Chapter 8

Secondary Storage

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 1

Introduction
Data storage has expanded from text and
numeric files to include digital music files,
photographic files, video files, and much
more. These new types of files require
secondary storage devices with much
greater capacity than floppy disks. In this
chapter, you will learn about the many types
of secondary storage devices including their
capabilities and limitations.

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Storage
• Primary storage • Secondary storage
– Volatile storage – Nonvolatile storage
– Temporary – Permanent storage
storage • Secondary storage
characteristics
– Media
– Capacity
RAM – Storage devices
– Access speed

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Secondary Storage Devices

• Most desktop microcomputer systems have
floppy disks, hard disks, and optical disk
drives
• Are used to save, back up, and transport
data files and programs

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 Floppy Disks
• Portable or removable storage media
• Typically used to store and transfer small
word processing, spreadsheet, and other
types of files
• Floppy disk drives (FDD)
– Store data and programs
– Retrieves data by reading electromagnetic
charges
– Also called flexible disks and floppies

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Traditional Floppy Disk

• Most common type is 2HD “two-sided, high-

density”
• Attributes
– Shutter
– Labels
– Write-protection notch
– Tracks
– Sectors

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High Capacity Floppy Disks

• Known as a floppy-disk cartridge
• Require special disk drives
• Most widely used is the Zip disk
– 100 MB, 250 MB or 750 MB capacity
– Used to store multimedia, database, large text,
and spreadsheet files

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Hard Disks
• Use thicker, metallic platters for storage
• Faster than a floppy diskette
• Large capacity
• Sensitive instruments
• There are three types of hard disks:
– Internal Hard Disk
– Hard-disk cartridge
– Hard-disk pack
• Performance Enhancements

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 Materials that Cause a Head
Crash
• Head crash is a disaster for a hard disk

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Internal Hard Disk

• Located inside system unit
• Designated as the C drive
• Advantages over floppies
– Capacity
– Access speed

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Hard-Disk Cartridges

• Removable hard disks

• Used to complement
internal hard disk Hard-disk cartridge
• Capacities of 20 to 100 GB
• Iomega is one of the most
widely used

PC Card Hard Disks

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Hard-Disk Packs
• Removable hard
disk
• Massive storage
capacity
• Common in
mainframes
• Are utilized by
banks and credit
card companies

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 Performance Enhancements
• Disk caching

• Redundant arrays of
inexpensive disks (RAID)

• File compression
and decompression

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Optical Disks
• Hold over 50 gigabytes of data
• Attributes
– Lands
– Pits
• Three types
– Compact Disc (CD)
– Digital Versatile Disc (DVD)
– Hi-Def Disc

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Compact Disc
• Optical format
• From 650 MB to 1 GB capacity
• Rotation speeds vary
• Three basic types
– Read only: CD-ROM
– Write once: CD-R
– Rewriteable: CD-RW

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Digital Versatile Disc

• Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc
(DVD)
• Similar to CDs, but can store more data
• Three basic types
– Read only: DVD-ROM
– Write once: DVD+R; DVD-R
– Rewritable: DVD+RW; DVD-RW; DVD-RAM

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 High-Definition Disc
• Next generation of optical disc
• Far greater capacity than DVDs
• Three basic types
– Read only
– Write once
– Rewriteable
• Two competing hi def formats
– HD DVD
– Blu-Ray (which officially won the war this year..)

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Other Types of Secondary

Storage
• Solid-state storage

• Internet hard drives

• Magnetic tape

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Ipods and Music From The

Internet
• The Internet can be used as a medium to
locate and play music
• A user can create compact discs, or transfer
music to a portable player
• Requirements
– Software
– Hardware
– Internet

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Solid-State Storage

• Flash memory cards

– Widely used in notebook computers
– Used to record MP3 music files

• USB drives Flash memory card

– Key ring flash memory
devices or flash drives
– Connects to a USB port

Key ring flash memory

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 Internet Hard Drives
• Known as i-drive or online storage
• Low cost and can access information from
any location using the Internet
• Oriented to either businesses or individuals

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Magnetic Tape
• External storage
• Provides sequential access
– Information stored in sequence
– Slower than disks which
provide direct access
• Magnetic tape streamers or
tape cartridges used by both
mainframes and
microcomputers

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Holographic Storage
• Holographic storage is computer
storage that uses laser beams to store
computer-generated data in three
dimensions.
• Imagine having 50 hours of high
definition video on a single disk, 50,000
songs on a postage stamp, or 500,000
x-rays on a credit card (http://
www.inphase-technologies.com/ technology/
default.asp?subn=2_1)
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Mass Storage Devices

• Mass storage refers to the tremendous
amount of secondary storage required by
large organizations
• Mass storage devices are specialized high-
capacity secondary storage devices
• Enterprise storage system
promotes efficient and safe
use of data across networks
within organizations

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 Careers In IT
• Software engineers analyze users’ needs and
create application software
• General employer requirements
– Bachelors degree in computer science
– Extensive knowledge of computers
and technology
– Good communication and analytical skills
• Software engineers can expect to
earn an annual salary of $53K to $88K

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A Look to the Future

Your Entire Life Recorded on a Single Disk
• Future secondary storage disks could
eventually store one terabyte
• Experiments with three dimensional
storing
• Video of an entire life
• Technology is being used to
rapidly scan photos and videos

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