Storage devices

By y-morita

  • Punch Card Backups as a Reference Point in Backup History

    punch cardIn 1951, the first generation of digital computing appeared when the UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer) was built by Mauchly and Eckert. It used vacuum tubes as main logic elements, rotating magnetic drums for internal storage of data and programs and punch cards to input and externally store data. Thus, punch cards can be considered as the first data storage devices for backup. Of course, we can’t talk about holistic and

  • The Evolution of Hard Drives and Disk-to-Disk Backup

    In 1956 IBM introduced the first hard drive - IBM 305 RAMAC. Over the years HDD technology has been improved rapidly. Since 1983, with the introduction of the IBM PC/XT, hard disk drive has become a standard component for most personal computers. Other vendors also contributed to HDD development. For example, in 1982, Hitachi shipped the first drive with more than 1 GB of storage. One more important event was the introduction of the

  • Magnetic Tapes and Tape Backup

    tapeThough punch cards are so symbolic and have been used for over than 200 years in various fields of expertise, they actually were slow, low-capacity and required a lot of devices, efforts and time for processing. That’s why, during the 1960s, the punch card as the primary medium was gradually replaced by better, more capable and more efficient magnetic tape. Since one roll of magnetic tape could store as much data as 10 000 punch cards it achieved instant succe

  • Floppy Disks and their Contribution to Backup

    In 1969 the first floppy disk was introduced. It was a read-only 8-inch disk that could store 80kB of data. Four years later, in 1973, a similar floppy disk with the same size could store 256kB of data, and it was rewritable. Since then the trend has been the same – smaller floppy disks and higher data capacity. In the late 1990s you could easily store 250 MB of data on а 3-inch disk. Floppy disks were considered as revolutionary media for tr

  • CD-R/RW and DVD - New Backup Media

    Though the 3.5-inch floppy disk had been a boon to home users and small businesses who needed backups, they had relatively low capacity. This problem had been solved with introduction of the next generation in storage media: CD-Recordable (CD-R) and CD-Rewritable (CD-RW) drives. The Compact Disc, first invented by Philips and Sony in 1979, reached the market in late 1982 in Asia and early the following year appeared in other markets. In June 1985, the CD-ROM (read-only memory) and in 1990 CD-Rec