Computing - storage

optical eg

CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, blu-ray

optical pros

cheap, portable, light

optical cons

slow access, small capacity, scratch prone

Magnetic eg

hard disk drive, tape

magnetic pros

quick access, large capacity, cheap

magnetic cons

fragile, noisy, moving parts, better if defragmented

solid state eg

SSD, memory sticks, flash memory cards

solid state pros

durable, portable, good capacity, quiet

solid state cons

cost, low power, limited read/write

suitability

capacity, speed, portability, durability, reliability, cost

secondary storage

optical, magnetic, solid state