Storage Devices

USB: (Universal Serial Bus) Used for storing data and transferring it from one device to another. They are a cheap form of storage device as they can be bought for as little as £5. Their low price has lead to over 2 billion USB’s being sold each year around the world. 



External Hard Drive: An external form of storage. It is connected to a computer through a USB lead. Users can store files onto the hard drive and then transfer them to another device. External hard drives are not as popular as USB pens due to the big price difference between the two. External hard drives are usually priced at about £60 for a standard hard drive while more advanced ones can cost hundreds of pounds.

CD/DVD: CD/DVD's are mainly used to burn music and film files onto. They can be bought in packs and are usually quite cheap, with most being within the £10-£20 range. They need to be kept in cases as they can be easily scratched or damaged. As a result of this damage, the files on the disk may be lost or damaged. 

RAM: (Random Access Memory) This is were data is kept so that it can be quickly accessed by the computer's processor. It is volatile which means that if the power is turned off, unsaved files will be lost. While access to files is quick, the fact that it is volatile is a major disadvantage as all work can be lost if it is not saved. 

Flash Devices: A small, portable hard drive that can be inserted into a USB port for storage and to obtain data from the device. Flash devices are non-volatile. This means that if the computer's power is turned off then files that were not saved will not be lost.