What is Storage Device?
A storage device is used to store large amount of information like Operating Systems, application programs, data files in a computer. Some examples of secondary storage device include the mass storage device like Hard Disk Drive, Floppy Disk. Drive, CDs, magnetic tapes , ZIP disks etc.
1.Floppy Disk
The Floppy disk is a removable disk that stores the data in a magnetic media. Floppy disk is available in various storage capacities – 360 KB, 720 KB, 1.2 MB and 2.88 MB
A four pin Berg connector is used to provide power supply to the floppy disk drive. The floppy disk drive interface has 34 pins and a twist in the cable.
2. Hard Disk
The Hard Disk Drive is a magnetic storage device. It is used to store large amount of data in a PC. The Power connector used for hard disk drive is a 4 pin connector called the molex connector. The hard disk and the power connector used for connecting hard disk.
The Hard Disk is connected to a 40 Pin Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) Controller n the motherboard. Typically in a desktop motherboards there are two Enhanced IDE ( EIDE ) channels namely, primary and secondary. For each IDE channel it is possible to connect two IDE devices like HDD, CDROM Drive. The Rear side of the hard disk consists of a 4 pin power Connector, master slave jumper settings, and interface cable connection. Different types of interfaces like IDE, SCSI are available.
3. Compact Disk
Compact Disk can be used to store data from 650 MB to 700 MB. It is an optical storage device, which uses LASER beam to read and write data. It is highly reliable. As the name says it is a type of read only memory.
The CD ROM drive can be connected to an EIDE controller on the motherboard.
4. Zip Drive
Zip drive is a high density removable media which can store a maximum of 100 MB to 250 MB of data. Zip drive is developed by Iomega Corporation. Zip drive is comparatively cheaper, durable and can store large data than the floppy disk and hence it is used to transfer large amount of data.
5.Tape Drive
Tape drive is a device, which is similar to a tape recorder, Which can be used to read data and write data into a tape. The capacity of the magnetic tapes can vary from the range of Kilobytes to gigabytes. Tape drive provides sequential access.
Hence to read a set of data it is essential to read all the data that is preceding it. This Feature makes the tape drive to be slow and hence it is not normally preferred for daily operations. But tape drives are the cheapest devices for performing backup of large amount of data in an organisation.
6. Pen Drive
A pen drive is a flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB. This device is small, lightweight, removable and rewritable. Initially floppy disks are used as a quick portable storage device. Compare to floppy disks, USB pen drives are past, hold more data, and are more reliable.
This type of drive uses the USB mass storage standard, supported by Operating systems. Pen drives are also know as flash drive, thumb drive, jump drive, and USB keys. A pen drive consists of a small printed circuit board encased in a robust plastic or metal casing, which enable the user to carry the pen drive in his pocket. Only the USB connector can be seen outside the case that is covered by a removeable cap.
Pen drives are active only when powered by a USB computer connection, and require no other external power source and battery power source. It will run with USB connection ( 5 volts and up to 500mA ).
7. Memory Stick
Memory stick is a small card like structure slightly smaller than the chewing gum. Memory stick is a removable flash memory card. This can be used as a memory storage device in a laptop. The memory stick is also available in digital cameras for storing photos. A memory stick capable reader can be connected to the USB port or serial port to transfer the images from the camera to the computer.