In two of its recent blog posts, Irvine, CA's Hard Drive Recovery Group discusses storage devices, cloud storage and disk tool for Windows. The posts continue Hard Drive Recovery Group's dedication to customer education, and points out the value of having a Cloud backup for virtually all computer systems.
In the post, "Several Types Of Storage Devices", the difference between primary and secondary storage systems are discussed, as well as the fact that most people consider data storage only through the lens of secondary storage systems. According to spokesperson Maureen Davies, primary storage is critical for computer use, but doesn't typically get mentioned because its main purpose tends to be short term storage which aids in running the system, as opposed to space on a drive that can be filled.
"Primary storage tends to be the kind of storage that is used regularly in a computer system, often just to run the operating system and apps, such as RAM or on chip Cache systems," said Davies. "These systems tend to be very robust in construction, and rarely fail, but are almost never used to store actual files for more than a few seconds."
Secondary media storage typically tends to include what most computer users consider to be "data storage devices." This includes what generally tends to be called "non-volatile" media, and typically includes SSDs and USB flash drives as well as internal and external hard drives. Tertiary storage, meanwhile, tends to be one of the more rare forms of data storage, at least when it comes to consumer level tech, as it tends to consist of Cloud storage or remote archives.
"It is quite interesting that storage tends to be classified into three separate categories, whereas the two safest data storage categories tend to be the most robust and at the same time the least considered," said Davies. "As cloud storage becomes more popular, however, people are understanding the seamlessness of backing up their drives, which can save them a lot of trouble when a hard disk crashes."
A second blog post, entitled "Different Types Of Secondary Storage Devices", talks about using built-in Windows disk tools such as Disk Cleaner to ensure that hard drives are well maintained and storage space is maximized so that data recovery isn't necessary. Given today's large video and photographic files, it is typically only a matter of time for most users until their hard drives are full.
"These days, despite the fact that hard drives are heading into double digit terabyte in size, there is always more data that gets stored," said Davies. "Ensuring you have a list of backup options when your hard drive runs low is essential for every user."
Also mentioned are live Cloud services, such as Google Drive, Dropbox and Microsoft's OneDrive. Each cloud storage option offers a somewhat reasonably large remote storage and backup alternative for either a very low cost, or in some cases, free.
"Taking advantage of free online cloud storage services is a smart move for anyone who uses a computer or smartphone, simply because they can save a lot of trouble when hard disks fail," said Davies. "Simply copying the most important files to cloud backups, such as documents and photos, means that a catastrophic drive failure becomes no problem at all."
Naturally, Cloud services like that of Google and Microsoft do come with a price - namely user data that most people usually do not expect. But, in a world where Facebook, Apple and Google maintain giant warehouses of highly targeted customer data, for many this is not such a big deal.
"Terms and Conditions for Cloud services tend to outline the overall costs in terms of information sharing," said Davies. "Reading these documents can be difficult, but they do provide critical information to the user."
from Hard Drive Recovery Group
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