A Level Computer Science OCR Practice Exam

What type of storage uses magnetic material to hold data?

1. Optical Storage

2. Flash Storage

3. Solid State Storage

4. Magnetic Storage

The correct answer is: Magnetic Storage

Magnetic storage is specifically designed to utilize magnetic material for holding data. This type of storage employs magnetic fields to encode information onto a medium, where the orientation of the magnetic particles indicates binary data. Common examples of magnetic storage include hard disk drives (HDDs) and magnetic tapes, which are widely used for both personal and enterprise data storage. Magnetic storage differentiates itself from other forms of storage, such as optical and flash storage. Optical storage uses lasers to read and write data on discs, like CDs and DVDs, which is fundamentally different from the magnetic material utilized in magnetic storage. Flash storage relies on semiconductor technology to store data, retaining information based on electric charge rather than magnetic states. Solid-state storage, while also utilizing semiconductor technology, does not involve magnetic material. Therefore, the option that accurately describes storage utilizing magnetic material is undoubtedly magnetic storage.