Data Storage

Once data has been gathered and processed to produce results, it is rarely thrown away. Instead, we store it for future reference and reuse. This act of keeping data on a storage device so that it can be retrieved later is called data storage.

Today, enormous volumes of data are generated at very high speeds, making storage a challenging task. Fortunately, the cost of digital storage devices has fallen sharply, which has made it much easier to manage this challenge.

A wide variety of digital storage devices are available in the market. Common examples include:

• Hard Disk Drive (HDD)
• Solid State Drive (SSD)
• CD/DVD
• Tape Drive
• Pen Drive
• Memory Card

On a personal computer, we store data as files — images, documents, audio, video, and so on. Similarly, organisations like schools and hospitals store their records in data files. We use computers to add, modify, or delete data in these files, and to process them to obtain results. …