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"Computer data storage" may sound like a highly technical term, but if you use a computer, you probably use data storage every day. The definition of computer data storage is simply the placing of information (text, photos, music, etc.) on any digital storage medium.
More accurately, computer data storage, or computer memory, refers to computer components, devices and recordable media that stores binary information for some interval of time. Binary information just refers to the ones and zeros that fundamentally serve as the building blocks for all digital data.
In a personal computer, computer data storage generally takes the form of random access memory (RAM) to store programs that are running and the files that are being worked on. The hard disk (or hard drive) stores the programs that aren't running and the files that are not being worked on at the moment. Lastly, removable media can be used to store purchased programs and archived documents for long-term purposes.
To elaborate, removable media could be a CD-ROM, a diskette, or a USB drive. Anything that can store digital information is a storage medium, and any storage medium that can be separated from the computer is considered a removable storage medium.
Computer data storage is important because it allows you to store files for later access. Think of it as a big filing cabinet. The difference with this filing cabinet, though, is that it can potentially store more than a million times what a regular filing cabinet could. Today, computer hard drives can store hundreds of gigabytes of information. One gigabyte (GB) equals 1000 megabytes, and 1000 megabytes is enough to store 50 documents. That means that a single 300GB hard drive can store about 15 million documents.
"Why even bother?' you might be thinking. Well, most computer users will store much more than just documents on a computer. Some people like to backup their music and movie collections on their computers. Others enjoy archiving hundreds—even thousands—of photographs on computers. These types of files use much more memory than documents, so significantly more space is required.
The size of today's programs and games are increasing as well. It's not uncommon for a single office suite program to require a gigabyte of space. Many video games today need seven or eight gigabytes of memory just to install.
Put into proportion, a 300GB hard drive might not seem that big after all. The amount of computer storage typically needed by users will continue to increase over time as technology progresses. The good news is that storage costs generally stay proportional to this demand, declining in price with each passing year.
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