There are four main drives for the computer, all of which are classed as core hardware components. Each one uses a different way to store data and each one has different data, read/write, speeds.

Fig 1.0  The Floppy Drive

Fig 1.1  The Floppy Disk

The Floppy Disk used to be the number one storage media until the CD, DVD and Flash Disk arrived on the scene. In order to use a floppy disk you need a Floppy Drive, which has the job of reading (looking at) and writing (storing) data (files) to/from the floppy disk. The floppy drive and floppy disk are not obsolete yet, due to them still being cheap and the floppy disk having the ability to store 1.44 MegaBytes (1,457,664 Bytes) of data on it, but they soon will be obsolete. At this time the floppy disk is still good for storing a few small files on (Letters, CVs and so on). The downside of the floppy drive is that it is too slow compared to the other three drive types.

Fig 1.2  The CD Player / The CD Recorder

Fig 1.3  The correct way to hold a CD

The CD (Compact Disk) has now become the number one storage media for data. In order to read data from a CD you need a CD Player and in order to write data onto a CD you need a CD Recorder.

All CD Drives have a CD Player built into them as standard, but some have a CD Recorder built into them as well. The price between them is so small (CD Player £20. CD Recorder £25) that you should buy yourself a CD Recorder. A CD Player, also known as a CD ROM, allows a program to read data from a CD and then interpret it as Music and/or Data files. A CD Recorder, also known as a CD Burner, does the same as a CD Player but it also allows a program to record Music and/or Data files onto a CD.

A CD Recorder can use either a CD-R or a CD-RW compact disk to store data on. Both CDs can store upto 700MB of data on them and both can store that data in one go or in multi-sessions (bits at a time). The main difference between them is that the CD-RW can be formatted (erased) so it can be re-recorded on again, whereas the CD-R cannot be formatted at all and so cannot be re-recorded on again. However. Do not think the CD-RW is better because it is not. It is limited by speed. A CD-R can have data recorded onto it at a maximum speed of 52x, but a CD-RW can only have data recorded onto it at a maximum speed of 12x. In general a CD-R is good for storing permanent data and a CD-RW is good for storing temporary data. As a rule you should always backup (record) your important documents and files onto a CD for safe keeping, as you do not know when you will accidently delete a document or file from the hard drive for example.

With regards to maximum speeds, if you see something like 52x 32x 52x on the box of a CD-RW (CD Re-Recorder and CD Player) for example the Xs mean the Write, Re-Write and Read Speed. So a CD-RW with 52x 32x 52x speeds means the CD-RW can Write (Record) data onto a Blank CD at 52 maximum speed, Re-Write (Re-Record / Record Over) data onto an Already Recorded On (or Blank) CD at 32 maximum speed and Read (Playback) data from a CD at 52 maximum speed.

The speeds themselves can be measured in KB/Second or MB/Second. 1x speed is 1.32MB Per Second, so 8x speed is 10.56MB Per Second (8 x 1.32). In reality though the maximum speeds might never be reached as the burning (copying) process works by gradually picking up speed as it records and plays back. So the CD-RW might of recorded or played back the data before the maximum speed was reached.

One thing to note about CD Recording is that you need a certain CPU, a certain amount of Memory and a certain amount of Hard Drive space before you can record. The reason for this is because if you copy some files from your hard drive onto a CD the CD Recording program does not normally do a straight copy. It does not copy each file from the hard drive onto the CD. What it does instead is buffer them. This means if you have 600 files to be copied onto a CD, at 1MB each, it creates a buffer-file of 600MB that contains a copy of the 600 original files to be copied. The buffer-file is stored on the hard drive. Once this stage is out the way the CD Recording program then starts copying the buffer-file onto the CD, copying a little piece at a time into Memory before transferring it onto the CD. One of the main reasons a CD Recording program uses memory, instead of just copying the data straight onto CD, is so that it can check the data for errors before copying it to CD. The more memory a computer has the better the CD Recording program performs, as it can copy more data into memory for example. Another thing to note is that although a CD says 700MB on the cover they are referring to your data plus the data used by the CD Recording program, which it needs to use for its own recording purposes. So really you should knock off about 50MB and say 650MB is for your data.

CD Players with playback speeds of 8x upto 32x are obsolete. Todays average playback speeds are 48x and 52x. A CD Recorder should be in the region of 52x (CD-R Recording speed), 32x (CD-RW Recording speed) and 52x (Playback speed). Although with a CD Recorder it depends on a CD's ability to playback and record at a certain speed as well, as to whether or not the CD Recorder can actually match the speeds it claims it can perform.

Fig 1.4  The DVD Player / The DVD Recorder

Fig 1.5  The correct way to hold a DVD

The DVD Drive is not one of the core hardware components for the computer yet, but it soon will be as more companies are using DVD as their number one storage media. All DVD Drives have a DVD Player built in as standard, but some have a DVD Recorder built into them as well. The price between them is about £10 (£25 DVD Player and £35 DVD Recorder). DVDs are exactly the same as CDs except they store more data and are geared towards storing media such as Photograph Albums, DVD Movies and so on. They come in four formats: DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and DVD+RW. The DVD Drive and DVD work in the same way as a CD Drive and CD as explained above. The DVD can store upto 4.7 GigaBytes of data and upto 8.5 GigaBytes on double layered DVD Drives (Double Layer is like Long Play on a VCR). DVD Drives with a built in CD Recorder as well should have the following kind of speeds.

With both CD Recorders and DVD Recorders you should always go down one or two speeds when recording, otherwise the recording might fail (buffer underrun). This is because the amount of data the recording program needs to record in one go might not of been stored (buffered) in time, due to the hard drive being too slow to gather the data for example. A file on your hard drive can be split into two pieces for example if it cannot fit into one complete space on the hard drive. When a recording program needs such a file the computer first puts the two pieces back together to make one complete file. This takes time. Time which could be too slow for a recording program. A recording program needs to be fed a continuous amount of data for it to work. If it does not get that data in time bad things happen, like data corruption and so on. In other words, it might fill the CD or DVD with spaces instead of data because the spaces were not filled in with data in time. By slowing down the recording speed you are giving the recording program extra time to wait for data to be copied/filled in.

 

Fig 1.6  The Flash (Memory) Drive

The flash disk, also known as a Flash Pen (because of its pen-like looks and small size) and Flash Memory (because it is a piece of hardware that uses flash memory) is one of the latest and coolest gadgets around. It allows you to permanently store your data (files) onto the flash memory chip, so that even when you turn off the computer the data is still on the flash disk.

The beauty of it is its storage capacity and its portability. It is portable not just because it is so small but also because it plugs into the USB Port (Socket) at the back of the computer. So any where you take it you just plug it into a computer's spare USB port and then look at your files. You can delete files, save files and so on in the same way as you can with a hard drive or floppy disk. The storage capacity ranges from 512 MegaBytes up to 4 GigaBytes (512MB, 1GB, 2GB and 4GB), but Windows Vista will probably use 2MB or so to initialize the flash disk (depending on the flash disk). The rest of the memory will be yours to use. Approximate prices are 512MB (£9), 1GB (£14), 2GB (£25) and 4GB (£35-£40).

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.  As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.

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