For no good reason: Terms for Computer Storage Media

There are at least three reasons why I shouldn't be making this post. One, I don't have much free time today. Two, I don't know that much about computers and storage media, so the data are probably flawed. Three, there's no point.

That said...

Storage Media and What packbat Calls Them

This list actually is ordered, believe it or not.

Cards

Cards (a.k.a. memory cards) are solid-state storage devices which are designed to be plugged into slots. "Solid-state" is a key part of this definition; the part of the card with the data on it does not move. Most digital cameras use cards to store images.

Slots

These are the ports into which cards plug. The card and the plug have matching contacts for data transfer, and the slot has cords (coming out the back, usually) to be connected to the computer accessing the data. Some printers contain special-purpose computers to read images off of cards and print them.

Discs

Discs are circular storage media. Data is recovered (or placed on) discs by use of drives which spin the disc and scan the surface, be it through magnetic or optical means. If the disc is contained in a case, the disc-plus-case combination may have a different name; see below.

Disks

Disks are discs with their own cases. They do not contain the mechanisms to read themselves; instead, they are designed with a way for the drive to 'look' at the surface of the disc and to spin the disc.

Drives

Drives are designed to read specific kinds of disks or discs. They do this by spinning the disc (whether it be inside a disk or not) and accessing the data on specific points while it spins. Drives connect to their computers by means of cords.

A special case of a drive is called the Hard Drive. Hard drives contain built-in discs that are designed not to be removed, and built-in reading devices. Because they contain discs, they are sometimes called "hard disks" or even "hard discs", but according to Google, "drive" and "disk" are the two more common terms, and "drive" the most common of the three. This is logical, since disks generally don't have drives, and discs generally don't have cases or drives.

Cords and Plugs you probably are already familiar with; cords connect to plugs, cords transmit data.


And that's it. Thank you for your patience.