All terms in this list:

Machine Cycle: The series of steps performed by the computer when the CPU processes a single piece of microcode.

Storage Medium: The hardware where data is actually stored.

Storage Device: The hardware where a storage medium is read from or written to.

Hard Device: Hardware used to store most programs and data on a computer.

Magnetic Hard Drive: A hard drive consisting of one or more metal magnetic disks permanently sealed, with an access mechanism and read/write heads, inside its drive.

Track: A concentric ring on the surface of a hard disk where data is recorded.

Sector: A pie-shaped section on the surface of a hard disk.

Cluster: The smallest storage on a hard disk formed by one or more sectors.

Cylinder: The collection of tracks located in the same location on a set of hard disk surfaces.

Solid State Drive: A hard drive that uses flash memory media.

Disk Access Time: The total time that it takes for a hard drive to read or write data.

Disk Cache: Memory used in conjunction with a magnetic hard drive to improve system performance.

Hybrid Hard Drive: A combination flash memory/magnetic hard drive.

Optical Disc: A storage medium in the shape of a thin circular disc made out of polycarbonate substrate read from and written to using a laser beam.

Optical Drive: A drive designed to read optical discs.

Flash Memory Card: A small rectangular flash memory medium.

USB Flash Drive: Flash memory media intergrated into a self contained unit that plugs into a USB port.

Remote Storage: A storage device that is not connected directly to the user's computers.

Network Attached Storage (NAS): A high-performance storage server connected individually to a network to provide storage for computers on that network.

Storage Area Network (SAN): A network of hard drives or other storage devices that provide storage for another network.

Online Storage (Cloud Storage): Remote storage devices accessed via the Internet.

Smart Card: A credit-card sized piece of plastic that contains a chip and computer circuitry that can store data.

Storage Server: A storage device containing multiple high-speed hard drives connected to the computer system or network.