What is Secondary Storage
Secondary storage is non-volatile memory that is used to store the following:
- The operating system
- Installed application programs
- User documents
This means that they are still stored(retained) even when the computer is turned off (no power).
There are many different types of secondary storage such as the ones shown below:
Categories of Secondary Storage
There are three different categories of secondary storage that we need to know.
Magnetic – Magnetic storage devices include:
Tapes
Floppy Disks
Hard Disks (Internal and External)
As time has gone on they have been superseded by solid state devices.
Solid State – Solid state devices include:
USB Sticks
SD Cards (Used for Nintendo switch or a digital camera)
SSDs (Solid State Disks)
NVME Drives (latest and fastest secondary storage)
Optical – Optical devices include:
CD (Compact Disks – CD Audio)
DVD (Digital Versatile Disk – Movies)
Blu-Ray (PS5 Games / Movies)
What is Cloud Storage
Cloud Storage is an online service that makes use of remote servers to store data. There are a number of different cloud storage providers:
Cloud storage has a range of pros and cons:
