I once mentioned to the kids I was teaching how useful I found having CD-ROMs to store stuff on. “What?!”, they said. “You had CDs back then?”

Young people always seem to have a working assumption in life that the technology they use only came into existence when they did. Anything else is ancient history. With that in mind, perhaps your pupils will find the infographic below useful and interesting. It charts the development of data storage and recovery from the time of Babbage, in 1834. Along the way there are interesting articles, photos and videos.

The infographic incorporates a very interesting timeline feature: you can navigate by moving the vertical bar or clicking on the arrows, or even by swiping your finger. It was sent to me by Kroll Ontrack, so it’s a bit of an advert, but I don’t think the advertising is too intrusive.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I am not being paid for product placement!

A history of data storage & recovery

Source: Kroll Ontrack UK