In this article I will talk about different types of hard disks including flash, SSD, external and internal hard disks. I will cover all aspects of storage media.
The first type is USB flash drive. USB flash devices are similar to regular hard drive except they are small. Some are micro shape while others are regular pin size. USB storage media is very popular at the moment. The reason is the size and portability. Files can easily be transferred from one computer to another. USB flash devices come in only one file format which makes them compatible with PC and Mac computers. These come with a FAT file system. Thumb media comes in different capacities (32 MB to 64GB). USB media are safe devices unlike traditional hard storage whose failure rate is higher. The reason is, these flash devices do not use heads and platters. Thumb flash uses flash memory for data storage.
The next type of storage media is the famous hard drive. Hard drive comes in two basic types, internal and external. Internal hard disks are used inside computers and laptops in order to run the operating systems. External hard disks are externally used with computer systems to store data. External disks connect to computers via a USB cable. External hard disks have two types, desktop and portable. Desktop hard disks are regular while portables are known as 2.5 inch hard (made for portability). Hard disk uses different parts like PCB, heads, platters and spindle motor for operations. These have a long history of failure especially when they are dropped. Although any kind of hard can fail but these traditional disks have fragile heads and that is why if they fail more than flash drives. That is, a little movement can cause serious damage. As a whole these have long life cycle.
In internal there is a new family of media called SSD (solid state Drive). SSD uses memory chip for data storage just like USB flash. These are faster and more reliable but in fact these are slightly less reliable as other at least at the current stage of the technology. These can fail electronically or logically. The life cycle is also short because of the memory chip design. These SSDs come in different capacities. Because SSD are at their early stage, they are very expensive at the moment. The technology needs a lot of improvement. SSD drive memory can disappear with the passage of time. Data recovery from these hard disks is very expensive. These are part of both PCs and Macintosh computers.
The next kind is Raid technology. It’s not really a type of the hard drive. The purpose is to increase performance and storage. Raid arrays consist of more than one (to improve processing speed and to avoid data loss risks) disks. The other form is network disks. These are also called NAS (network access storage). NAS store data over network. Both NAS and Raid use windows and Linux operating systems. Data Recovery process involves changing parts in case of physical damage. The process is usually expensive.
The next type of data storage devices are known as SD cards. An SD card is a small flash chip that is used to store data in portable devices like phones, camcorders, digital cameras. One type is Micro SD card. These cards also use flash memory for data storage. Data recovery process involves both logical and physical recoveries. They come in 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64GB sizes. Micro SD cards have one problem though. These cards easily heats up during the usage and can fail. If micro SD cards fail physically, data recovery is almost impossible.
In this article I have explained about different types of data storage devices like hard, USB and SSD media.