Storage Media

Storage media are devices that store application and user information. The primary storage media for a computer is usually the internal hard drive. Most internal drives are regular IDE hard drives that come with the computer. A removable drive is another popular storage device that is usually connected by firewire, USB, or parallel port (e.g. portable Zip drives, Jaz drives, or CD/DVD drives). Newer forms of external storage include USB thumb drives and camera storage media.

Most external drives enable flexible data transfer from one computer to another. A computer that has had external drives connected to it usually has evidence in the computer’s registry of using the subject device. When performing a forensic examination during discovery proceedings for litigation, determining if external drives were connected to the computer may help in obtaining additional evidence for discovery.

Storage keeps data, information and instructions for use in the future. All computers use storage to keep the software that makes the hardware work.
As a user you store a variety of data and information on your computer or on storage media. Storage media are the physical materials on which data, information and instructions are kept. When a user saves information or data to a storage medium he or she is storing a file, and this process is called writing.
When the file is opened the process is called reading. Common storage media are:

Hard Drive: This storage medium which looks like the one below, is a hard drive. This medium comes with the computer and is always inside the computer.
It stores all the programs that the computer needs to work. In addition users store their data and information on the hard drive.

Floppy Disk: This storage medium is considered to be a portable storage medium. You put it into the computer save your information on it, take it out, and take it with you wherever you go.

CD&DVD: These types of storage media hold much more information than a floppy disk. They are also considered portable storage. These types of storage media come in different forms. This means that there are CDs and DVDs that you can only save information on but you cannot erase the information. In addition there are those that can both save information on and erase the information you have saved.

USB Flash Drive: This is a storage medium that is very easy to carry around and it also holds more data than a floppy disk. As you can see from the picture below it is very small when compared with the others.