SECONDARY MEMORY

Also called as secondary memory or auxiliary memory or peripheral

storage is used to store data and program, when they are not being
processed. They are less expensive and slow in comparison as compared
to primary memory. Secondary storage is the storage space where one can
store software and data on a semi permanent basis. It is necessary
because primary storage can be used only temporarily.
Benefits of secondary storage:1. Non volatile: Secondary storage is non volatile i.e. it does not lose its
contents even when its power is cut off.
2. Capacity:- It can store large volumes of data in less space.
3. Reliability:- The data in secondary storage is safe as it is physically
reliable.
4. Convenience:- Authorized people can locate and acess data quickly.
5. Cost:- It is less expensive than traditional storage system.
6. Reusability:- The data remain in the secondary storage as long as it
is not overwritten or deleted by the user. User can change the data as
per requirement.
7. Portability:- They can be easily ported from one computer to another.
Classification:
They are two methods of accessing data from the secondary storage
devices:
1. Sequential:- In this type of access the computer system searches the
storage device from the beginning until the desired data are found.
This method is simple but slow. Eg. Magnetic Tape.
2. Direct:- Direct access also known as random access, means that the
computer can go directly to the location, where the data that the user
wants are stored. Eg. Magnetic Disk.

Magnetic Tape:
It is a plastic tape with a magnetic coating on it. The data are stored in
the form of tiny segments of magnetized (refers to bit value 1) and
demagnetized (refers to bit value 0) portions on the surface of the
material. They are available in different forms and sizes. Differences
between different magnetic tape units include the speed at which the
tape is moved past the read/write head and the tapes recording
density.(the amount of data that can be stored on a linear inch of
tape.)recording density of tape is measured in bits/byte per inch(bpi),
Frames per inch(fpi) or characters per inch(cpi).
Tapes are durable and can be erased as well as reused. They are least
expensive and a reliable storage medium. They are not suitable for data
files that need to be revised or updated often.
Magnetic Tape Organisation:It uses two reels: supply reel and take-up reel. When the magnetic
oxide- coated side of the tape passes under the read/write head, the
data can be either read from or written onto the tape. Once the tape is
loaded it is said to be online that is, it is ready to be used for data access
and when the processing is over, tape is removed from the tape drive, it
is known as offline storage.
Magnetic tape is divided into vertical columns(frames) and
horizontal rows(channel or tracks). The data are stored in a string of
successive frames with one character per frame and each frame spans
multiple tracks. A single bit is stored in each track i.e. one byte per
frame. The remaining track is the parity track. A magnetic tape
physically marks BOT(or beginning of tape) and EOT(or end of tape) for
performing read/write operation. The length of the tape between BOT
and EOT is referred to as the usable recording surface. In magnetic tape
each block(group of data) can hold one or more records and the process
is known as blocking and number of records in each block is known as
blocking factor.

IBG (Inter Block Gap) stands for blank space between the blocks.
IRG(Inter Record Gap) stands for blank space between records within
each block.
Advantages:1. They hold high data recording density resulting in low cost per bit
of storage.
2. They have unlimited storage capacity.
3. They are portable.
4. Large amount of data can be stored in a small storage space.
Disadvantages:1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

They are not suitable in situations needing random data access.

They should be kept in dust free environment.
High capacity magnetic tape catridges are susceptible to damage.
They are not flexible and wear out.
Data on the tapes are difficult to recover

Magnetic disk
Magnetic disk are the popular medium for direct access method.
They offer high storage and reliability. A magnetic disk comprises a thin
piece of plastic/metal circular plate/platter coated with a magnetic oxide
layer.
Storage organization:
The surface of a disk is divided into tracks and sectors. The tracks are
concentric circles where the data are stored and are numbered from the
outermost to the innermost ring starting from zero. The sectors refer to
the number of fixed size area accessed in one rotation of the disk. An
intersection of a track and a disk sector is known as track sector. Disks
marked on the both surfaces are known as double-sided disks. The disk
address comprises sector number, track number and surface number.
The track sectors are grouped into a collection known as cluster(basic
allocation unit).

