Bistable Devices

Examples of secondary storage devices

-hard disk -magnetic tape

• cds -dvds

What are more names for secondary storage?

-backing storage -auxiliary storage devices

What is magnetic tape also known as?

Magnetic media

What are magnetic tapes used for?

-storing large amounts of data

• backing up the hard disk -archiving data -data entry using a key to tape device

Give the characteristics of magnetic tape?

-very cheap -made of plastic coated with a metal oxide

• tape is divided into tracks -high speed and large capacity

What are tracks and how many are there in magnetic tapes?

9 parallel rows found in tapes

How are magnetic tapes read?

using a magnetic tape drive

How is data accessed in a magnetic tape?

sequentially

What is a disadvantage of data being accessed sequentially in magnetic tape?

Its slow if u want the data in a random manner

What is a track?

-one of the concentric rings on a magnetic disk in which the data is store

• the spiral on a cd or dvd where the data is stored

What is a cylinder?

The parallel set of tracks in a hard drive that are accessible from one position of the read/write heads

What is a hard drive?

A collection of hard disk and read/write heads

How do hard drives work?

Data is read from or written to a hard disk using a read write head

What is a read/write head?

An arm like device