Optical storage is the storage of data on an optically readable
medium. Data is recorded by making marks in a pattern that can be
read back with the aid of light, usually a beam of laser light
precisely focused on a spinning disc.
Magnetic storage (or magnetic recording) is the storage of data on a magnetised
medium. Magnetic storage uses different patterns of magnetisation in a magnetisable
material to store data and is a form of non-volatile memory. The information is accessed
using one or more read/write heads.
Solid state storage (SSS) is a type of computer storage media that is
made from silicon microchips. SSS stores data electronically instead
of magnetically, as spinning hard disk drives or magnetic oxide tape
do.
Cloud storage is a model of data storage where the digital data is stored in logical pools, the physical
storage spans multiple servers (and often locations), and the physical environment is typically owned
and managed by a hosting company. These cloud storage providers are responsible for keeping the data
available and accessible, and the physical environment protected and running. People and
organizations buy or lease storage capacity from the providers to store user, organization, or
application data.
In computing, mass storage refers to the storage of large amounts of data in a persisting and
machine-readable fashion. Devices and/or systems that have been described as mass storage
include tape libraries, RAID systems, and a variety of computer drives such as hard disk drives,
magnetic tape drives, magneto-optical disc drives, optical disc drives, and solid-state drives. It also
includes experimental forms like holographic memory and historic forms like drum memory, floppy
disk drives and punched tape. Mass storage includes devices with removable and non-removable
media. It does not include random access memory (RAM), which is volatile in that it loses its contents
after power loss.
In computer storage, a tape library, sometimes called a tape silo, tape robot or tape jukebox, is a
storage device which contains one or more tape drives, a number of slots to hold tape cartridges, a
barcode reader to identify tape cartridges and an automated method for loading tapes (a robot).
A magneto-optical drive is a kind of optical disc drive capable of writing and rewriting data upon a
magneto-optical disc.
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive or fixed disk[b] is a data storage device used for
storing and retrieving digital information using one or more rigid ("hard") rapidly rotating disks
(platters) coated with magnetic material. The platters are paired with magnetic heads arranged on a
moving actuator arm, which read and write data to the platter surfaces.[2] Data is accessed in a
random-access manner, meaning that individual blocks of data can be stored or retrieved in any
order rather than sequentially. An HDD retains its data even when powered off.