used with an optical storage device

• All optical media is recordable (CD-R, DVD-R, BD-R)

• Some optical media can be re-written (CD-RW, DVD-RW, BD-RE)

• Used for multimedia (music, games & films)

Flash media

• Flash media is a solid state storage media

• More reliable than a hard disk as contains no moving parts

• Very fast read/write speeds

• Used in mobile devices, laptops

Magnetic tape

• Old technology used primarily for recording sound

• Now used to store vast amounts of data (backups)

• Very slow read/write speeds

• Used for whole system backups and archives