Page 74 - DCAP101_BASIC_COMPUTER_SKILLS

Unit 4: Secondary Storage Devices

Notes
used to punch the card for even providing input. Printers were there to punch the output
for storage.
Floppy Drive (8")

Once the magnetic media started to be used for storage, paper was quickly made
obsolete. Magnetic disks of round shape emerged as the standard for secondary storage
device. It became very popular as it was more robust and handy than the paper roll, and
could store more data as was relatively sturdy.
Floppy Drive (5.25")

Further advancement in the material and magnetic domain provided better density and
provided much higher storage capacity in smaller area. Now the disks also started to
become double sided providing even more data storage area in the same size disks.

Floppy Drive (3.5")
This media peaked with the 3.5" FDD that is small and sturdy enough to carry in the jeans
pocket. This case also provided cover even for the area that is used for reading. This
resulted in more protection from dust etc even if the floppy is not in any cover.

Zip Drive
This drive released in 1994 by a company called Iomega was capable of holding 100MB
of data. This also uses the magnetic coating like the other FDD, but of higher quality and
of superior technology that needs specialized drives for reading and writing on this
media. This made is a good backup drive (like tape drives), but not good for using it
on any machine. Currently the Zip Disk can hold 250MB of data.

Flash Drive (USB Drive)
Also known as Pen Drive is the next revolution in secondary portable storage device.
Starting with couple of MB storage capacity the main attraction was its solid state rugged
construction and capable of being used on any computer equipped with USB port.
Initially it needed specific driver to be installed on the earlier OS in order to it getting
recognized, but later, due to its universally standard and open protocol and rise in use
of USB port in computers, its support was provided along with the OS. (Windows/
Macintosh/Linux also support this natively out of the box).

So now virtually nothing more is needed for this drive to work if you have a computer
with USB port. Though the manufacturers are also providing additional features to the
hardware drive like security to the data stored on it using encryption, but these features
generally require additional software/driver to be installed in order to be used. And
since there is not much standard for these features it is mostly device specific and is
largely ignored for its lack of compatibility.
This standardization of protocol has lead to not only popularity of the USB flash drives,
but has also provided a common way for other media to act as drive via this protocol.
So now there are storage products making use of this standard to become USB drives
(also called USB Mass Storage). Example includes USB Hard Disk Drives, Zip Drive with
USB interface, digital camera having a USB cable to make it an USB drive for accessing
all the photographs clicked, even PDAs like Palm that already connect to the computer
using USB port acts as a USB drive for accessing the data in its memory and SD/MMC
Card present or the Mp3 player that doubles as USB drive!! The list and applications are
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