Practise Main memory and secondary storage. 12 exam-style questions on this subtopic, at up to four difficulty levels, with full mark schemes and a progress tracker. Free, no account needed.
Cover the answers and test yourself. The app has these as flashcards that come back just before you'd forget them.
Define the term 'volatile memory'.
Memory that loses its data when the power is off.
Give two things that are held in RAM while a computer is switched on.
The operating system, running programs and the data they are using.
Give one reason why optical discs are used less often today than in the past.
Most content is now downloaded or streamed, and many devices have no optical drive.
Sample questions
Written for this site in the style of Edexcel exam questions. They are not taken from real past papers.
Question 1Easy3 marks
(a) Define the term 'volatile memory'.[1]
(b) Identify the type of storage that has no moving parts.[1]
Magnetic hard disk drive
Solid-state drive
Optical disc drive
Magnetic tape drive
(c) Give one example of an optical storage medium.[1]
Show the answer and mark scheme
(a)Answer: Memory that loses its data when the power is off.
memory that loses its contents when the power is turned off
(b)Answer: Solid-state drive
(c)Answer: A DVD
CD / DVD / Blu-ray disc
Question 2Medium4 marks
Describe how data is stored on a magnetic hard disk drive.[4]
Show the answer and mark scheme
Answer: Spinning magnetic platters; a moving head magnetises tiny areas in one of two directions for 1 and 0, and detects them to read.
the drive contains platters coated with a magnetic material
the platters spin at high speed
a read/write head on a moving arm moves across the surface of the platter
tiny areas of the surface are magnetised in one of two directions (polarities)
the two directions represent 1 and 0
to read data, the head detects the direction of magnetisation
Question 3Hard5 marks
Maya's laptop has 8 GiB of RAM and a 1 TiB solid-state drive (SSD).
(a) Explain why the laptop needs both RAM and secondary storage.[4]
(b) Give one reason why the laptop's RAM is much smaller than its secondary storage.[1]
Show the answer and mark scheme
(a)Answer: RAM is fast and is where the CPU fetches the running programs and data from, but it is volatile; the non-volatile, much larger SSD keeps everything permanently.
RAM is volatile, so its contents are lost when the laptop is switched off
so secondary storage (which is non-volatile) is needed to keep the operating system, programs and files permanently
the CPU can only fetch instructions and data directly from RAM, so programs must be copied from secondary storage into RAM before they can run
RAM is much faster to access than secondary storage, so the CPU spends less time waiting
secondary storage has a much larger capacity (and is cheaper per GiB), so it can hold all of Maya's files and programs, not just the ones in use
(b)Answer: RAM is much more expensive per GiB, and it only needs to hold the programs and data currently in use.
RAM costs much more per GiB than secondary storage / RAM only needs to hold the programs and data that are currently in use