Primary and Secondary Storage Devices

Storage Devices and their types

The devices which are used to storage data / information in a Computer System are
called storage devices. There are two types of storage devices:

A) Primary Storage Devices; also known as Internal / Main Storage Devices

Primary Storage Devices Secondary Storage Devices

Primary Storage Devices are closely Secondary Storage Devices is relatively

connected to the CPU. further away from the CPU

Primary Storage Devices are fast Secondary Storage Devices are relatively
slow.

Most of the Primary Storage Devices are Secondary Storage Devices are non-
volatile volatile

Primary Storage Devices are based on Secondary Storage Devices are usually
electronic technology based on magnetic, optical or mechanical
technologies

a) Random-Access Memory (RAM):

RAM is a form of primary storage, it is volatile. RAM takes the form of
integrated circuits (ICs) and it is used to temporarily store data and
allows quick access to this stored data. This data can be accessed in any
order.

Static Random Access Memory Dynamic Random Access Memory

(SRAM) (DRAM)

It uses a number of transistors to store It uses storage cell made of transistor and
single bit. capacitor.

It stores data till power of the computer is It is refreshed data every instance of time
switched on. and retains the data for a very short span
of time.

It is slower than DRAM. It is faster than SRAM

It used as cache memory. It uses as system RAM.

It is costly as compared to DRAM. It is cheaper as compared to SRAM.

Punjab College of Commerce (PCC), Rawalpindi Compiled By: Muhammad Azeem

 Primary and Secondary Storage Devices

b) Read-Only Memory (ROM):

ROM is a class of non-volatile storage device that is programmed at
the time of creation; it cannot be reprogrammed at any later time.
Data stored in ROM cannot be modified; therefore, it is mainly used to
store BIOS (Basic Input & Output System) routine.

a. Programmable Read-Only Memory (PROM)

PROM is a form of ROM that is one-time programmable. This means that this device can only be
programmed once and can never be reprogrammed. The key difference from ROM is that the
programming is applied after the device is created.
b. Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM)
EPROM Differs from PROM in that it can be erased by exposing it to strong ultraviolet light rays.
c. Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM)
EEPROM Differs from EPROM in that it can be erased electronically. An example of an EEPROM device
is the Flash Drive.

B) Secondary Storage Devices; also known as External Storage Devices

Magnetic Tape
Magnetic Tape is a recording medium consisting of a thin tape with a coating
of a fine magnetic material, used for recording analogue or digital data. A
device that stores computer data on magnetic tape is a tape drive. The
capacity of tape media are generally on the same order as hard disk drives
(The largest being about 5 Terabytes in 2011). Magnetic Tapes Generally
transfer data a bit slower than hard drives, however magnetic tapes are
cheaper and are more durable.

Floppy Disk
Floppy Disks were an were a ubiquitous form of data storage between 1980's
and early 2000's, However they have now been superseded by data storage
methods with much greater capacity, such as USB flash drives. Floppy disks
come in 3 sizes: 8-inches, 5.5-inches and 3.5-inches. The capacities of Floppy
disks vary between 1-250 Megabytes and these devices were very slow,
reading data at rates of bytes and kbytes/second. However, most are very
small and portable.

Punjab College of Commerce (PCC), Rawalpindi Compiled By: Muhammad Azeem

 Primary and Secondary Storage Devices

Hard Disk
The hard disk drive is the main and usually largest data storage device in
a computer. It is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data
storage device. A hard drive is made up of platters which stored the data,
and read/write heads to transfer data. A Hard Drive is generally the
fastest of the secondary storage devices, and has the largest data storage
capacity, approximately the same as Magnetic Tapes. Hard drives
however, are not very portable and are primarily used internally in a
computer system. Some persons use hard drives externally as a form of
storage and as a substitute for portable storage, hard drives used for
these purposes are called external hard drives.

A Hard Disk is divided into tracks and sectors; Data on this hard disk is
positioned into these tracks and sectors so they can be easily read by the
heads and also to help reduce fragmentation on the hard disk.

Optical Disks
Optical disk is an electronic data storage medium from which data is read and written to by using a
low-powered laser beam. It is flat, circular, plastic or glass disk on which data is stored in the form of
light and dark pits. Two main types of optical disks are:
CD - is an abbreviation of compact disk, and is a form of data storage that
can transfer data up to the speed of 7800 KB/s. A standard 120 mm CD
holds up to 700 MB of data, or about 70 minutes of audio. There are two
types of CD: CD-ROM and CD-RW, CD-ROM are stands for CD-Read Only
Memory and they function the same way Read Only Memory Does. CD-RW
Stards for CD-Rewritable, these disks can be erased and rewritten at any
time.
DVD: is an abbreviation of Digital Versatile Disc, and is an optical disc storage media format that can
be used for data storage. The DVD supports disks with capacities of 4.7 GB to 17 GB and access
rates of 600 KBps to 1.3 MBps. A standard DVD disc store up to 4.7 GB of data. There are two types
of DVD's: DVD-ROM and DVD-RW. DVD-ROM stands for DVD-Read Only Memory and they function
the same way Read Only Memory does. DVD-RW Stands for DVD-Rewritable, these disks can be
erased and rewritten at any time.

Flash Drive
A flash drive is a small external storage device, typically the size of a
human thumb that consists of flash memory. USB flash drives are
removable and rewritable reads and writes to flash memory. They are a
solid-state storage medium that's both inexpensive and durable. Currently,
USB 2.0 flash drives on the market are able to reach a data transfer speed
of 480 Mbit/s and USB 3.0 has transmission speeds of up to 5 Gbit/s. USB
Flash drives vary in sizes from 8 Megabytes to 512 Gigabytes. More
commonly used sizes vary from 2 Gigabytes -16 Gigabytes.

Punjab College of Commerce (PCC), Rawalpindi Compiled By: Muhammad Azeem