Secondary storage is non-volatile, long-term storage. It is used to keep programs and data indefinitely (this means forever).
There are many forms of secondary storage and each type of secondary storage device has its own characteristics. Because all devices are different, some are more suited to certain applications than others.
What is secondary storage used for in computers?
Secondary Storage is ...
Magnetic Storage devices uses magnetic disks that spin around as a read/write head moves back and forth.
Examples include: Magnetic Tape, Hard Disk Drives, and Floppy disks.
These usually can store a lot of data but are quite slow.
Optical storage include CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray
These are disks that store data that is burned into them.
A light shines on the disk while it is spinning and read the pits and lands as 0s and 1s.
Solid State Storage looks similar to Magnetic Storage except there is no moving parts. This makes it much more Durable (hard to break) and it is faster to load data.
This can be SD cards, Micro SD cards, USB sticks
Help:
Which type of storage uses magnetic disks to store data?
What is an example of a magnetic storage device?
What is an example of a optical storage device?
What is a characteristic (this means a feature) of optical storage?
Which storage type has no moving parts?
How do CDs and DVDs read data?
Which is a downside to magnetic storage?
What makes solid state storage more durable?
What is an advantage of using Solid State Drives?
Briefly describe how Optical Storage devices work.
Briefly describe how Magnetic Storage devices work.
Extension:
Describe and compare the advantages and disadvantages of each type of secondary storage (Magnetic, Optical, and Solid State).
