Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger: Visual QuickStart Guide

Storage Media

A Macintosh computer can read data from, or write data to, a wide range of storage media, including:

• Hard disks— high capacity magnetic media.

• CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD, and DVD-R discs— high capacity, removable optical media.

• Zip, or other disks or cartridges— high capacity, removable magnetic media.

• Floppy disks or diskettes— low capacity, removable magnetic media.

To use storage media, it must be:

• Mounted— inserted, attached, or other-wise accessible to your computer.

• Formatted or initialized— specially prepared for use with your computer.

All of these things are covered in this section.

✓ Tips

• Don’t confuse storage media with memory. The term memory usually refers to the amount of RAM in your computer, not disk space. RAM is discussed ...