These are internal storage devices that are the backbone of most if not all storage applications, ranging from external hard drives, NAS servers, to even data centers, which basically host the entire Internet, including cloud storage services. There are many types of digital storage, but in the end, the most popular forms are the good old hard drives (HDDs) and new solid-state drives (SSDs). For virtually anything to happen as expected in our daily life, storage is needed. As a matter of fact, the only time that we care is when it doesn't work as intended.īelieve it or not, before information can be viewed, played back, or executed, it needs to reside somewhere. How many times have we asked ourselves where that Web page we're viewing (like this one), the movie we're watching, the song we're listening to is stored, or even how the iPhone remembers to wake us up at 7 a.m every day? Not so often, if at all. From top: hard drives (laptop and desktop versions), solid-state drives (the SATA2 Samsung 470 and the SATA3 OCZ Agility 3), and system memory sticks (DDR 2 laptop and desktop versions).īesides running water, digital storage is probably the second most taken-for-granted commodity.
