Identifying Purposes and
Characteristics
of Storage Devices
Storage media hold the data being
accessed, as well as the files the
system needs to operate and data
that needs to be saved.
The many different types of storage
differ in terms of their capacity (how
much they can store), access time
(how fast the computer can access
the information), and the physical
type of media used.
Hard Disk Drive Systems
Hard disk drive (HDD) systems (hard
disks or hard drives for short) are
used for permanent storage and
quick access.
Hard disks typically reside inside the
computer (although there are
external and removable hard drives)
and can hold more information than
other forms of storage.
The hard disk drive system contains
three critical components:
Controller
Controls the drive.
It understands how the drive
operates, sends signals to the
various motors in the disk, and
receives signals from the sensors
inside the drive.
Most of today’s hard disk
technologies incorporate the
controller and drive into one
enclosure.
Controller
Hard Disk
The physical storage medium. Hard
disk drive systems store information
on small
disks (between three and five inches
in diameter) stacked together and
placed in an enclosure.
Host Adapter
The translator, converting signals
from the hard drive and controller to
signals
the computer can understand.
Most motherboards today
incorporate the host adapter into the
motherboard’s circuitry, offering
headers for drive cable connection.
Floppy Drives
A floppy disk is a magnetic storage
medium that uses a flexible diskette
made of thin plastic enclosed in a
protective casing.
The floppy disk once enabled
information to be transported from
one computer to another very easily.
Today, floppies are a little too small
in capacity to be efficient anymore.
They have been replaced by writable
CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs.
The original term floppy disk referred
to the antiquated 8-inch medium
used with minicomputers and
mainframes.
The original PC floppy diskette, which
was 51⁄4 inches square and known
as a minifloppy diskette, is also
obsolete; the microfloppy diskette is
a diskette that is 31⁄2 inches square.
Most computers today use
microfloppy diskettes or no floppy at
all.
A floppy drive is used to read and
write information to and from these
drives.
The advantage of these drives is that
they allow portability of data (you
can transfer data from one computer
to another on a diskette).
The downside of a floppy disk drive
is its limited storage capacity.
Whereas a hard drive can store
hundreds of gigabytes of
information, most floppy disks were
designed to store only about one
megabyte.
Table 1.3 shows five different floppy
diskette drive formats with their
corresponding diskette sizes
supported in PC systems over the
years.
The following abbreviations are used:
DD means double density; HD means
high density; ED means extended
density.
A floppy disk drive
CD-ROM Drives
Most computers today have a CD-
ROM (Compact Disc Read-Only
Memory) drive.
The compact disks are virtually the
same as those used in CD players.
The CD-ROM is used for long-term
storage of data.
CD-ROMs are read-only, meaning
that once information is written to a
CD, it
can’t be erased or changed.
Also, it takes much longer to access
the information on a CD than it does
to access data residing on a hard
drive.
Why, then, are CD-ROMs so popular?
Mainly because they make a great
software distribution medium.
Programs are always getting larger
and requiring more disks to install.
Instead of installing a program using
100 floppy disks (a real possibility),
you can use a single CD, which can
hold approximately 650MB. (A
second reason they are so popular is
that CD-ROMs have been
standardized across platforms, with
the ISO 9660 standard.)
Figure 1.31 shows an example of a
typical CD-ROM drive.
A typical CD-ROM drive
CD-ROM drives are rated in terms of their
data transfer speed.
The first CD-ROM drives transferred data
at the same speed as home audio CD
players, 150KBps. Soon after, CD drives
rated as “2X” drives that would transfer
data at 300KBps appeared (they just
increased the spin speed in order to
increase the data transfer rate).
This system of ratings continued up
until
the 8X speed was reached. At that
point, the CDs were spinning so fast
that there was a danger of the CDs
flying apart inside the drive.
So, although future CD drives used
the same rating (as in 16X, 32X, and
so on), their rating was expressed in
terms of theoretical maximum
transfer rate.
The drive isn’t necessarily spinning
faster or transferring data at 40 or
50 times 150KBps, it is just
theoretically possible using the
drive’s increased buffers and so on.
CD-R and CD-RW Drives
CD-recordable (CD-R) and CD-
rewritable (CD-RW) drives (also
known as CD burners) are essentially
CD-ROM drives that allow users to
create (or burn) their own CD-ROMs.
