Data storage

Handwriting, phonographic recording, magnetic tape, and optical discs are all examples of storage media.

[3] Barcodes and magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) are two ways of recording machine-readable data on paper.

Volatile organic compounds may be used to preserve the environment or to purposely make data expire over time.

Depending on the volatility, a gas (e.g. atmosphere, smoke) or a liquid surface such as a lake would be considered a temporary recording medium if at all.

A 2003 UC Berkeley report estimated that about five exabytes of new information were produced in 2002 and that 92% of this data was stored on hard disk drives.

[5] The amount of data transmitted over telecommunications systems in 2002 was nearly 18 exabytes—three and a half times more than was recorded on non-volatile storage.

The researchers' highest estimate for the growth rate of newly stored information (uncompressed) was more than 30% per year.

Edison cylinder phonograph c. 1899 . The phonograph cylinder is a storage medium. The phonograph may be considered a storage device especially as machines of this vintage were able to record on blank cylinders.
On a reel-to-reel tape recorder (Sony TC-630), the recorder is data storage equipment and the magnetic tape is a data storage medium.
Various electronic storage devices, with a coin for scale
DNA and RNA can be considered as biological storage media. [ 1 ]