Magnetic storage

Magnetic storage uses different patterns of magnetization on a magnetically coated surface to store information. Magnetic storage is non-volatile. The information is accessed using one or more read/write heads. Since the read/write head only covers a part of the surface, magnetic storage is sequential access and must seek, cycle or both. In modern computers, the magnetic surface will take these forms:
- Magnetic disk
-->Floppy disk, used for off-line storage
-->Hard disk, used for secondary storage
--> Magnetic tape data storage, used for tertiary and off-line storage