They look very similar to CD-ROM
drives, except the front panel of the
drive includes a reference to either
CD-R or CD-RW.
The difference between these two
types of drives is that CD-R drives
can write to a CD only once.
A CD-RW can erase information from a
disc and rewrite to it multiple times.
Also, CD-RW drives are rated according to
their read, write, and rewrite times.
So instead of a single rating like 40X,
they have a rating of 32X-16X-4X, which
means it reads at 32X, writes at 16X, and
rewrites at 4X.
DVD-ROM Drives
A newer type of drive is finding its
way into computers: the DVD-ROM
drive. DVD (digital video disc)
technology is in use in many home
theater systems.
A DVD-ROM drive is basically the
same as the DVD player’s drive in a
home theater system.
As a result, a computer equipped
with a DVD-ROM drive and the
proper video card can play back DVD
movies on the monitor.
However, in a computer, a DVD-ROM
drive is much more useful. Because
DVD-ROMs use slightly different
technology than CD-ROMs, they can
store up to 4.3GB of data.
This makes them a better choice for
distributing large software bundles.
Many software packages today are
so huge they take multiple CD-ROMs
to hold all the installation and
reference files.
A single DVD-ROM, in a double-
sided, double-layered configuration,
can hold as much as 17GB (as much
as 26 regular CD-ROMs).
A DVD-ROM drive looks very similar
to a CD-ROM drive. The only
difference is the DVD logo on the
front of most drives.
DVD Burners
A DVD burner operates in a similar
manner to a CD-R or CD-RW drive:
It can store large amounts of data
onto a DVD.
Today, single-sided, double-layered
(DL) discs can be burned right in
your home computer, writing 8.5GB
of information to a single disc.
Common names for the variations of
DVD burning technologies include
DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVDRW,
DVD-RAM, DVD-R DL, and DVD+R
DL.
In some cases, the plus variants hold
more than their dash counterparts,
and drives do not support all types.
Other Storage Media
Many additional types of storage are
available for PCs today.
Among the other types of storage
are tape backup devices, solid-state
memory, and advanced optical
drives.
There are also external hard drives
such as the Kangaru drives and new
storage media such as the USB
memory sticks that can store
gigabytes on a single small plastic
device that can be carried on a key
chain.
Removable Storage
Removable storage once meant
something vastly different than what
it means today.
Sequential tape backup is one of the
only remnants of the old forms of
removable storage that can be seen
in the market today.
Tape Backup Devices
An older form of removable storage
is the tape backup.
Tape backup devices can be installed
internally or externally and use
either a digital or analog magnetic
tape medium instead of disks for
storage.
They hold much more data than any
other medium but are also much
slower.
They are primarily used for archival
storage.
With hard disks, it’s not a matter of
“if they fail”; it’s “when they fail.”
So you must back up the information
onto some other storage medium.
Tape backup devices were once the
most
common choice in larger enterprises
and networks because they were
able to hold the most data and were
the most reliable over the long term.
Today, however, tape backup
systems are
steadily being phased out by
writable and rewritable optical discs,
which continue to advance in
technology and size.
Flash Memory
Once only for primary memory usage, the
same components that sit on your
motherboard as
RAM can be found in various physical sizes
and quantities in today’s solid-state
storage solutions.
These include older removable and
nonremovable flash memory mechanisms,
Secure Digital (SD) cards and other
memory cards, and USB thumb drives.
Each of these technologies has the
potential to reliably store a staggering
amount of information in a minute form
factor.
Manufacturers are using innovative
packaging for some of these products to
provide convenient transport options to
users, such as key-chain attachments.
For many years, modules and PC
Cards known as flash memory have
offered low- to midcapacity storage
for devices. The name comes from
the concept of easily being able to
use electricity to instantly alter the
contents of the memory.
The original flash memory is still
used in devices, such as routers and
switches, that require a nonvolatile
means of storing critical data and
code often used in booting the
device.
The following sections explain a bit
more about today’s most popular
forms of flash memory, memory
cards and thumb drives.
SD AND OTHER MEMORY CARDS
Today’s smaller devices require some
form of removable solid-state
memory that can be used for
temporary and permanent storage of
digital information.
