Computer Science : S3 : L5 : Hardware

Drive

The device that reads and writes data from secondary storage.

Media

The physical material on which data is stored, such as USB memory sticks, CD, DVD, Blu-ray discs, or hard disk drives.

Secondary Storage

Non-volatile storage devices that are not directly addressable by the CPU and allow data to be stored for as long as required by the user.

Optical Storage

Storage method using optical drives and media, such as CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, and Blu-ray, which can be read-only or read/write.

Read-Only Media

Optical storage media that can only be read and not changed, commonly used for distributing music, films, and games.

Read/Write Media

Optical storage media that can be read and written to many times, commonly used for backup options.

Optical Drive

A device that shines a laser at the media and processes the reflection to read or write data.

Pits and Lands

Physical features on a read-only optical disc created by burning the surface with a laser, representing binary 0's and 1's.

Magnetic Storage

Storage method using hard disk drives that use magnetic fields to magnetize tiny sections of a spinning metal disk to represent data.

Read/Write Heads

Electromagnets in a hard disk drive that read data from or write data to the spinning disk.

Solid State Storage

Storage method using solid-state drives (SSD) that store data by forcing electrons into floating gates between oxide layers, representing binary 0's and 1's.

Floating Gates

Areas in a solid-state drive where electrons are forced to change the charge, representing data.

Limited Life Span

The limited number of read-write cycles and deterioration of oxide layers in solid-state drives, leading to eventual failure.