Write-Once, Read-Many(or multiple). An optical mass-storage device capable of storing many megabytes of information but that can be written to only once on any given area of the disk. A WORM disk typically holds more than 200M of data. Because a WORM drive cannot write over an old version of a file, new copies of files are made and stored on other parts of the disk whenever a file is revised. WORM disks are used to store information when a history of older versions must be maintained. Recording on a WORM disk in performed by a laser writer that burns pits in a thin metallic film(usually tellurium) embedded in the disk. This burning process is called ablation. WORM drives are frequently used for archiving data.
The removable media drive known as WORM is designed to serve as a nearly bulletproof data archival system. If you have extremely important data files that absolutely must remain in an unaltered state, perhaps accounting or database data, a WORM drive can approve the kind of security you are looking for. Data written to a WORM disk cannot be changed.
The WORM disk is encased in high-impact cartridge with a sliding shutter similar to the shutter on a 3 �-inch floppy disk. The cartridge and the extremely durable nature of the disks worry free for data exchange. A WORM drive cartridge is very difficult to damage. The disk itself, with the media sandwiched in plastic, is not unlike a CD-ROM disc or a magneto-optical disk. The technology used to write a WORM disk, however, is more like the technology used for CD-ROM recording than that used for writing to magneto-optical disks. The WORM drive uses a laser to burn microscopic patches of darkness into the light-colored media.
