Storage device

Alternatively referred to as storage, storage media, or storage medium, a storage device is a hardware device capable of holding information. There are two storage devices used in computers; a primary storage device such as computer RAM and asecondary storage device such as a computer hard drive. The secondary storage could be a removable, internal, or external storage. In the picture to the right, is an example of a Drobo, an external secondary storage device.

Without a storage device, you and your computer would not be able to save any settings or information and would be considered a dumb terminal. Below, are some additional examples of storage devices that are used with computers.

• Floppy diskette
• CD-ROM disc
• CD-R and CD-RW disc
• Cloud storage
• DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW disc
• Jump drive and USB flash drive
• Hard drive
• LS-120
• Tape cassette
• Zip diskette

When saving anything on the computer, you will be asked for the storage location, which is where you want to save the information. By default most of the information you save will be saved to your computer hard drive, however, if you want to move the information to another computer you would want to save it to a removable storage device such as a Jump drive.

Tip: Keep in mind that although these drives do send and receive information, they are not considered an input or output device.

• Determining available hard drive space.
• How much is 1 byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, etc.?

Also see: CD-ROM definitions, Floppy definitions, Hard drive definitions, Memory definitions, Tape definitions