Gone are the days of using
microfloppies in your digital camera.
Even the most popular video-camera
medium, mini-
DVDs, have solid-state multi-GB
models nipping at their heels
A typical SD card
Even smaller devices, such as mobile
phones, have an SD solution for
them.
One of these products, known as
miniSD, is slightly thinner than SD
and measures 21.5mm by 20mm.
The other, microSD, is thinner yet
and only 15mm by 11mm.
Both of these reduced formats have
adapters allowing them to be used in
standard SD slots.
Figure 1.33 shows the memory card
slots of an HP Photo Smart 7550
printer, which is capable of reading
these devices and printing them
directly or creating a drive letter for
access to the contents over its USB
connection to the computer.
Clockwise from upper left, these
slots accommodate CF/Micro drive,
Smart Media, Memory Stick (bottom
right), and MMC/SD. Exclusive
external card readers and those that
can be mounted in a computer’s
drive bay are common items on the
market today.
The industry also provides almost
any adapter or converter to allow the
various formats to work together.
Card slots in a printer
THUMB DRIVES
Also known as USB flash drives,
thumb drives are incredibly versatile
and convenient devices that allow
you to store large quantities of
information in a very small form
factor.
Many such devices are merely
extensions of the host’s USB
connector, extending out from the
interface but adding very little to its
width, making them very easy to
transport, whether in a pocket or
laptop bag.
A USB thumb drive
Thumb drives capitalize on the versatility
of the USB interface, taking advantage of
the Plug and Play feature and the physical
connector strength.
Upon insertion, these devices announce
themselves to Windows Explorer as
removable drives and show up in the
Explorer window with a drive letter.
This software interface allows for
drag-and-drop copying and most of
the other standard Explorer functions
performed on standard drives.
USB thumb drives have emerged as
the de facto replacement for other
removable storage devices, such as
floppies, edging out Zip and Jaz
offerings from Iomega, as well as
other proprietary solutions.
USB-Attached External Disk
Drives
Before USB, an external drive used a
proprietary adapter and
interface/cable combination or the
standard RS-232 serial or parallel
port generally built into the
computer.
Since USB, there seems to be no
other way to do it. The fact is, there
are other ways, but why muddy the
water with options when USB covers
all the bases and is so ubiquitous in
today’s systems?
USB-attached external disk drives
use the same drives that you might
install in a drive bay in your chassis;
they simply employ a specialty
chassis that houses only the drive
and the supporting circuitry that
converts the drive interface to USB.
Most often, the drive enclosure has a
DC power input and a Type-B USB
interface, as shown in Figure 1.35.
This external chassis has its cover
removed, and you can see the
internal protective casing with the
hard drive mounted in it.
External drive enclosure
Advanced Digital Storage
There are two technologies on the
market today that seek to become
the next standard in optical storage;
each one offers backward
compatibility to the lesser CD and
DVD technologies.
One of these is known as High
Density (or Definition) DVD (HD
DVD). The other is known as Blu-ray
Disc (BD).
Both technologies employ similar
blue-violet laser and encoding
techniques, as well as disc size, with
slightly differing results.
The blue laser has a shorter
wavelength than the original red
laser, which allows more data to be
stored in the same space because
the laser can be focused more tightly
to read data placed more closely.
HD DVD
HD DVD can hold high-definition
video or large quantities of data. HD
DVD has a single layer capacity of
15GB.
Dual-layer and triple-layer formats
exist that hold two and three times
as much data, respectively.
Publishers can include both standard
DVD and HD DVD formats on a single
disc. This coexistence means that
consumers, manufacturers, and
retailers have options during their
transition to HD DVD, because the
newer HD DVD discs can play in a
standard DVD player.
Blu-ray Disc
Although Blu-ray Disc uses a similar
technology to that of HD DVD, it gets
the laser closer to the data and is
able to store more data per layer,
25GB compared to HD DVD’s 15GB.
Manufacturers led by Sony make
players backward compatible with
DVDs and capable of the same high-
definition video content. Initially,
Blu-ray components were priced a bit
higher than those based on HD DVD,
but Blu-ray was the first to hit the
market with a consumer-recordable
version, including drives and media.
