Mass-storage device
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A mass-storage device is usually a very high capacity computer storage medium that is an order of magnitude less costly than a hard disk or other primary storage media. In order for the device to be less costly there is usually some form of compromise which is often the time taken to store or recover the data. The device is often used for archiving of data.
In early computers, magnetic tape was the mass storage device of choice, offering essentially unlimited storage of data cheaply but with significant data recovery times, as it generally required a computer operator to recover the relevant reel from a tape store. Magnetic tape is still a frequently used mass storage solution though now using much higher packing density, digital techniques and sometimes automated tape loading.
The floppy disk was the first mass storage device used in conjunction with a PC. Its main drawback was that its storage capacity was rapidly outstripped by the capacity of hard disks.
CDROM became a rapid successor to the floppy as the media offered low cost and significantly more capacity than the then available hard disks.
A USB mass-storage device is a device which stores data and interfaces with a personal computer using the USB interface. USB mass-storage devices use a standardized interface to communicate with the host, allowing them to be used on modern operating systems without specialized drivers.
Types of USB mass storage devices include:
- USB memory card readers
- Keydrives
- USB hard disks