Data Storage Devices

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the
magnetic tape drive. Magnetic tape is a sequential data storage medium. To
read data, a tape drive must wind through the spool of tape to the exact
location of the desired information. To write, the tape drive encodes data
sequentially on the tape. Because tape drives cannot randomly access or
write data like disk drives, and are thus much slower, they have been
replaced as the primary storage device with the hard drive. The hard drive
is composed of thin layers of rigid magnetic platters stacked on top of one
another like records in a jukebox, and the heads that read and write data
to the spinning platters resemble the arm of a record player. Floppy
disks are another common magnetic storage medium. They offer relatively
small storage capacity when compared to hard drives, but unlike hard drives,
are portable. Floppy disks are constructed of a flexible disk covered by a
thin layer of iron oxide that stores data in the form of magnetic dots. A
plastic casing protects the disk: ...

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