To create a large disk storage, two or more platters are stacked on

the top of each other with a common spindle rotating them. There is a
read/write head for each side of each platter and all the heads are
attached to a single assembly called a disk arm assembly. Tracks of
equal diameter on different platters form a cylinder.

Storage capacity:
Storage capacity of a
Magnetic disk

no. of recording surfaces* no. of tracks per

surface * no. of sectors per track * no. of
bytes per setor.

Accessing Data from a magnetic disk:

It comprises of three steps:
Seek: As soon as disk unit receives the read/write, command
read/write, heads are positioned on the specific track on the disk
platter. The time taken in doing so is known as seek time. It is the
average time required to move the heads to the desired track on the
disk.
Rotate: Disk rotates constantly, so head has to wait for required
sector or cluster to come under it. This waiting time is known as
rotational delay time or latency of the disk.
Data transfer: Once the read/write head is positioned over the
desired sector, data can be transferred to or from the disk to the
primary memory. The rate at which the data are read from or written
to the disk is known as disk transfer rate. The combined time(seek
time, latency and data transfer time) is known as access time of the
magnetic disk. Memory access time refer to the time it takes to
transfer a character from memory to or from the processor. Disk
access time refers to the time taken to place the read/write heads
over the required data.
Types of magnetic disk:1.

Floppy Disk:- A floppy disk or diskette is a round, flat piece of mylar

plastic coated with ferric oxide and encased in a protective plastic
cover(disk jacket). It is a removable disk and is read and written by a
floppy disk drive(FDD), which is a device that performs the basic
operation on a disk, including rotation of the disk and reading and
writing of the data onto it. Floppy disk were used on personal
computers to distribute software, transfer data between computers
and create small backups. Initially, 51/4- inch floppy disks were used.

Later a new format of 31/2- inch floppy disk came into existence.

Floppy diskettes are small, inexpensive, readily available, easy to

store and have a good shelf life, if stored properly. They also posses
the write-protect feature, which allows the users to protect a diskette
from being written to. To write- protect a diskette, the user has to shift
a slide lever towards the edge of the disk, uncovering a hole.
Read /write operation of a floppy disk:
When user inserts a disk into the floppy disk drive, the drive grabs the
disk and spins it inside its plastic jacket. The drive has multiple levers
one level opens the metal plate, or shutter, to expose the data access
area. Other levers and gears move two read/write heads until they
almost touch the diskette on both sides. The drives circuit board
receives instructions for reading/writing the data from/to disk through
the floppy drive controller. If the photo sensor on the opposite side of
the floppy disk detects a beam of light, the floppy drive detects a
beam to be write-protected and does not allow recording of the data.
The circuit board translates the instruction into signals that control the
movement of the disk and the read/write heads.When the heads are
in the correct position, electrical impulses create a magnetic field in
one of the heads to write data either to the top or bottom surface of
the disk.

2. Hard disk:- the hard disk, also called the hard drive or fixed disk,
consists of a stack of disk platters that are made up of aluminium
alloy or glass substance coated with a magnetic material and
protective layers. Hard disk can be external(removable) or
internal(fixed) and can hold a large amount of data. The capacity is
measured in bytes. A typical computer today comes with 80-320 GB
of hard disk. The hard disk speed is measured in terms of access
time. The hard disk with lower access time is faster than a hard disk

with higher access

time. The hard
disk plays a significant role in the following important aspects of a
computer system:
Performance: the speed at which the computer boots up and the
programs load is directly related to the hard disk speed. The
performance of the hard disk is also critical when multitasking is
exercised.
Software Capacity: a bigger hard disk lets one store more
software and data into it.
Software Support: nowadays, almost all software require large
storage space and faster hard disk to load them efficiently.
Reliability: the hard disk is considered the successful storage
component by a long way. A good quality hard disk, combined with
smart maintenance and backup habits can help ensure no data
loss.
Read/write operation of a hard disk:
A hard disk uses round, flat disks(platters) made up of glass or
metals, which are coated on both sides with a special material

