DATA STORAGE DEVICE

(Redirected from Recording medium)
Many different consumer electronic devices can store data.

'Edison cylinder phonograph' ca. 1899. The Phonograph cylinder is a storage medium. The phonograph may or may not be considered a storage device.

Crafting tools such as paint brushes can be used as data storage equipment. The paint and canvas can be used as data storage media.

RNA might be the oldest data storage medium [1], now replaced by DNA in most organisms.

A 'data storage device' is a device for recording (storing) information (data). Recording can be done using virtually any form of energy. A storage device may hold information, process information, or both. A device that only holds information is a recording medium. Devices that process information (data storage equipment) may either access a separate portable (removable) recording medium or a permanent component to store and retrieve information.
''Electronic data storage'' is storage which requires electrical power to store and retrieve that data. Most storage devices that do not require visual optics to read data fall into this category. Electronic data may be stored in either an analog or digital signal format. This type of data is considered to be electronically encoded data, whether or not it is electronically stored. Most electronic data storage media (including some forms of computer storage) are considered permanent (non-volatile) storage, that is, the data will remain stored when power is removed from the device. In contrast, ''electronically stored'' information is considered volatile memory.
With the exception of barcodes and OCR data, electronic data storage is easier to revise and may be more cost effective than alternative methods due to smaller physical space requirements and the ease of replacing (rewriting) data on the same medium. However, the durability of methods such as printed data is still superior to that of most electronic storage media. The durability limitations may be overcome with the ease of duplicating (backing-up) electronic data.

Contents
Terminology
Data storage equipment
Portable methods
Semi-portable methods
Inseparable methods
Recording medium
Ancient and timeless examples
Modern examples by energy used
Modern examples by shape
See also
References
Bibliography
External links

Terminology


Devices that are not used exclusively for recording (e.g. hands, mouths, musical instruments) and devices that are intermediate in the storing/retrieving process (e.g. eyes, ears, cameras, scanners, microphones, speakers, monitors, projectors) are not usually considered storage devices. Devices that are exclusively for recording (e.g. printers), exclusively for reading (e.g. barcode readers), or devices that process only one form of information (e.g. phonographs) may or may not be considered storage devices. In computing these are known as input/output devices.
An organic 'brain' may or may not be considered a data storage device. [2]
All information is data. However, not all data is information.

Data storage equipment


The equipment that accesses (reads and writes) storage information are often called storage devices. Data storage equipment uses either:

★ 'portable methods' (easily replaced),

★ 'semi-portable' methods requiring mechanical disassembly tools and/or opening a chassis, or

★ 'inseparable methods' meaning loss of memory if disconnected from the unit.
The following are examples of those methods:
Portable methods


Hand crafting

★ Flat surface


Printmaking


Photographic

Fabrication


Automated assembly


Textile


Molding


Solid freeform fabrication

Cylindrical accessing

Card reader/drive

Tape drive


★ Mono reel or reel-to-reel


Compact Cassette player/recorder

Disk accessing


Disk drive


Disk enclosure

Cartridge accessing/connecting (tape/disk/circuitry)

Peripheral networking

Flash memory devices
Semi-portable methods


Hard drive / Hard Disk

Circuitry with non-volatile RAM
Inseparable methods


Circuitry with volatile RAM

Neurons

Recording medium


A recording medium is a physical material that holds data expressed in any of the existing recording formats. With electronic media, the data and the recording medium is sometimes referred to as "software" despite the more common use of the word to describe computer software. With (traditional art) static media, art materials such as crayons may be considered both equipment and medium as the wax, charcoal or chalk material from the equipment becomes part of the surface of the medium.
Some recording media may be temporary either by design or by nature. Volatile organic compounds may be used to preserve the environment or to purposely make data expire over time. Data such as smoke signals or skywriting are temporary by nature. Depending on the volatility, a gas (e.g. atmosphere, smoke) or a liquid surface such as a lake would be considered a temporary recording medium if at all.
Ancient and timeless examples

'The Gutenberg Bible displayed by the United States Library of Congress', demonstrating print as a storage medium.


★ Optical


★ Any object visible to the eye, used to mark a location such as a, stone, flag or skull.


★ Any crafting material used to form shapes such as clay, wood, metal, glass, wax.



Quipu


★ Any branding surface that would scar under intense heat (chiefly for livestock or humans).


★ Any marking substance such as paint, ink or chalk.


★ Any surface that would hold a marking substance such as, papyrus, paper, skin.

★ Chemical


RNA


DNA


Pheromone
Modern examples by energy used

Graffiti on a public wall. Public surfaces are being used as unconventional data storage media, often without permission.

Photographic film is a photochemical data storage medium

A floppy disk is a magnetic data storage medium



Chemical


Dipstick

Thermodynamic


Thermometer

Photochemical


Photographic film

★ Mechanical


★ Pins and holes



Punch card



Paper tape




Music roll



Music box cylinder or disk


★ Grooves ''(See also Audio Data)''



Phonograph cylinder



Gramophone record



DictaBelt (groove on plastic belt)



Capacitance Electronic Disc

Magnetic storage


Wire recording (stainless steel wire)


Magnetic tape


Floppy disk

Optical storage


Photo paper


X-ray


Hologram


Projected transparency


Laserdisc


Magneto-optical disc


Compact disc


Holographic versatile disc


3D optical data storage

★ Electrical


Semiconductor used in volatile RAM microchips


Floating-gate transistor used in non-volatile memory cards
Modern examples by shape

A typical way to classify data storage media is to consider its shape and type of movement (or non-movement) relative to the read/write device(s) of the storage apparatus as listed:

★ Paper card storage


Punched card (mechanical)

★ Tape storage (long, thin, flexible, linearly moving bands)


Paper tape (mechanical)


Magnetic tape (a tape passing one or more ''read/write/erase heads'')

Disk storage (flat, round, rotating object)


Gramophone record (used for distributing some 1980s home computer programs) (mechanical)


Floppy disk, ZIP disk (removable) (magnetic)


Holographic


Optical disc such as CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, Blu-ray, Minidisc


Hard disk drive (magnetic)

Magnetic bubble memory

Flash memory/memory card (solid state semiconductor memory)


xD-Picture Card


MultiMediaCard


USB flash drive (also known as a "thumb drive" or "keydrive")


SmartMedia


CompactFlash I and II


Secure Digital


Sony Memory Stick (Std/Duo/PRO/MagicGate versions)


Solid state disk
Bekenstein (2003) foresees that miniaturization might lead to the invention of devices that store bits on a single atom.

See also



Computer storage

Recording formats

Content format

Format war

Multimedia

Streaming Media

Blank media tax

Medium format (film)

Nonlinear medium (random access)

Library

Archival science

Digital Preservation

References



★ Bekenstein, Jacob D. (2003, August). ''Information in the holographic universe''. Scientific American.

1. The RNA World, , Walter, Gilbert, Nature, 1986
2. Ray Bradbury, ''Fahrenheit 451'', 1950, 1953 pp:150-152, ISBN: 0345342968
3. The RNA World, , Walter, Gilbert, Nature, 1986


Bibliography


[1]


External links



Historical Notes about the Cost of Hard Drive Storage Space

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