Portable Data Storage Media
By: James Walsh

Our space requirements have grown extremely fast with the advent of the home pc, and then of CDs. Thus, the floppy was replaced by the CD, the DVD was looked upon as an improvement, RW disks and multi-session writing followed soon enough, USB drives have taken the world by storm, and portable hard drives are on their way to becoming the newest answer to consumer needs. Online and offline storage space providers have companies queuing up for them. In the mean time, the good old tape has not gone out of use, and is a usual way of storing information for several companies. Used tapes are doing a booming business in real as well as online markets. With so many choices open to us, the position of digital storage devices in the market has become dependent on two major factors. Either they are being replaced by their betters, or they are creating a niche for themselves through their unique properties. Newer generations of the same technology are then building up on the inherent advantages of that format and, therefore, adding on to the existing market for the product. A good example is the CD that has evolved greatly since its first appearance in every way. The USB drive is offering more and more storage space. Even tapes have evolved, becoming more resistant, cheaper and easier to share. Below is a short survey of the advantages and disadvantages of each form of portable digital storage.

• Tape Drives: The tape had been there for generations now, in one format or the other. The huge unwieldy analogue devices have long ago become obsolete, but tapes are still around in evolved formats. The first advantage is the durability factor. The tapes are more protected inside their cases, offer a lot of space, and are compatible with a large number of file formats that can be problematic if stored on other devices, specially large audio visual files. The disadvantages are equally obvious. Tapes are a pain when it comes to sharing. Storage takes up space, and thanks to the material in which they are manufactured, some amount of temperature and humidity control is absolutely mandatory. However, their inherent protection against viruses, space option and quality of preservation make them popular enough.



• Floppy: The floppy had too many disadvantages. The advantages were its handy size, ease of use, low cost and portability. The disadvantages were its high susceptibility to viruses, the small space it provided, the ease with which it could be corrupted, and its inability to accommodate all file types. Finally, the death blow came when CDs became available in the market at roughly half the price of a floppy. This can be best compared with the replacement of the pager by the mobile. If a technology has too many flaws, it would get pushed out of the race.



• CD: The CD was too costly to begin with. It could also be written on only once, and took a very long time to write. All operating systems were not comfortable with it, and there were some file types that always got corrupted. Like the tape, it has been a story of survival. The CD can be rewritten now, multi-session writing provides better space management, almost all file types are acceptable in a standard CD, which will play just about anywhere and, most importantly, it is the cheapest portable digital storage device available currently.



• DVD: Audio visual quality of files, as reproduced by the CD, was never very satisfactory, and frankly bad at times. The DVD was born largely with the growing audio visual market in mind. It provided better quality of picture and sound, more space, the advantages of RW, and now prices have come down too. It has all the disadvantages of the CD as well, but no one can be an all-round winner after all.



• USB Drives: Pen drives can be inserted into the USB ports while a machine is running, has lots of space (and are growing steadily bigger), are extremely easy to carry, can be shared equally easily, accommodates almost all file formats and are beginning to become cheaper. But they are still quite costly, the most virus-prone, and also the most convenient to lose.



• Portable Hard Drives: Huge space, easy access, accommodation for all files, better virus protection, larger memory (therefore, less chances of data loss) – the advantages are many. But this device is still clumsier than the rest, and most importantly – the costliest.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com

James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. For more information on computer crime and Computer Forensics see www.fieldsassociates.co.uk

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