designed to store information in the form of magnetic patterns. The

platters are mounted by cutting a hole in the centre and stacking
them onto a spindle, each platter has its information recorded in
tracks, which are further broken down into smaller sectors. The
platters rotate at high speed, driven by a special motor connected to
the spindle. Special electromagnetic read/write heads are mounted
onto the sliders which are mounted onto the arms, all of which are
mechanically connected to a single assembly and positioned over the
surface of the disk by a device called actuator. Each platter has two
heads.A disk controller is attached to the hard disk drive that handles
the read/write commands issued by the operating system. Each
read/write command specifies a disk address that comprises the
surface number, track number and sector number. With this
information, the read/write head moves to the desired sector and data
can be read from or written to. The heads in most hard disks float
slightly off the surface. When the heads accidentally touch the media,
the surface becomes scratched. Any data stored, where the head has
touched the disk are lost. This is called a head crash.
3.

Zip disk:- zip disk is a removable storage device that started with
100MB storage capacity, but today it can store up to 250 750 MB of
data. It has rubber feet to stabilize the unit in either vertical or
horizontal position. The substrate for the disk is made up of plastic
material on which magnetic oxide particles are coated. There are two
indicator lights: green for power and amber for disk access, it has an
eject button, but no ON/OFF switch. It comes complete with drive,
connection cable, power supply, operating software and a starter 100
MB disk with a set of zip tools software. Either the zip drive can be
built into computer or it can be connected to the computer via the
parallel port.
Read/write operation of a zip disk:
the magnetic coated Mylar zip disk,
which is called as cookie, is
encased in a hard plastic material

having a metal plate cover that slides open to provide read/write

access to the cookie. The two heads on either side of the cookie
touch the surface of the disk to the disk to perform read/write
operations.
Advantages of Magnetic Disk:
They follow direct access mode for reading and writing the data files.
They are used both as an online and offline storage of data.
They are easily movable from one place to another because of their
small size and lightweight.
The data transfer rate of the disk is much higher than the magnetic
tapes.
Due to low cost and high data-recording densities, the cost per bit in
magnetic disks is minimum.
The storage capacity of the magnetic disks is virtually unlimited.
They are less prone to the corruption of data.
Disadvantages of Magnetic Disk:
They must be stored in a dust-free environment to protect them from
crashing down.
They are not ideal devices to use in scenarios, where the file access
required is of sequential nature
They are more expensive than the magnetic tapes.
They are more susceptible to breach of security.
Optical Disk:
An optical disk is a flat, circular, plastic disk coated with material on which
bits may be stored in the form of highly reflective areas and significantly
less reflective areas, from which the stored data may be read when
illuminated with a narrow beam source, such as a laser diode. These disks
are capable of storing enormously high amount of data in a limited amount
of space.

Storage Organization of an Optical disk: an optical disk consists of single

long track in the form of spiral shape. This track starts from the outer edge
and spirals inward to the centre of the disk. This spiral shape of the track
makes the optical disk suitable for storing large blocks of sequential data
onto it, such as music. Even through random access is possible, it is
usually slower than the magnetic disk. These tracks are further divided into
small sectors of the same length. Such type of disk formatting allows the
data to be stored in even more dense form compared to magnetic disks.
Storage Capacity of an Optical Disk: in a single track optical disk, the
storage capacity is calculated by
Storage capacity of optical disk=number of sectors*number of bytes per
Sector

Since read/write operations are performed through laser beams, no access

arm movement is required that is used in the case of the magnetic disk.
Types of optical disks:
1. Compact Disk:Compact disk is the most popular and least
expensive type of optical disk. A CD is capable of being as a data
storage device along with storing of digital audio.
A CD is a shiny, silver colour metal disk of 12-cm diameter. A typical
optical disk is made up of three layer: a polycarbonate plastic through
which light can pass, a layer of aluminium and a protective layer of
acrylic on top of that. Each high area of the CD is called pit and that
flat section is called land. Compact disk are available in various
formats: CD-ROM(compact disk-read only memory), CD-R(compact
disk-recordable) and CD-RW(compact disk-rewritable) disks. A CDROM disk comes with prerecorded data by the manufactures and can
be read but cannot be altered. CD-R is a type of WORM(write once
read many) disk that allows you to record your own data. Once
written, the data on the CD-R can be read but cannot be altered. CDRW disk is rewritable version of CD-R, which means, it allows writing,
erasing and rewriting of the data several times. The spin rate is the

