Optical Storage Mediums
Beginning of paper
The most common way of storing data in a computer is magnetic. We have hard
drives and floppy disks (soon making way to the CD-ROM), both of which can store
some amount of data. In a disk drive, a read/write head (usually a coil of
wire) passes over a spinning disk, generating an electrical curre ....
Middle of paper
.... By moving the laser a little
bit, we can change tracks on a disk, and this movement is very small, usually
less than a hairÕs width. This allows one to store an immense amount of data on
one disk. The light does not touch the disk surface, thereby not creating
friction, which leads to wear, so the life of an average optical disk is far
longer than that of a magnetic medium. Also, it is impossible to ÒcrashÓ an
optical disk (in the same sense as crashing a hard drive), since there is a
pro ....
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Page count: 4 (approximately 250 words per page)
