Back Up Storage
Pen Drives/memory sticks
A memory stick is 'pen top' sized USB device and can be used in a similar way to a floppy disk but it is inserted into the USB port, it is then seen by the computer as a removable drive. They typically come in sizes from 512MB to 32GB upwards depending on the price.
Advantages:
A memory stick is 'pen top' sized USB device and can be used in a similar way to a floppy disk but it is inserted into the USB port, it is then seen by the computer as a removable drive. They typically come in sizes from 512MB to 32GB upwards depending on the price.
Advantages:
- Memory sticks can hold large quantities of data.
- They are extremely portable, so the user can take them wherever they go.
- Not possible to get a USB with as much storage space as a harddrive.
- Portable storage devices in general are more likely to be lost, stolen or damaged.
- Since it is still a fairly new technology, the cost per megabyte of storage is pricey.
Memory Card
A memory card is a stamp-sized USB device and can be used in a similar way to a floppy disk but it is inserted into either a memory card reader or a USB converter. They typically come in sizes from 1 GB to 32 GB upwards, depending on the price paid. The SD card has became the most popular in recent times.
Advantages:
A memory card is a stamp-sized USB device and can be used in a similar way to a floppy disk but it is inserted into either a memory card reader or a USB converter. They typically come in sizes from 1 GB to 32 GB upwards, depending on the price paid. The SD card has became the most popular in recent times.
Advantages:
- Memory cards can hold large quantities of data.
- They are very portable meaning the user can take them wherever they go.
- Digital accessories such as compact cameras and mobile phones are able to read and write to memory cards allowing the user to transport large collections of photographs, songs or information with them.
- Memory cards, specifically the micro SD card, are the smallest storage devices available meaning they are most likely to be lost or damaged.
- All computers do not come with memory card readers built in so the users will often be required to purchase a card reader or USB converter to view the data on a card.
External hard disk
An external hard disk can store very large amounts of data, upto 1TB, and can be plugged into your computer via a USB or FireWire port to provide the user with extra storage.
Advantages:
An external hard disk can store very large amounts of data, upto 1TB, and can be plugged into your computer via a USB or FireWire port to provide the user with extra storage.
Advantages:
- Can be very high capacity, so they can be used to backup data or move large amounts of data between machines.
- One of the best things about external hard drives is that they are portable. This makes it really easy to carry them around with you whereas with internal disks you cannot.
- They're often quite large and therefore inconvenient to carry around.
- They have moving parts so are more likely to break, especially if dropped.
- It is slower than internal hard disk drive because its transferring data through USB 2.0.
Optical Discs
An optical disc is an electronic data storage medium that can be written to and read using a low-powered laser beam.
Advantages:
An optical disc is an electronic data storage medium that can be written to and read using a low-powered laser beam.
Advantages:
- They are very portable meaning the user can take them wherever they go.
- Can buy them relatively cheap.
- In some cases if the disk is readable only, once the CD-ROMs has been produced/burnt it is not possible to update them.
- Optical storage does not provide enough data storage in comparison to other storage methods.
- If scratched all data may be lost as CD-ROM may not be readable.