Computer storage devices read and record data coded as magnetized spots on a medium that represent a binary code - a sequence of digits comprised of the numbers 1 and 0. A magnetized drive head floating just above the surface of the media scans and writes data to the disk. In order to record data, electrical charges that create a certain magnetic pattern on the surface of the magnetically sensitive medium are sent through the head. To read data, the same head performs the opposite, converting spots of magnetic patterns into electrical impulses that output to a device that makes the data usable to humans, like a computer screen. The data can be kept indefinitely, or deleted and restored with new magnetic spots.

The two main types of magnetic storage devices are hard disk drives and magnetic tape devices. Magnetic tape devices such as a tape library write, retrieve and save data on multiple tape cartridges. At present, the most superior format of tape cartridges is the Ultrium Linear Tape Open, or LTO. As of 2010, the fifth generation is the most advanced, or LTO-5 tape technology. These tape tape units can read and write at a rate of 15 to 20 MB per second native data and can store more than 100 gigabytes of data.

The benefit of magnetic tape storage is that massive numbers of data can be stored in a relatively compact space. For example, some tape library models such as Quantum Scalar's i6000 tape library can store over 5,500 terabytes of data. Furthermore, tape devices have always been the quickest and preferred method of reading and writing massive volumes of data. The drawback of tape systems, however, is that the tape must be read from one end to the other in order to retrieve and store info. For this reason, magnetic tape is mostly used to copy, or backup, massive amounts of data stored on a network or mainframe system (or for other purposes in which stored data can be sequentially accessed). An autoloader or autochanger is a popular tape drive device used to keep mass data on several tape cartridges; tape libraries are generally larger versions of autoloaders. In 2001 close to 705,700 magnetic tape storage components were shipped by U.S. manufacturers, valued at roughly $1.9 billion.

A hard disk magnetic storage device is similar to a stack of small metal plates that rotate at a constant speed. Somewhere between each plate, a magnetic head is positioned on an arm that sweeps over the disk's surface. Each plate is covered on both sides with a magnetically sensitive compound on which a head can read or write information. Every bit of information stored on the disks is accessible by the heads each time the stack rotates.

The benefit of hard drives is that they can quickly get information nonsequentially as a result of the magnetic head's ability to move quickly and freely across the entire surface of the disk. In addition, because they are compact, they make great storage devices for microcomputers. Disk drives with greater capacities are commonly used in workstations, minicomputers, local area networks (LANs), and also mainframes. Hard drives for bigger computer systems are generally 14-inch, 10-inch, or 8-inch drives. Microcomputers typically have 5.25-inch, 3.5-inch, 2.5-inch, or 1.8-inch drives. Smaller disks usually hold one to two megabytes of information.

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