*Note
We are not talking about security.
The computer age has brought a lot of innovations, inventions aimed at improving our living but that is not without its own challenges ranging from loss of data, identity theft, computer viruses, etc.
Today we want to look at the storage devices options you have and which is considered better.
A little history
Magnetic tapes were the earliest form of computer storage. They did the job they could at the time but were in efficient for long term storage as the tape could get cut or weather damaged. Also the read/write speed was nothing to bank on. Finally setting up the storage is also a very tasking job to do. Although there are claims that you can keep records on tape for up to 30 years(subject to research)
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| Magnetic Tape - Image from Wikimedia |
After that came the floppy drives which were better than tapes and a better means of portable storage. The challenges mainly had to do with the poor durability of the drives in response to weather and use and of course the little storage space of about 80kb which can only store some text files before space runs out. This made people buy several disk just to store larger files. It was in efficient. Floppy disks can also stay for long periods if you can keep them away from humidity and extreme temperatures.
Now
The options available now are numerous. Lets take a look
1. Optical Disk Drives - CD/DVD: Great but has some challenges. Storage is fixed and in most cases is write once and multiple reads. Some however allow you to read/write multiple times but it is subject to your drives and how best you keep the disk from scratches and extreme temperatures.
2. Magnetic Disks, M-Disks are designed to be permanent storage devices as they are expected to last for up to 1000 years. The disks are design to withstand extreme temperatures and surface scratch. They look like DVDs and can be read by a DVD drive though they require a special M-Disk writer to write data on to them.
3. Hard Disk Drives: These are the most common storage devices up until now. They are widely used in your laptops and desktops for your operating system and storage servers. These can last up to 5 years or more depending on usage. They are famous for multiple read and write operations. You can also have it as an external drive. These are gradually being replaced by SSDs a type of flash storage device. One major disadvantage to HDDs is that they have a spinning disk inside, it is a mechanical drive.
4. Flash storage devices: Your SSD, USB thumb drive, memory cards are all flash storage devices and can be seen every where. These storage devices are fast as there are no movable parts inside. They are lighter and can last for a long period of time; about ten years. The main problem hear is that they have limited read/write cycles. You can actually do nothing when the read/write cycle is complete. The read/write capacity is manufacturer dependent.
Consider that when you want to get yours.
In my opinion, the flash storage devices are better in terms of speed, weight, and availability. What to keep in mind is the type you are buying and from which manufacturer; these will determine how long and effective your data will last.
NB
There are countless online storage services you can also use to store your files but there is no guaranty that your files are not been spied on by your host.
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