Storing Information on Your PC: Four Popular Removable Media Devices

You do not have to lump all your files in your computer’s internal hard disk drive. If you are a file hoarder, you will eventually reach the limit of your hard disk drive capacity. You can easily remedy the problem of low storage space by making use of removable media devices. Removable media devices are a great alternative place to store extra files and data. You may also use them to create back ups of important and sensitive files. In the event of a total computer crash, you will not lose all of your files if you diligently back up your data.

There are many removable media devices available in the market today. Among the most popular ones are CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and USB flash drives.

* CD

CDs or compact discs are the most popular type of removable media. They rendered the floppy disks obsolete several years ago. While very affordable and in large supply, CDs sadly have short life spans.

In order to read or play a CD, your computer should be equipped with a CD-ROM drive or a CD writer. CD-ROMs will simply allow you to read data on a CD. If you want to read and write data on a CD, you will have to get a CD writer.

* DVD

DVDs, also known as digital versatile discs or digital video discs, are similar to CDs but these removable media devices are able to store more information — roughly six times as much as CDs can hold. While CDs can only accommodate a few hundred MB, DVDs can hold between 1GB and 17GB of data. CDs and DVDs are virtually of the same shape, size, and look. With their large capacity, DVDs are usually used to store movies and videos.

In order to play a DVD, you will have to have a DVD-ROM drive. If you want to be able to store files in a DVD, then you need a DVD writer. For faster copy and playback speeds, you can get a DVD-RAM drive.

* Blu-ray Disc

Like CDs and DVDs, Blu-ray discs, also known as Blu-rays or BDs, are optical storage media. CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays all have the same standard dimensions. When it comes to storage capacity, however, Blu-rays are king. A two-layer Blu-ray disc can accommodate as much as 50 GB of data.

Blu-rays are typically used to store high-definition videos. A blue-colored laser is used to read and transfer data on Blu-rays — thus, their name. DVDs, on the other hand, use a red laser. In order to read data on a Blu-ray disc, you need a BD-ROM drive. A BD writer is needed for writing to Blu-rays.

* USB Flash Drive

USB flash drives are compact, thumb-sized removable media devices that use flash memory to read and record data. They can act as mini hard disk drives and hold gigabytes of data. To use a USB flash drive, you need only plug it into a computer’s USB port. You can then copy, transfer, and delete as many files as the flash drive can accommodate. When attached to a port supporting USB 2.0 technology, USB flash drives can read and write data faster than optical drives.