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Data Storage Devices
Data storage devices are any piece of computer hardware used to record some sort of information. Questions about storage devices and the media on which they record information belong here.
1,624 Questions
What is the difference between a floppy disk and a floppy drive?
In some ways, they are kind-of the same. But there are significant differences. Consider that data organization on a computer has been fashioned after what you might find in an office:
An office may have a bunch of related papers. In a computer file system, those papers would be individually identified as files.
The papers are stored in a folder. On a computer, files are stored in a folder, or, directory.
The office folder is stored, along with other related folders, in a drawer of a filing cabinet. In a computer, a drive is analogous to the drawer of the office filing cabinet. The drive, usually identified by a unique letter of the English alphabet, is a volume, or partition. Files and folders in the "folder" of the drive itself are said to be in the root folder.
The office filing cabinet may have multiple drawers. Together, the drawers form a filing cabinet. In a computer, a drive may be one of several volumes (partitions) available on a physical disk. So, the disk itself may be thought of as the filing cabinet.
A drive and a folder on a computer have these things in common:
- Both can store other folders within.
- Both can store files within.
- Both can only be one type of file system.
- Both can have a recorded date of creation.
A drive and a computer folder have these differences:
- The drive is the top-level entity of a disk volume. A folder always has a parent folder, but a drive does not.
- Drives are usually identified by a single letter of the English alphabet. A folder can have most any name, according to the conventions of the file system.
- Folders can have file attributes (like Read-Only, Hidden, Modified Date, etc.) that a drive itself cannot have.
- A drive can have a volume label that identifies the volume. The volume label does not need to be unique. Some drives can also have additional properties, like a quasi-original serial number.
- A drive's letter must be unique in the system to which it's attached (mounted). A folder must have a unique name in the folder it's in, but there can be any number of identically-named folders in other folders.
- A folder (or file) cannot exist without a drive, but the reverse is not true.
- As a drive represents a complete volume (partition), the file system's organization of data relies on it. The entire structure of all files and folders on a drive is stored internally as a part of the drive's data. Formatting a drive initializes this data structure, destroying it if it already exists. You cannot format a folder.
- The "folder" representing a drive is called the root folder (of the drive). No regular folder can be addressed as such. The root folder cannot be deleted, but all of the files and folders in the root folder can be deleted.
- A drive can be released from the system it's attached to, which is called dismounting it. A folder cannot be dismounted, only deleted.
- Some file systems allow mounting a drive as a sub-folder of another drive. In this case, the mounted drive's root folder logically becomes the sub-folder of the other drive. But in reality, the two volumes remain physically separate. One of the volumes can be destroyed or corrupted without affecting the other. The volume that's mounted can still be addressed separately by a unique drive letter.
- A host system may require a special device driver in order to access a drive. A folder is a figment of the drive's file system, and requires no drivers.
To write-protect (stop deletion, overwriting, or adding to) a 3 1/4" floppy disk, slide the tiny plastic tab at the back of the disk (opposite the shutter), so that it is open.
To protect a disk from damage, keep it in a dry, temperature-controlled environment free of dust and smoke. Avoid any contact with strong magnetic field (sudh as on top of stereo speakers).
Zip disks are considered obsolete these days, as all their advantages have been superseded by CD-RW and DVD-RW drives.
Back when zip disks were common, they would have most likely been compared to floppy disks, over which their advantages were higher storage capacity and higher read/write speed.
What is the different between formatting SATA hard disk drive and PATA hard disk drive?
There is difference between SATA and PATA HDD but no difference between the formatting..
What are the limitations of optical disk?
(a)- it is a read-only storage medium. Data once recorded, cannot be erased, and hence the optical disk cannot be reused. (b)- thd data access speed for optical disk is slower than magnetic disks; (c)- optical disk require a more complicated drive mechanism that magnetic disk.
How many gigabytes of data can a USB hold?
if each movie is 2 hour long,then 30 movies can be stored.
i was had same problem in vista i found that trend micro internet security is the problem i turned it off the problem gone ---------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------ mhmh said: oh thanks a lot ... I face this problem few days ago and i couldn't fix it ... no one talked about the anti virus in many sites that discuss the problem .. it helps .. thanx again .
What if your charger is not working and when you try other chargers it is still not working?
There are several ways to troubleshoot this problem. I'll start with the easiest and work my way to the more expensive and difficult.
1. Make sure that the wall outlet you're plugged into is working. Test it with another device.
2. Your laptop battery might be installed incorrectly or may have become loose. Make sure that it is properly installed and locked into place.
