Computer Data Storage Devices and Media

This group gathers the family of physical devices and media that computers and computing systems have used to retain digital data outside a processor's own working memory, spanning more than half a century of storage engineering. Members range from electromechanical magnetic media such as the hard disk drive and the floppy disk, through the ferrite-ring magnetic-core memory that served as primary storage in mainframe computers between roughly 1955 and 1975, to the fully solid-state approaches of flash memory and the solid-state drive that succeeded spinning magnetic media in most modern machines. Each member represents a distinct engineering solution to the same underlying problem: storing digital information persistently, reliably, and at a cost and speed suited to a particular era or role within a computer system, from removable consumer media to internal system storage.