September 2007
Intermediate to advanced
408 pages
13h 53m
English
Content preview from PCs For Dummies®, 11th Edition
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Chapter 9
Permanent Storage
(Disks and Media)
In This Chapter
Understanding permanent storage
Discovering how a disk drive works
Recognizing the hard drive
Using the DVD drive
Ignoring the floppy drive
Working with memory cards
Adding external storage
Using storage media in Windows
P
ermanent, or long-term, storage is a relatively new concept when
it comes to computer science. In the olden days, computers were
programmed by hand, wired specifically to run one program. Temporary
memory was available, although it was scarce. As computers evolved, scien-
tists observed that it was rather silly for them to keep reprogramming their
computers every time the system was turned on. So, to save time, and to
reduce the number of cranky scientists, permanent computer storage was
developed.
By using permanent storage, your computer can remember things long after
the power is turned off. Rather than type a program you want to run (and at
11 million lines of code, you’d have to be awfully desperate to run Excel), you
simply load the program into memory from permanent storage. And all that
stuff you create? It’s safe and sound, saved to the computer’s permanent stor-
age. This chapter covers almost everything you need to know about perma-
nent storage.
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Storage ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.