Secondary Memory
(Storage Devices)
Renetha J.B.
SECONDARY MEMORY
(SECONDARY STORAGE DEVICES)
• The secondary memory stores data and
instructions permanently.
• It is a non-volatile memory.
• It provides back-up storage for data and
instructions.
• E.g.Magnetic tape drives, magnetic disk
drives, optical disk drives and magneto-optical
disk drives
Access Types Of Storage Devices
The information stored in storage devices can be accessed
in two ways—
1. Sequential access
– Sequential access means that computer must access data in
sequence, starting from the beginning, in order to locate a
particular piece of data.
– E.g. Magnetic tape
2. Direct access
– Direct access devices are the ones in which any piece of data can
be retrieved in a non-sequential manner by locating it using the
data’s address.
– It accesses the data directly, from a desired location.
– E.g. Magnetic disks and optical disks
Secondary Storage Devices
• Magnetic Tape
• Magnetic Disk
– Floppy disk
– Hard disk
– Zip disk
• Optical Disk
– read-only optical disks
• CD-ROM, DVD-ROM
– recordable optical disks.
• CD-R
• CD-RW
• DVD-R
• Magneto-optical disk
Magnetic Tape
• Sequential storage devices
• Tape needs to rewind or move forward to the location of the
data
• A storage medium on a large open reel or in a smaller cartridge
or cassette .
• They are Durable, Written, erased, and rewritten
• Not suitable for data files which are updated frequently
– Generally used to store backup data which are not used often
Magnetic Tape(contd..)
A 10.5-inch reel of 9-track tape
A portion of magnetic tape
Magnetic tape is divided horizontally into tracks (7 or 9) and vertically into frames
Magnetic Tape(contd..)
• Data is recorded in the form of blocks .
• Each block is read continually
• There is an Inter Record Gap( IRG) between two blocks
– This provides time for the tape to be stopped and started between
records
Magnetic Tape(contd..)
The features of magnetic tape are—
– Inexpensive storage device
– Can store a large amount of data
– Easy to carry or transport
– Not suitable for random access data
– Slow access device
– Needs dust prevention, as dust can harm the tape
– Suitable for back-up storage or archiving.
Magnetic Disk
• Magnetic disk is a direct access secondary
storage device.
• It is a thin plastic or metallic circular plate
coated with magnetic oxide and encased in a
protective cover.
• Data is stored on magnetic disks as
magnetized spots.
– The presence of a magnetic spot represents the bit
1 and its absence represents the bit 0.
Magnetic Disk
Magnetic Disk (Contd..)
• The surface of disk is divided into concentric
circles known as tracks.
• The outermost track is numbered 0 and the
innermost track is the last track.
• Tracks are further divided into sectors
• A set of same tracks on all disks forms a cylinder.
• The read/write head is positioned to the desired
track where the data is to be read from or written
to.
Magnetic Disk(Contd..)
• The time taken to move the read/write head to the desired
track is called the seek time.
• Once the read/write head is at the right track, then the head
waits for right sector to come under it .
– The time taken for desired sector of the track to come under
read/write head is called the latency time.
• Once the read/write head is positioned at the right track and
sector, the data has to be written to disk or read from disk.
– The rate at which data is written to disk or read from disk is
called data transfer rate.
• Access time of disk = Seek time + Latency time + Data
transfer time
Magnetic Disk(Contd..)
• The features of magnetic disk are—
– Cheap storage device
– Can store a large amount of data
– Easy to carry or transport
– Suitable for frequently read/write data
– Fast access device
– More reliable storage device
– To be prevented from dust, as the read/write head flies over
the disk.
• Any dust particle in between can corrupt the disk.
• Magnetic disk E,g. Floppy disk, hard disk ,zip disk
Floppy Disk
• Floppy disk (FD) is a flat, round, single disk made of
Mylar plastic and enclosed in square plastic jacket.
• Floppy Disk Drive (FDD) is the disk drive for floppy
disk.
• The floppy disk is inserted into the floppy disk drive to
read or write data to it.
• Floppy disk has a write-protect slide tab that prevents a
user from writing to it.
• A floppy disk may be single-sided or double-sided disk,
i.e., data can be read and written on one and both sides
of floppy disk, respectively.
