List of Born-Digital Media (draft)

This list describes born-digital media and formats curators and accessioning staff might encounter in dealing with hybrid or born-digital collections. For any questions, please contact the Digital Archivist, Monique Lassere.

Media Formats:

Magnetic
- Floppy Disk (3.5-inch, 5-inch, 8-inch)
Optical
- CDs and DVDs

Media Format	Description	Issues to Note
Floppy disk (3.5-inch, 5-inch, 8-inch)	Floppy disks are a type of removable magnetic storage medium composed of thin magnetic disks in square plastic enclosures. Floppy disks come in three formats and sizes: 3.5", 5.25", and 8".	While floppy disks look sturdy due to their plastic enclosure, the magnetic disk where the data resides is quite fragile and should never be taken outside of its plastic enclosure.
CDs and DVDs	CDs and DVDs are a type of optical disk composed of plastic. Lasers are used to read and write data to CDs and DVDs. The primary differences between the two lie in their sizes and manufacturing methods.	While CDs and DVDs are still used today, the storage medium is prone to scratching and therefore, data loss. Data in a CD resides on the bottom, not the shiny top surface where the manufacturer or label may reside. The bottom is more prone to scratching than the top side of the medium.
Compact flash card	Compact flash cards are a type of flash memory mass storage device used primarily in portable devices. These are still popular today.	Small, easy to misplace or damage.
Jaz disk	Jaz disk is a removable hard disk storage systems sold by Iomega in the 90's and early 2000's.	Jaz disks are not well-used today but relatively durable due to their enclosure and storage system.
Zip disk	Zip disks are removable magnetic storage cartridges. They have 3 capacities: 100MB, 250MB, or 750MB.	Zip disks are not well-used today.
Minidisc	Minidisc is a magneto-optical disc-based data storage devices that store audio.
SD Memory Card	SD memory card is a non-volatile memory card format for use in portable devices.	Today SD memory cards are still quite popular storage devices for digital cameras, personal computers, and mobile devices.
USB flash drive	A USB flash drive is a data storage device that includes flash memory with a USB interface.	USB flash drives are currently well-used and compatible with current computers.
Hard drives and computing equipment	Hard drives are computer storage devices. There are two types: hard disk drives (HDD) and solid-state (SSD). Hard disk drives connect to a computer over certain connections, such as: ATA, SATA, SCSI, SAS, Fibre Channel, IEEE 1394, and USB. HDDs are electro-mechanical data storage devices that store and retrieve data using magnetic storage and a mechanical function (Wikipedia). SSDs are solid-state deices that use integrated circuit assembles to store data persistently, typically using flash memory (Wikipedia).	Both hard disk and solid-state disk drives are in well in use today. Both are quite fragile and efforts to reduce shock should be made during transport and use. Though it is unlikely, we may receive internal hard drives, which lack a plastic enclosure, due to the fact that they once resides in a computing device of some sort. If a hard drive lacks a plastic enclosure or is internal, please alert the Digital Archivist.
Networked data/file transfer	Networked data refers to data, files, or other digital objects that were created or exist in their current format only on networked (i.e. cloud) storage. Networked data is typically only accessible through file transfer protocol (FTP) or some other file delivery method relying on network transfers for acquisition.