Basic Computer Hardware and Software Systems... Continued
Most drives that are used for the purpose of data storage are fragile and the data can be easily corrupted. The data storage devices are also used to backup and archive data. The data storage devices used to be costly and expensive. But these days the data storage devices are becoming cheaper day by day. Hence the data storage devices price is falling. So, we are in a position to get a storage device quite cheaply. The data in the storage devices can be in the form of files, data bases, digital video and audio files.

Non volatile storage devices can store data permanently until erased purposely. This is true in the case of the hard disk drives or the floppy disk drives. Other kinds of storage media, for example the CD and the DVD, can be categorized into two types of storage; firstly where data once written cannot be erased. It is stored permanently. While the second type of CDs or the DVDs are called rewritable; where the data that is written can be erased completely and the same storage device can be used again for storing the different data.

Computer Storage video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elvnhMOUvfM

Group Discussion (10 minutes)

Form groups of two people and discuss the following:

• Discuss the difference between a hard disk and a removable disk. Name two types of removable disks.
• Why is a flash disk a very popular storage device with many farmers?
• What is the importance of backing up farm information stored in a computer?