Floppy Disk (Contd..)
Floppy Disk(Contd..)
• They are portable.
– They can be removed from the disk drive, carried or
stored separately.
• They are small and inexpensive.
• Floppy disks are slower to access than hard disk.
• They have less storage capacity.
• They come in two basic sizes—5-¼ inch and 3-½
inch.
– The 3-½ inch disk has capacity of 400 KB to 1.44 MB.
Hard Disk
• A hard disk (HD) consists of one or more platters
divided into concentric tracks and sectors.
• It is mounted on a central spindle, like a stack.
• It can be read by a read/write head.
• The data is stored on the platters covered with
magnetic coating
• Hard disk is a fixed disk.
• The disk is not removable from the drive.
• The hard disk and Hard Disk Drive (HDD) is a
single unit.
Hard Disk
Zip Disk
• They are high-capacity removable disk and
drive.
• They have the speed and capacity of hard disk
and portability of floppy disk.
• Zip disk are of the same size as floppy disk,
i.e., 3–½ inch but have a much higher capacity
than the floppy disk.
Optical Disk
• Optical disk is a flat and circular disk which is coated
with reflective plastic material that can be altered by
laser light.
• Optical disk does not use magnetism.
• The bits 1 and 0 are stored as spots that are relatively
bright and light, respectively.
• The tracks on optical disk are further divided into
sectors which are of same length.
• Thus, the sectors near the centre of disk wrap around
the disk longer than the sectors on the edges of disk.
Optical disk
• Optical disk
– read-only optical disks
• CD-ROM, DVD-ROM
– recordable optical disks.
• CD-R
• CD-RW
• DVD-R
CD-ROM
• CD-ROM is written on by the manufacturer of the CD-ROM
using the laser light.
• CD-ROM is an optical disk that can only be read and cannot
be written..
• A CD-ROM drive reads data from the compact disk.
• Data is stored as pits (depressions) and lands (flat area) on
CD-ROM disk.
• When the laser light is focused on the disk, the pits scatter the
light (interpreted as 0) and the lands reflect the light to a
sensor (interpreted as 1).
CD-ROM (Contd..)
• Since there is no head touching the disk, but a laser
light, CD-ROM does not get worn out easily.
• The storage density of CD-ROM is very high and
cost is low as compared to floppy disk and hard disk.
• Access time of CD-ROM is less.
– CD-ROM drives can read data at 150Kbps.
• They come in multiples of this speed like—2x, 4x,
52x, 75x, etc.
• It is a commonly used medium for distributing
software and large data.
CD-ROM
DVD-ROM
• Digital Video Disk-Read Only Memory (DVD-ROM) is an
optical storage device used to store digital video or computer
data
• It improves on CD technology.
• It is a high-density medium with increased track and bit
density.
• DVD-ROM uses both sides of the disk and special data
compression technologies.
• Each side of DVD-ROM can store 4.7 GB of data, so a single
DVD can store 9.4 GB of data.
• New DVD-ROMs use layers of data track, to double its
capacity.
– Such dual layer disks can store 17 GB of data.
Recordable Optical Disk
• Compact Disk-Recordable (CD-R) is a Write Once-
Read Many (WORM) disk.
– A CD-R disk allows the user to write data permanently on
to the disk.
• Compact Disk-ReWritable (CD-RW) allows data to be
written, erased and re-written .
– The capacity of CD-RW is same as a CD.
• Digital Video Disk-Recordable(DVD-R) allows
recording of data on a DVD.
– A DVD writer device is required to write the data to DVD.
– The data once written on a DVD cannot be erased or
changed.
MAGNETO-OPTICAL DISK
• Magneto-optical disks use laser beam to read
data and magnetic field to write data to disk.
• These are optical disks where data can be
written, erased and re-written.
• They are expensive and outdated.
• They were used during the mid 1990s.
• They have now been replaced by CD-RW and
DVD-R.
Secondary Storage Devices
• Magnetic tape
• Magnetic disk
– Floppy disk
– Hard disk
– Zip disk
• Optical disk
– read-only optical disks
• CD-ROM, DVD-ROM
– recordable optical disks.
• CD-R
• CD-RW
• DVD-R
• Magneto-optical disk
