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Direct access storage device

A direct access storage device, or DASD (pronounced DAZ-dee) is a form of magnetic disk storage, historically used in the mainframe and minicomputer (mid-range) environments.

The redundant array of independent disks (RAID) is a form of DASD.

"Direct access" means that all data can be accessed directly in -- a form of indexing also known as "random access" -- as opposed to having to seek sequentially through the data.

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