← Back to Secondary Storage

Parsons: Storage Concepts

Categorize and order storage devices by their characteristics

Exercise 1: Categorize by Storage Type

Drag each storage device to its correct category.

Hard Disk Drive (HDD)
USB Flash Drive
DVD
SSD
Blu-ray Disc
Magnetic Tape
SD Card
CD-ROM
NVMe Drive

Magnetic Storage

Solid State Storage

Optical Storage

Exercise 2: Order by Speed (Fastest to Slowest)

Drag the storage devices to order them from fastest to slowest access speeds.

Hard Disk Drive (HDD)
SATA SSD
NVMe SSD
DVD Drive
USB 3.0 Flash Drive
Magnetic Tape
Fastest Slowest

Exercise 3: Order by Maximum Capacity (Largest to Smallest)

Drag the storage devices to order them by their maximum capacity.

SATA SSD (up to 8TB)
USB Flash Drive (up to 1TB)
HDD (up to 20TB)
DVD (4.7GB)
Magnetic Tape (up to 45TB)
Blu-ray (128GB)
Largest Smallest

Exercise 4: Categorize by Durability

Sort these storage types based on their physical durability (resistance to drops and movement).

SSD
HDD
USB Flash Drive
CD/DVD
SD Card
Magnetic Tape

High Durability

No moving parts, shock resistant

Medium Durability

Can be scratched but no moving parts

Low Durability

Moving parts, sensitive to movement

Exercise 5: Match Use Case to Best Storage

Drag each use case to the most appropriate storage type.

Gaming PC main drive
Home movie collection backup
Data center long-term archive
Distributing software to customers
Transferring files between computers
Operating system boot drive
Digital camera storage
CCTV recording storage

SSD/NVMe

Fast, frequent access

Hard Drive (HDD)

Large capacity, good value

Flash (USB/SD)

Portable, removable

Optical (CD/DVD)

Distribution, compatibility

Magnetic Tape

Archive, lowest cost/GB