long-term storage
Extended data retention
Long-term storage is the keeping of data, goods, or materials for an extended period—months or years rather than days or weeks.
In computing, it refers to media like hard drives or cloud services that retain data when power is off, as opposed to volatile memory.
We put the furniture in long-term storage while living abroad.
The term also applies to memory: long-term storage is where the brain keeps information for later retrieval, distinct from working memory.
- time capsuleSealed trove for descendants
- biobankStored biological samples collection
- cryopreservationLow-temperature biological preservation
- seed bankCollection preserving plant genetics
- archiveStored historical records
warehouse · food preservation · nuclear waste · museum conservation · tape drives · repository · vault · backup · optical discs · hard drive · freezer · data encryption · mothballs · carbon sequestration · metadata · safekeeping · rainy day fund · memory bank
- storagedrive, silos, bins, tanks, storehouse
- data storagehard drive, hard drives, backup, gigabyte, flash drives
- nuclear wasteradioactive waste, disposal sites, spent fuel, nuclear waste, repositories
- parkingparking garage, parking lot, parallel parking, angle parking, parking space
- preserved foodsjam, pickles, jelly, sauerkraut, jerky
- aircraft storagehangar, maintenance bay
long-term storageshort-term memory
Fleeting cognitive storage
working memory · RAM · cache memory · buffer · volatile memory
long-term storagecache
Concealed storage spot
RAM · volatile memory · main memory · registers · flash memory