To understand quality issues on IT storage technologies, it is necessary to start with a good understanding of how the physical aspects of the media itself, how it is manufactured, what are the key aspects of each basic component. Based on this information, longevity of each support is discussed and recommendations are provided.

Within each of these media technicques are applied to minimise the impact upon data of physical breakdowns in the media. The techniques are briefly outlined in a seperate section below.