The permanent holding place for digital data, until purposely erased. Storage implies a repository that retains its content without power. Storage mostly means magnetic disks, magnetic tapes and optical discs (CD, DVD, UDO, etc.). It may also refer to non-volatile memory chips such as flash, ROM and EEPROM, but not to main memory. Main memory, which comprises DRAM and SRAM chips, is a temporary workspace for executing instructions and processing data, and they do not hold their content when the power is turned off.

Storage and Memory
Over the years, some vendors have referred to disks and tapes as "memory products," which blurs the distinction between storage and memory. To further confuse things, memory cards in digital cameras are indeed storage devices that do hold their content without power. See memory, dynamic RAM and static RAM. For summaries of all storage technologies, see magnetic disk, magnetic tape and optical disc.