Chapter 3.4: Storage Devices

HDD (Hard Disk Drive)

A non-volatile magnetic storage device that uses rapidly rotating platters to store data.

SSD (Solid-State Drive)

A non-volatile storage device with no moving parts, using flash memory for faster performance.

NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express)

A communication interface designed specifically for SSDs to leverage the PCI Express bus, offering lower latency and higher throughput than SATA.

SAS (Serial Attached SCSI)

The latest generation of SCSI technology, providing increased storage throughput, commonly used in large storage arrays.

mSATA (Mini-SATA)

A small form factor SSD interface

M.2 Interface

A small form factor connector for SSDs, which can use either SATA or PCIe (with NVMe) bus connections.

Flash Drive

A small, portable storage device using EEPROM (flash memory)

Optical Drive

A device that reads data from or writes data to optical discs (CD, DVD, Blu-ray) using a laser beam.

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)

A technology that combines multiple physical hard drives into a single logical unit to improve performance or provide data redundancy.

RAID 0

A RAID level that stripes file blocks across multiple drives for high performance but offers no redundancy.

RAID 1

A RAID level that duplicates file blocks across two or more drives for high redundancy, requiring double the disk space.

RAID 5

A RAID level that stripes file blocks and a parity block across at least three drives, offering efficient space usage and high redundancy.

RAID 6

Similar to RAID 5, but with two parity blocks, allowing for the loss of two drives without data loss.

RAID 10 (RAID 1+0)

A nested RAID level that combines stripping and mirroring (a stripe of mirrors), offering both high speed and high redundancy.