3. Your laptop battery could be defective or old and may no longer hold a charge. You could order a cheap generic brand replacement battery from Amazon for 15-30$.
4. Your power-pack/cable that connects the laptop to the wall might be old and defective. You can typically find a cheap generic replacement on Amazon for between 10-30$.
5. A cable on the inside of your laptop might have come loose or unattached from the motherboard. Some laptops are easy to open and repair, but some models are welded and riveted shut and will require professional service.
6. The connector pin on the back of your laptop where your wall adapter plugs into is broken or loose. This can happen when the laptop is knocked around or the plug is pulled too hard. The connector pin can actually pull itself loose from the motherboard. This can only be repaired by a professional and may cost anywhere from 150-400$ to repair. This is usually not worth the cost to fix unless the laptop is very new and very expensive.
I don't recommend opening a laptop yourself unless you are a professional. It also usually voids the warranty. If you need parts, you can contact eRacks Open Source Systems and we can help you out.
http://eracks.com/
SD cards are a form of solid-state removable storage. This means that they retain their data when turned off and have no moving parts. SD card slots are used so that you can easily add and remove them from a device, and to access them on a personal computer later.
What is a difference between a magnetic disk and floppy disk?
These items are probably before your time. Back in the day before even cassette tapes were invented, tape-recordings were "reel to reel" like cinema film. These reel-to-reel tapes were used to record music and computer data in a mechanically linear fashion. A floppy disk is/was made of the same material but in a disk form like an LP record. Floppys came in use and tapes went obsolete since reels were bulky, tape often broke, crinkled, or became un-spooled from the reel
What are examples of magnetic and non-magnetic storage media?
Magnetic Storage:
- Hard disk drive (HDD)
- Floppy disk drive (FDD)
- Data Tape backup
- MiniDV tape
- Cassette tape
- The magnetic stripe on the back of a credit or debit card
Non-magnetic Storage:
- Solid-state drive (SSD)
- Flash memory card
- USB flash drive
- Optical media (DVD, CD and BluRay)
- Punch cards
The most common removable magnetic storage device?
Hard Disk drives are commonly used storage devices that stores system files,configuration settings & user's data on a Personal Computer.
These are mostly used types of Hard disk drives that are commonly used in Personal Computer:
Based on connectors:
1. IDE drives
2. SATA drives
3. USB drives
Based on Media:
1. Magnetic disks
2. Flash disks
What device is used to store data for long term storage?
Depends on how much memory you will need:
100-700 MB=Compact Disc
2-32 GB=Flashdrive
100-2000 GB(2 TB)=Portable Hard Drive
MB=Mega Byte
GB=Giga Byte
TB=Tera Byte
add From a historic point of view, the most dependable forms of information storage have been Cuneiform; writing on paper; and wax cylinders.
Modern substrates such as magnetic tape have been found wanting, as have some CD formats.
Flash drives and similar storage devices are susceptible to irradiation.
Magnetic disks are susceptible to magnetic fields.
Why random access memory as temporary storage?
Before RAM had such wide-spread usage, two of the most important parts of a computer were the microprocessor (CPU) and storage (Hard Disk, or in many cases, just a Floppy Drive). However, microprocessors were much faster, and could not reasonably operate near their full potential because they had to 'wait' for the downright sluggish storage drive to send it data.
Random Access Memory (RAM) acts as a high speed middleman, providing enough data from the hard disk for microprocessor to use at any given time without making it wait.
What is the maximum storage on the magnetic media?
Magnetic storage
optical storage
solid-state storage
storage capacity
Is a hard disk magnetic or optical?
Magnetic storage is used on hard drives and floppy disks.
Sectors of the disk are charged magnetically and are easily changed later.
Optical storage uses a laser to read data.
On a cd/dvd, the laser picks up tiny marks made starting in the center
and rotating outward.
How many images does an SD card hold?
It depends what the capacity of the SD card is. They come in various capacities rated in megabytes or gigabytes e.g. 256mb or 1gb.
It also depends on the size of the image. If you have a high quality camera then you could be saving pictures that are about 2-3mb in size. You can roughly work it out by dividing the capacity of your SD card by 3!
What is the capacity of a PROM primary storage device?
As we know, ROM i.e. read only memory can't be altered and comes in in-built form with the computer system. The user can't make any changes. To overcome this problem PROM came into existence. PROM i.e. programmable read only memory allows the user to program their own. Once the chip is prepared again user can't edit it. But also now the technology have been so developed that now we can erase our data and it gave two type of PROM i.e. EEPROM and UVPROM which are erased through high electric pluse and with the help of UV rays respectively. Remember, there is still not the concept of editing the data.
