What is Storage?

Storage is a technology that utilizes computer components and devices to store data in digital format to be retrieved at a later time. It is useful to store excess data and backups. Storage devices such as external hard drives, CD/DVD, and USB devices are portable and let you move your data from one place to another physically. Random-access memory (RAM), computer cache, and internal hard drives are inbuilt computer components. The digital data stored inside storage is measured by bytes.

There are two types of data storage. One is temporary where the data are stored for a short period. The computer memory which is also known as random access memory (RAM) is a temporary data storage that holds working data and allows the computer to read and write data faster. The cache is another temporary memory where previous computation data is stored to serve quickly when similar computation requests are requested in the future. Since RAM and cache are temporary memory, the data contained in them will be lost when you turn off the computer.

The other type of storage is permanent. The computer hard drive, CD/DVD, external hard drives and USB devices belong to this category. The data you store in permanent storage will retain the same even if you unpower the device. Computer programs, program data, and user data are saved inside the internal hard drive which is permanent storage. The external hard drives, USB devices, and DVDs are usually used to store large files and back up computer data.