The floppy disk is regarded as the first portable storage drive.
Storage devices in modern times can be found in virtually every electronic device. As technology improved, it became easier to put storage devices in computers. The history of storage devices, however, dates back several decades. The pioneering work of a select few computer companies allows people to enjoy storage devices in their current form.
First Hard Drive
In 1956, IBM created a computer called the "305 RAMAC." This computer was the first to come with a hard disk drive. The drive had a capacity of 5 MB. Because the hard disk drive weighed a ton, it was still impracticable for use in homes. IBM and other computer companies began to refine the storage-drive medium. In 1971, IBM introduced a technology called the floppy disk, a variation of which is still used today.
First Portable Storage Device
The floppy disk is a data-storage device composed of a circular piece of thin, magnetic storage medium. The medium is enclosed in a square or rectangular piece of plastic. The floppy disk is read and written on via the use of floppy disk drives. IBM's floppy disk held 80 kilobytes of data in its eight inch frame. The new medium was used as a simple way to transfer information from one computer to another.
First Optical Drives
At the beginning of the 1980s. the first optical devices were released. A compact disc is a disc used to store digital data, such as audio and files. The first CDs were released by Sony and Philips in 1980, after over a decade of research and work. The CD-ROM is a drive that uses the same physical format as a CD. Introduced in 1985 by Sony and Philips, the digital information is encoded at a size that allows large amounts of information to be stored (approximately 650 to 700 megabytes of data).
First Electronic Devices
In the 1990s, several electronic storage devices were developed. These small devices are used inside portable electronic devices such as cell phones and digital cameras. Most modern computers now include card readers that can can read and write onto the small electronic storage devices. In 1997, Toshiba released the Multimedia Card, upon which the currently widely used Secure Digital card format is based. In 1998, Sony released the portable Memory Stick, which is still pominently used as of 2011. Other electronic storage devices, such as xD, were introduced shortly thereafter. Modern technology allows these portable storage devices to store several gigabytes of data.
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