| Disks such as CD, DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray, flash | | | | HD DVD |
| drives, and external hard drives are convenient | | | | HD DVD is a high density optical disk that expands |
| means of data storage. They are characterized by | | | | the storage of a single disk up to 60 GB. To read |
| small size and light weight, which allows them to be | | | | and record HD DVD, a HD DVD-ROM is required. To |
| easily carried and transported. | | | | record HD DVD you must have DVD burning |
| There can be different situations in which you may | | | | software. |
| need to copy your information to a disk. To start | | | | Blu-ray |
| with, you may want to distribute a piece of | | | | Blu-ray is a high density optical disk that allows storing |
| information among many people similar to the way | | | | up to 80 GB of digital data including high definition |
| they do it in a music industry when millions of copies | | | | video. To be able to read and write Blu-ray disks, a |
| of a single CD are made and sold. | | | | BD-ROM must be available on a PC. |
| You may also want to create a reserve copy of | | | | Flash drives |
| some critical data, or simply record some files to a | | | | Flash drives are not disks in a proper sense of the |
| disk in order to open them on another computer. | | | | word, but they do perform the same function as |
| Disks present a perfect solution for any of the | | | | traditional disks such as data transfer and storage. |
| above mentioned situations. | | | | Flash drives do not use spinning platters like standard |
| There are different ways in which you can record | | | | hard drives, but they are not optical disks either, |
| your information to a disk depending on the type of | | | | instead they use flash memory to record and store |
| disk, its storage capacity, and the type of | | | | information. |
| connectivity with the PC. Here we will consider the | | | | Flash drives and USB flash drives |
| advantages and disadvantages of the most common | | | | A distinction must be drawn between a flash drive |
| types of disks. | | | | and a USB flash drive. A flash drive imitates |
| CD | | | | conventional hard drive is size, shape and interface, |
| CD is probably the most wide-spread type of optical | | | | so it can serve as a replacement for conventional |
| disk. The capacity of a single CD is about 700 MB and | | | | hard drive in extreme conditions as it has a lower |
| allows recording any types of digital data including | | | | sensitivity towards mechanical damage. A USB flash |
| music, video, images, and applications. To read and | | | | drive is a small lightweight hand-held device with a |
| record a CD on a personal computer, a CD-ROM | | | | USB connector. |
| drive is required. The type of the CD-ROM drive | | | | External hard drives |
| defines the speed of reading and recording CDs. The | | | | External hard drives are storage devices based on |
| CD may be recorded with the help of special | | | | the hard drive technology which are not a part of |
| recording software or using Windows recording tools. | | | | computer hardware, but can be connected to a PC |
| DVD | | | | via any of the available interfaces such as USB, |
| DVD is an optical disk that allows recording up to 9 | | | | SATA, FireWire or SCSI. |
| GB (double layer DVD) on a single disk. To read and | | | | The selection of disk type depends on your needs. |
| record DVDs, a DVD-ROM is required. Special DVD | | | | Check out the disk recording software which allows |
| burning software is needed to record information to | | | | recording digital data to all of the above mentioned |
| DVD. | | | | types of disks with several useful options. |