Data stores, input and output

A data storage device is a device for storing information or data. A storage device may hold or process information or both. A device that only holds information is a recording medium. Devices that process information may do so by either accessing a separate portable or removable recording medium, like a pen drive or a permanent component, like a fixed hard disk, to store and retrieve information.

Electronic data may be stored in either an analog or digital signal format. Most electronic data storage media is considered permanent storage, that is, the data will remain stored when power is removed from the device, e.g. a hard disk. In contrast, electronically stored information is considered volatile memory as hapens in the case of the core memory.

With the exception of barcodes and OCR data, electronic data storage is easier to revise and may be more cost effective than alternative methods due to smaller physical space requirements and the ease of replacing or rewriting data on the same medium. However, the durability of methods such as printed data is still superior to that of most electronic storage media. The durability limitations may be overcome with the ease of duplicating (backing-up) electronic data. Contents