-: In this section of the course,
we're going to cover storage devices
including hard disc drives, solid state devices, RAIDs,
removable storage and optical drives.
Now in your computer system, you need to have some kind
of persistent storage
such as a hard disc drive or solid state device
in order to retain data once your computer is powered down.
Remember, the CPU's cache and the system memory or RAM
is going to lose the data that they contain
whenever you power down or shutdown your computer
but non-volatile or persistent storage
like a hard disc drive or solid state device
is going to be able to retain that data
even if power is removed.
Now as we go through this section,
we're going to cover objective 3.3.
This states that given a scenario,
you must be able to select and install storage devices.
As we begin this section,
we're going to first take a look at hard disc drives,
usually referred to as a hard disc, a hard drive, or an HDD.
Now these devices have been in used for decades
and they're still extremely popular today
due to their large storage sizes and relatively low cost.
Next, we'll discuss solid state drives
usually referred to as a solid state device or an SSD.
These devices are usually much faster
than a traditional hard drive
but they do cost more for the same amount of storage space.
Then, we'll move into our discussion of RAIDs
which combines multiple physical hard disc drives
into a single logical drive
for use by your operating system.
This can provide faster speeds than a single hard drive does
more redundancy or both.
Now the word RAID is actually an acronym
and it stands for Redundant Array of Independent Discs
or sometimes you'll hear it referred to as
a redundant array of inexpensive discs.
Either way though, most technicians in the field
aren't actually going to say all four of those words.
So you're going to get used to hearing people say RAID
When they're talking about this concept.
Now after that, we're going to move into
the different types of removable storage;
things like flash drives and memory cards.
And then we'll cover optical drives;
things like CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs.
Finally, we'll move into two short demonstrations.
We're going to learn how to install storage devices
into a computer
and how to configure a RAID for your system
if you have multiple hard disc drives
that you want to treat as a single logical disc.
So let's get started in our coverage of storage devices
in this section of the course.