rotation speed of the disk and it influences the information retrieval

speed.
Reading data from a CD-ROM:A compact disk drive reads
information from the CDs spiral track of pits and lands, starting from
the centre of the disk and moving to the outer edge. A light is beamed
from a semiconductor laser through the bottom of the polycarbonate
layer.
Writing data to a CD:The surface of CD-ROM contains one long
spiral track of data. Along the track, there are flat reflective
areas(represent binary 1) and non-reflective bumps(represent binary
0). On the new CD-R disk, the entire surface of the disk is reflective,
the laser can shine through the dye and reflect off the gold layer.
Hence, for a CD-R disk to work, there must be a way for a laser to
create a non- reflective area on the disk.
CD-RW disk is erasable and rewritable because it uses phasechanging materials on its recording layer, usually alloys of silver,
tellurium, indium and antimony metals. Phase changing material
changes its state when heated to a high temperature and can be
converted back to its original state when heated at a temperature
slightly below its melting point. To erase data on a CD-RW disk, a
process called annealing is used. During this process, area on the
layer that has been changed to the amorphous phase (during writing)
is converted back to its original crystalline state by heating it to a
temperature.
2. Digital Versatile Disk:- DVD initially called digital video disk, is a
high-capacity data storage medium. In DVD , the tracks are placed
close together, thereby allowing more tracks per disk. Smaller pits
mean that has to produce a smaller spot, and DVD achieves this by
reducing the layers wavelength from the 780-nm (nanometers)
infrared light of a standard CD to 635 or 650nm. Besides the DVD
specification allows information to be scanned from more than one
layer of a DVD simply by changing the focus of the read laser.
Disks second data layer can be read from the inside of
the disk out, as well as from the outside in. A DVD allows for doublesided disks. To facilities the focusing of the layer on the smaller pits,

manufacturers used a thinner plastic substance, thereby reducing the

depth of the plastic layer that the laser has to travel through to reach
the pits.
3. Blu-Ray disk:- Blu-ray disk is an optical storage device, which is
used to record and playback high definition video and visual and
audio as well as store images and other data. It is developed by Bluray Disk Association (BDA). It uses blue violet laser having shorter
wavelength (405 nm) than a red laser (650 nm) used by DVDs. Due
to this shorter wave length, the laser can be focused more precisely
on the small spot, thereby resulting in storage capacity ten times
higher than DVD.
Blu ray disks formats: BD-ROM- It comes with prerecorded content that can only be
read.
BD-R- It is a WORM type of disk on which you can record data
only once.
BD-RW- It is similar to BD-R disk, but the difference is that it is
rewritable. This means that the data can be erased and
recorded a number of times on the same disk.
BD-RE- It is also a rewritable disk, but is used only for high
definition audio/video and television recording.
Blu-ray disk are available in two sizes: standard(12 cm ) and
mini(8 cm). Blu-ray disk allows not only the recording of programs,
but also their manipulation.
Advantages of Optical Disk:
They posses large capacity to store data/information in the
form of multimedia, graphics and video files.
The life span for data storage in optical disk is considered to
be more, about 10-20 years
They hold more data recording density.
They are not affected by the magnetic field.
An optical disk is tougher than tapes/floppy disks.
These disks are easily portable and stored.

Disadvantages of optical disk:

