Secondary Storage Devices

Magnetic media
Tape
Disks
Optical Media
Compact Discs
CD-R, WORM (Write Once, Read Many)
CD-RW
DVD
DVD-R
DVD-RW

Magnetic Tape
What is magnetic tape?
Thin layer of material capable of storing a
magnetic signal
Usually contains Iron Oxide
Protected by
backing layer called
the Substrate

Examples of Magnetic Media

Some you are probably familiar with:
Cassette tapes
VHS video tape
Computer Tape
8-track
DAT

Pros and Cons of Magnetic Tape

Inexpensive to store large amounts of information.
A reel of tape could store as much as 225 MB in
the early 1980s.
No other storage technology could compare to
the price of tape
Sequential access Slow access
Tapes are highly susceptible to magnetic fields and
changes in temperature and humidity
Tapes are also susceptible to physical damage
Tape miss-feeds
Magnetic particle instabilities
Substrate deformation

Magnetic Tape Uses Today

Today, tape based systems are usually used for
backup purposes only.
Tape still provides the most cost effective method of
storing larger amounts of backup information
Reliable as long as temperature is kept low and
humidity conditions are kept right.
Although hard disks are increasingly used as a
backup mechanism, tapes are portable.
Backups can be taken off-site for greater risk
prevention

Hard Disks
Today, most people use Hard Disks for secondary
storage
The basic technology used in hard disks is similar
to that of magnetic tape
Magnetic material is layered onto a highprecision aluminum disk
The disk head can move to any point on the
platter almost instantly compared to tape
With tape, the head touches the tape. With
disks, the head never touches the platter
Tape moves at approx 5 cm/s. Disk platters
move at up to 7500 cm/s (272 km/h!)

Hard Disks
To increase capacity, a hard disk will usually contain
several platters

Hard Disks
The heads never touch the platters, but they are
very close. This makes hard disks susceptible to
mechanical shock.

Storing Information on a Hard Disk

Each platter is broken up into tracks and sectors
Tracks are concentric circles on the disk
Each track is broken up into a series of sectors

Track (yellow ring)

Sector (yellow ring

between the lines)

Sectors and Blocks

Sectors are further broken up into blocks
A block is a fixed size unit of storage
512 bytes/block is most commonly used
1024 bytes/block is common with SCSI disks
2048 bytes/block is used with CDs
If the user stores onto the hard disk a file which is
larger than the block size, then multiple blocks are
used.

Blocks and Files

If a file takes up multiple blocks, it is necessary to
keep track of which blocks comprise that file
Each block is assigned an address
The location of a file is stored in what is called a
File Allocation Table (or FAT)
When the hard disk is formatted, several blocks
are reserved so that the Operating System can
manage where files are stored on the disk
FATs are often used to keep track of the filename
and directory as well.

Filesystems
Files are managed within a filesystem
The filesystem defines how and where files are
stored within a hard disk (or partition)
Common filesystems include:
FAT16 (MSDOS)
VFAT (Windows 95)
FAT32 (Windows 98)
NTFS (Windows NT)
UFS (UNIX)
ext2/ext3 (Linux)
ISO9660 (CD Roms)

Filesystems
When a disk is formatted, a filesystem is placed on
the disk
The filesystem reserves space for the FAT.
The remaining space is available for files
When a file is to be saved into the filesystem, the
system looks for the best location to save the file
It is usually best to save the file in contiguous
blocks.
If the disk is nearly full, it may not have enough
contiguous blocks to save the file. In that case,
the filesystem will place the file wherever it can
find space.

Deleting Files
In order to make the delete operation faster, when a
file is deleted ONLY the FAT is updated.
The actual data still remains on the disk
This is why it MAY be possible to recover a file
which has been removed.
The FAT is told that the blocks where the file was
stored are now available for writing
The data will remain until another file is stored in
the same blocks.
As more files are written on the disk, it is less likely
that a delete file can be recovered.

Hard Disk Fragmentation

When files are deleted, their blocks are open for
writing.
What if the next file which is written in the same
blocks is larger than the file which was originally
written there?
The system has to break the file up into pieces
throughout the filesystem
This is called fragmentation. It considerably slows
the access of files.
Most modern Filesystems contain automatic
defragmentation utilities.

Hey! Wait a minute!

When you purchase a hard disk, the manufacturer
indicates its capacity.
When you format that hard disk, youll notice that its
capacity is less than what the manufacturer told you.
Formatting the disk requires space for the FAT
Manufacturers use decimal numbers to
represent number of bytes
1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes
There is a class action suit currently filed
against the major disk manufacturers because
of this

Floppy Disks
Floppy disks are similar to hard disks
Because the medium is floppy, the disks cannot
operate at the same speeds as a hard disk.
Floppy disks are older technology which havent
received a lot of attention since the late 1980s.
Their capacity hasnt increased much
Many computers today do not even come with
floppy disk drives anymore.

Floppy Disk History

The first floppy disks were 8 Inches in diameter
The held about 256 K
The next generation were 5.25 inches in diameter
Could hold up to 1.44 MB
The next generation were 3.5 inches in diameter
These disks are held within a hard plastic case
A spring loaded flap protects the disk from dust
and greasy fingers.
Could hold up to 2.88 MB

Zip / Jaz Disks

Similar to floppy disks
They are removable
Their platters are made of a hard material
Can operate at higher speeds than floppies.
Newer standards hold more data
Most people have outgrown floppy disks

Optical Media
Optical disks are very much like hard disks
Hard disks store information using magnetic
material
Bits are stored by changing the magnetic
properties of the magnetic material
Bits are read by picking up the tiny magnetic
field with a read head
Optical disks store information as pits in a physical
medium
A laser is used to determine if a pit is present or
not.

CD ROM
CD Roms use the same technology as audio
Compact Discs.
A master disc is created.
Copies of the disc are created through a
pressing process
The discs are aluminum sandwiched between
plastic
CDs are single sided.
Label
Acrylic
Aluminum
Plastic

CD-R
CD Roms must be pressed. They are read only
CDR discs can be written once and read many times
CDRs are made out of aluminum and plastic, but also
contain a dye layer
This dye is modified by a laser when the disc is being
written
The laser heats up the dye and it becomes nonreflective
Label
Acrylic
Aluminum
Dye
Plastic

Storing Information on a CD
Because CDs were originally intended for audio
output, there is a single track of data which spirals
out from the center of the disc

CD-RW
CD-RW is similar to CD-R
The main difference is that the dye can be made
reflective again through an erase process
In this way, CD-RW discs can be written many times
Too much erasing, and the dye starts to fade.

Label
Acrylic
Aluminum
Dye
Plastic

DVD Digital Versatile Disk

DVDs hold approx 7 times the information that CDs
do in the same amount of storage space
DVDs come in 3 types
Single Sided/Single Layer (4.7 GB)
Single Sided/Double Layer (8.5 GB)
Double Sided/Double Layer (17 GB)
DVD uses a laser with a shorter wavelength so the
pits are smaller
More pits can be stored on a DVD
Narrower track

DVD Multiple Layers

Each side of a DVD can contain 2 layers, doubling
the amount of data that can be stored
One layer is semi-transparent. The laser can be
focused through that layer onto the second layer.
If you took the track off of a single layer of a DVD and
stretched it out into a straight line, it would be 7.5 miles
long!
If you did the same with a double layer, double sided
disc, the track would stretch to over 30 miles!

DVD-R and DVD-RW

These two technologies are still relatively new and
still fairly expensive.
DVD-R and DVD-RW use similar techniques as CD-R
and CD-RW
A dye layer is used for data writing
The dye layer in DVD-RW is erasable