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IT - Storage Types

Storage master types

Master Type Acronym Long Name Year Introduced Internal? External? General Use
Optical CD-ROM Compact Disc - Read Only Memory 1982 ✔ ✔ Music, software, small data backups
DVD Digital Versatile Disc 1995 ✔ ✔ Movies, software, larger data storage
BD Blu-ray Disc 2006 ✔ ✔ High-definition movies, data backup
ODD Optical Disc Drive (generic) 1982+ ✔ ✔ Reading/writing optical discs
Tape LTO Linear Tape-Open 2000 ✔ ✔ Enterprise backup, archival
DLT Digital Linear Tape 1984 ✔ ✔ Backup/archival
DAT Digital Audio Tape 1987 ✔ ✔ Backup, music (rare)
QIC Quarter-Inch Cartridge 1972 ✔ ✔ Data backup (legacy)
HDD (Fixed) HDD Hard Disk Drive 1956 ✔ Desktops, servers, workstations
SAS Serial Attached SCSI 2004 ✔ Enterprise servers/storage
SATA Serial ATA 2003 ✔ Consumer/internal drives
HDD (Removable) USB HDD External Hard Disk Drive 2000 ✔ Portable storage/backup
eSATA External SATA 2004 ✔ High-speed external HDD
SSD SATA SSD Solid State Drive (SATA) 2007 ✔ ✔ High-speed storage (general use)
NVMe Non-Volatile Memory Express 2011 ✔ Ultra-fast internal storage
USB SSD External Solid State Drive 2012+ ✔ Portable SSDs
Floppy 8" Floppy 8-inch Floppy Disk 1971 ✔ Legacy computers
5.25" Floppy 5.25-inch Floppy Disk 1976 ✔ Early PCs
3.5" Floppy 3.5-inch Floppy Disk 1982 ✔ ✔ Late PCs (1990s)
ZIP Iomega ZIP Disk 1994 ✔ ✔ Removable data storage
LS-120 SuperDisk 1996 ✔ ✔ Floppy replacement

HDD Form Factor

Form Factor Profile Platter Size (in) Width (in) Depth (in) Height (in) Application
5.25" Full-Height 5.12 5.75 8.0 3.25 All drives in early 1980s; Large capacity drives with many platters as late as the mid-1990s
Half-Height 5.12 5.75 8.0 1.63 Early 1980s through early 1990s
Low-Profile 5.12 5.75 8.0 1.0 Quantum Bigfoot, mid-to-late 1990s
Ultra-Low-Profile 5.12 5.75 8.0 0.75 - 0.80 Quantum Bigfoot, mid-to-late 1990s
3.5" Half-Height 2.5, 3.0, 3.74 4.0 5.75 1.63 High-end, high-capacity drives
Low-Profile 2.5, 3.0, 3.74 4.0 5.75 1.0 Industry standard, most common form factor for PC hard disks
Ultra-Low-Profile 2.5, 3.0, 3.74 4.0 5.75 0.75 Some newer low-profile server drives
2.5" Standard 2.5 2.75 3.95 0.37 - 0.59 Notebook, enterprise, and consumer drives
Slim 2.5 2.75 3.95 0.28 Ultra-slim notebooks, compact storage systems
1.8" Standard 1.8 2.1 2.8 0.31 Portable media players, ultralight laptops
PC Card Type I 1.8 2.13 3.37 0.13 Not used for hard disks (yet?)
Type II 1.8 2.13 3.37 0.20 Smaller-capacity expansion hard disks for laptops and consumer electronics
Type III 1.8 2.13 3.37 0.41 Higher-capacity expansion hard disks for laptops
Compact Flash Type I 1.0 1.69 1.42 0.13 Smaller-capacity flash cards for digital cameras, hand-held computers and consumer electronics; not used for hard disks (yet)
Type II 1.0 1.69 1.42 0.20 Larger-capacity flash cards and hard disks for digital cameras, hand-held computers and consumer electronics

Connector types 

Connector Type Year Introduced Dimensions / Pin Count Used For
IDC 50-pin Male Header 1986 50 pins SCSI (HDDs, Tape Drives)
IDC 40-pin Male Header 1986 40 pins IDE/PATA HDDs
IDC 34-pin Male Header 1981 34 pins Floppy Disk Drives (FDDs)
SATA 7-pin L-Shaped 2003 7 pins (data) + 15 pins (power) HDDs, SSDs, Optical Drives
Molex 4-pin Power Connector 1980s 4 pins Power for IDE HDDs, Optical Drives
Berg 4-pin Floppy Power Connector 1980s 4 pins Power for Floppy Drives
SFF-8482 2004 29 pins SAS Drives
SFF-8639 (U.2) 2011 68 pins Enterprise SSDs
M.2 Edge Connector 2013 22 x 30–110 mm SSDs
USB Type-A/B/C 1996–2014 Varies External Drives, Flash Drives
FireWire 6-pin/9-pin 1995 6 or 9 pins External Storage Devices

Interface type 

Connector Type Year Introduced Dimensions / Pin Count Used For
IDC 50-pin Male Header 1986 50 pins SCSI (HDDs, Tape Drives)
IDC 40-pin Male Header 1986 40 pins IDE/PATA HDDs
IDC 34-pin Male Header 1981 34 pins Floppy Disk Drives (FDDs)
SATA 7-pin L-Shaped 2003 7 pins (data) + 15 pins (power) HDDs, SSDs, Optical Drives
Molex 4-pin Power Connector 1980s 4 pins Power for IDE HDDs, Optical Drives
Berg 4-pin Floppy Power Connector 1980s 4 pins Power for Floppy Drives
SFF-8482 2004 29 pins SAS Drives
SFF-8639 (U.2) 2011 68 pins Enterprise SSDs
M.2 Edge Connector 2013 22 x 30–110 mm SSDs
USB Type-A/B/C 1996–2014 Varies External Drives, Flash Drives
FireWire 6-pin/9-pin 1995 6 or 9 pins External Storage Devices

Communication protocols

Interface Protocol Variants Year Introduced Used For
SCSI SCSI-1, SCSI-2, SCSI-3, Ultra SCSI, Ultra320 1986 HDDs, Tape Drives, CD-ROMs
IDE / PATA ATA, ATA-2, EIDE 1986 HDDs, CD/DVD Drives
SATA SATA I, SATA II, SATA III 2003 HDDs, SSDs, Optical Drives
NVMe NVMe 1.0–2.0 2013 PCIe SSDs (e.g. M.2, U.2)
USB Mass Storage USB 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2 1998 Flash Drives, External HDDs/SSDs
FireWire (IEEE 1394) 1394a, 1394b 1995 External Storage Devices
FDC (Floppy Disk Controller) NEC µPD765, Intel 82077 1976 Floppy Drives (8", 5.25", 3.5")
SAS SAS-1, SAS-2, SAS-3, SAS-4 2004 Enterprise HDDs, SSDs

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