They are comparatively costlier than other storage devices.
One needs to use both software and hardware for writing
optical disks.
They posses slow data access speed.
The drive mechanism of optical disk is more complicated
than the magnetic and floppy disk.
Magneto - optical disk
A magneto-optical disk writes magnetically (with thermal assist) and reads
optically using the laser beam. A magneto optical disk drive is so designed
that an inserted disk will be exposed to a magnet on the label side and to
light (laser beam) on the opposite side. The magnetic coating used in
magneto optical media is designed to be extremely stable at room
temperature, making the data unchangeable unless the disk is heated to
above a temperature level called the Curie point (usually around 200 c).
Instead of heating the whole disk, magneto optical drives use a laser to
target and heat specific regions of the magnetic particles. This accurate
technique enables magneto optical media to pack a lot more information
than other magnetic devices. Once heated, the magnetic particles can
easily have their direction changed by a magnetic field generated by the
read/write head. Information is read using a less powerful laser, making
use of the Kerr effect, where the polarity of the reflected light is alerted
depending on the orientation of the magnetic particles.
Memory Stick:
Memory stick also known as memory card is a digital storage device,
which is designed to be used with portable electronic devices such as
mobile phone, digital camera, PDA, iPod and so on. It was launched in
1998 by Sony. Nowadays memory stick with storage capacity up to 32 GB
is available. Different standards of memory stick are

 Memory Stick PRO- It provides theoretical storage capacity of up to

32GB.
Memory Stick Duo- It is small size Memory Stick.
Memory Stick PRO Duo- Provides larger memory space (up to 32
GB) and high speed of data transfer to/from the card.
Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo- Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo has 8
bit parallel interface.
Memory Stick Micro (M2)- It is a light and compact storage
medium.
Universal Serial Bus:
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a set of connectivity specification that
establishes communication between personal computers and devices such
as mouse, keyboard, pen drive and external hard disk drives. All USB
devices come with a USB connector that is plugged into a USB port on the
computer. It determines (and provides) the electrical power required by the
device connected to it.
Pen Drive:
A pen/flash drive is a removable storage devices that is frequently used
nowadays to transfer audio, video and data files from one computer to
another. It consists of a small printed circuit board, which is fitted inside a
plastic, metal or rubber casing to protect it. The USB connector, which is
present at one end of the pen drive is protected by either a removable cap
or pulling it back in the casing. The pen drive is a high storage (ranging
from 1 to 32 GB) capacity devices and is physically small enough to fit into
pocket. It is fast, robust and reliable, and requires very less power to
operate, which it gets through USB port and hence no battery is required.
Following are the steps to use pen drive
1. Insert the pen drive in the USB port of a computer. The computer
detects the drive, configures the necessary software and displays a
drive corresponding to the pen drive in My Computer.
2. Perform any of the steps given below:

 Double click the drive icon in My Computer to access the files

stored in the pen drive.
Right click the file or folder you want to send to pen drive, which
displays a menu. Select Send to and select the drive
corresponding to the pen drive from the submenu that appears.
3. After performing all your actions, left click the Safely Remove
Hardware icon in the system tray to display a menu containing
Safely Remove USB Mass Storage Device option.
4. Select this option to display a notification icon indicating that it is now
safe to remove the hardware and plug-out the pen drive.
External Hard Disk Drive:- external hard disk drive is a type of hard drive
that resides in its own enclosure (called hard drive cage) outside the
computer case and is connected to the system through interfaces like USB.
The storage capacity of external hard disk ranges from 20GB to several
TBs and it is compatible with operating systems that support interface
standards such as USB MSC (mass storage class) and IEEE1394.
The interface structure and functioning of external hard disk drive is similar
to the internal hard disk drive. Hence, external hard disk drive is a reliable
and high capacity storage media. It is portable and provides plug and play
feature. These features of external hard disk makes it suitable to be used
for taking backups.
Mass Storage Devices:- Mass storage devices are categorized into three
types:
Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks(RAID): The basic idea of
RAID is to combine multiple hard disk into an array of disk drives to
obtain high performance, large capacity and reliability. These arrays
of drives appear to the host computer as a single logical drive.
Automated Tape Library: An automated tape library comprises
numerous sets of magnetic tapes along with their drives and
controllers mounted in a single unit. The unit comprises one or more
tape drives to perform read/write operations on the tapes in the
library.

 CD-ROM Jukebox: A CD-ROM jukebox comprises numerous sets

of CD-ROM disks along with their drives and controllers mounted in a
single unit. The unit comprises one or more CD-ROM drives to
perform read/write operations on the CD-ROM in the jukebox.
Mass storage devices have relatively slow access time. They have huge
amount of storage capacity and posses minimum cost per bit storage.