Alternatively called digital storage, storage, storage media, or storage medium, a storage device is any hardware capable of holding information either temporarily or permanently. The picture shows an example of a Drobo, an external secondary mass storage device.

There are two types of storage devices used with computers: a primary storage device, such as RAM, and a secondary storage device, such as a hard drive. Secondary storage can be removable, internal, or external.

Examples of computer storage

Today, there are three types of media used to store computer data: magnetic storage, optical storage, and solid-state storage. Below is a full list of all computer storage used over the evolution of the computer.

  • Examples of computer storage
  • Why is storage needed in a computer?
  • Why so many different storage devices?
  • What is a storage location?
  • Which storage devices are used today?
  • What storage device has the largest capacity?
  • Are storage devices input and output devices?
  • How do you access storage devices?
  • What is the latest storage device?
  • Related information.
  • Hard drive help and support.

Magnetic storage devices

Today, magnetic storage is one of the most common types of storage used with computers. This technology is found mostly on extremely large HDDs or hybrid hard drives.

  • Floppy diskette
  • Hard drive
  • Magnetic strip
  • SuperDisk
  • Tape cassette
  • Zip diskette

Optical storage devices

Another common type of storage is optical storage, which uses lasers and lights as its method of reading and writing data.

  • Blu-ray disc
  • CD-ROM disc
  • CD-R and CD-RW disc.
  • DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW disc.

Solid-state storage devices

Solid-state storage (flash memory) has replaced most magnetic and optical media as it becomes cheaper because it’s the more efficient and reliable solution.

  • USB flash drive, jump drive, or thumb drive.
  • CF (CompactFlash)
  • Hard card
  • M.2
  • Memory card
  • MMC
  • NVMe
  • SDHC Card
  • SmartMedia Card
  • Sony Memory Stick
  • SD card
  • SSD
  • xD-Picture Card

Online and cloud

Storing data online and in cloud storage is becoming popular as people need to access their data from more than one device.

  • Cloud storage
  • Network media

Paper storage

Early computers had no method of using any of the technologies above for storing information and had to rely on paper. Today, these forms of storage are rarely used or found. In the picture is an example of a woman entering data to a punch card using a punch card machine.

  • OMR
  • Punch card

Why is storage needed in a computer?

Without a storage device, a computer cannot save or remember any settings or information and would be considered a dumb terminal.

A hard copy is considered a form of paper storage, although it cannot be easily used to input data back into a computer without the aid of OCR.

Although a computer can run with no storage device, it would only be able to view information, unless it was connected to another computer that had storage capabilities. Even a task, such as browsing the Internet, requires information to be stored on your computer.

Why so many different storage devices?

As computers advance, the technologies used to store data do too, with higher requirements for storage space. Because people need more and more space, want it faster, cheaper, and want to take it with them, new technologies have to be invented. When new storage devices are designed, as people upgrade to those new devices, the older devices are no longer needed and stop being used.

For example, when punch cards were first used in early computers, the magnetic media used for floppy disks was not available. After floppy diskettes were released, they were replaced by CD-ROM drives, which were replaced by DVD drives, which were replaced by flash drives. The first hard disk drive from IBM cost $50,000, was only 5 MB, big, and cumbersome. Today, we have smartphones that have hundreds of times the capacity at a smaller price that we can carry in our pocket.

Each advancement of storage devices gives a computer the ability to store more data, and save and access data faster.

What is a storage location?

When saving anything on a computer, it may ask for a storage location, which is the location information is saved. By default, most information is saved to your computer hard drive. If you want to move the information to another computer, save it to a removable storage device, such as a USB flash drive.

Which storage devices are used today?

Most of the storage devices mentioned above are no longer used with today’s computers. Most computers today primarily use an SSD to store information, and the ability to use USB flash drives and access to cloud storage. Most desktop computers and some laptops include a disc drive that read and write CDs and DVDs.

What storage device has the largest capacity?

For most computers, the storage device capable of holding the most amount of data is the hard drive or SSD. However, networked computers may also access storage with large tape drives, cloud computing, or NAS devices. Below is a list of storage devices from the smallest capacity to the largest capacity.

  • Punch card
  • Punch tape
  • Cassette
  • Floppy diskette
  • Zip disk
  • CD
  • DVD
  • Blu-ray disc
  • Flash jump drive
  • Hard drive / SSD
  • Tape drive
  • NAS / Cloud Storage

Are storage devices input and output devices?

Storge devices do not directly get input from the user and do not display output to the user. So, when thinking about an input device or output device in this way, a storage device is not an I/O device.

Many storage devices have been available in many different capacities. For example, over the evolution of the hard drive, their storage capacity has increased from 5 MB to several terabytes in size. Therefore, the list below is only meant to provide a general idea of the size difference between each storage device, from smallest to largest storage capacity. There are exceptions to the list.

However, when going deeper into the computer architecture, an I/O device is any device that gets input and output from the computer CPU and memory. So, because many storage devices like a hard drive are directly communicating with the CPU and memory, they are considered an I/O devices.

How do you access storage devices?

Accessing a storage device on your computer depends on the operating system your computer uses and how it’s being used. For example, with Microsoft Windows, you can use a file manager to access the files on any storage device. Microsoft Windows uses Explorer as its default file manager. With Apple computers, Finder is considered the default file manager.

We’ve found it’s less confusing for users to refer to any device capable of storing and reading information as a “storage device,” disk, disc, drive, or media and not an I/O device.

  • How to see all drives available on the computer.

What is the latest storage device?

One of the most recent storage device technologies to be introduced is NVMe, with SSDs and cloud storage also being recently developed storage devices. Also, older technologies, like hard disk drives and tape drives, are always developing new techniques to allow for the devices to store more data.

CD terms, Cloud, Floppy drive terms, Hard drive terms, Hardware terms, I/O Device, IPOS, Memory terms, Non-volatile, Optane memory, Permanent storage, Remote storage, SAN, Tape terms

  • How to find how much hard drive space is available.
  • How much is 1 byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, etc.?
  • Hard drive help and support.