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Secondary Memory

Webopedia Staff
Last Updated May 24, 2021 7:54 am

Secondary memory (or secondary storage) is the slowest and cheapest form of memory. It cannot be processed directly by the CPU. It must first be copied into primary storage (also known as RAM).

Secondary memory devices include magnetic disks like hard drives and floppy disks ; optical disks such as CDs and CDROMs ; and magnetic tapes, which were the first forms of secondary memory.