Computer storage components include both volatile memory, like RAM, and nonvolatile storage, like HDDs, SSDs, and ROM, each serving a distinct role in how a system processes and retains data.
Computer Storage Components
Your computer is made up of a lot of different components. Components are the individual parts that make that computer run and make it function, and many of those components are storage components.
The first thing to note is your computer needs both volatile memory — that's that temporary memory that just sticks around for the period of time that the computer's on — and it also needs nonvolatile storage, long-term storage, to store things like your pictures and your documents and the long-term stuff. There are a lot of different types of components that do that, and we're going to cover a few of the major components that your computer uses.
A critical part of your computer is the RAM, or random access memory, and that is going to be where a lot of the information is stored before it gets processed.
This is the motherboard right here, and that's where all of the pathways are, where this data flows on. A lot of the data then flows into the central processing unit to be processed. Not all of it, but a lot of it gets processed right here at the central processing unit. It does the bulk of the processing on a lot of our devices. So this is the CPU right here.
What happens is that we have a lot of inputs into that system and it gets processed, and there's a lot of outputs to that system, and there's a lot of connected devices to this. Really, all of those can't talk to this chip at the same time, so we need a staging point somewhere where this data goes to be processed. So everything goes to the RAM first and gets staged in the RAM, sent to the CPU to be processed, gets processed, gets sent back to the RAM, and then it gets sent out to wherever it needs to go, whatever the output is going to be. So here is the RAM right here: all the inputs get sent to here, then it gets sent to the CPU, gets processed, and then back to this RAM right here.
Here's a closeup of that motherboard with the RAM right here, where all of that data goes to be staged to be processed by the central processing unit.
One thing that we haven't mentioned is there's actually memory also on there, what we call a cache. There's cache memory on this chip, and so data gets sent to that cached memory as it gets ready to be processed by this chip, and then information comes back from that chip to get put back onto the RAM and then gets sent to wherever it needs to go.
Now, your computer needs instructions on how it's going to operate, and it can't get all of that from attached storage, things like your solid state drive. The reason why we can't do that is because this can be slow, or it could be a lot of different configurations, or it just is not the best way to get this short-term memory on how to start up. So we get that from what's called the ROM, the read-only memory.
ROM is a component. It's a descriptor, it's a characteristic of a type of memory, but it's also a component on your computer. That ROM holds the BIOS, that's the basic input output system. The BIOS is the initial set of instructions. So what happens is, when your computer starts up it takes the BIOS from the ROM and puts it on the RAM to be processed, before it can access the operating system, which is on your long-term storage over here.
Now, the ROM really is not meant to be written to, and the RAM right here is not really meant for long-term storage — it's going to erase as soon as we turn off the machine. So somehow we want some attached storage that we can store things like our operating system and files on. That could be a hard disk drive, an HDD, or a solid state drive, an SSD. So these are two ways that we can store that operating system and those long-term files onto.
On this motherboard, here's that RAM, we've got a little bit of memory on that CPU, we've got the read-only memory which I believe is this chip right here. And then if we want some sort of attached storage, we've got all these SATA ports right here, where I can plug in a SATA cable, and then I would attach that SATA cable to whatever attached storage that I want to add to that.
Another thing that I have here also is, sometimes we want to be able to store things on just a temporary drive that we can take from machine to machine, and that's where we have something like a flash drive. I've taken the casing off this flash drive so we can see the chip on there, but this is something that we would slide into our USB drive right here, and then we would gain access to this storage. We'd store files onto it, and then we could unplug it and then take it to another machine, so we can move the files from machine to machine. So that would be a flash drive.
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