Computer components are made out of raw materials, like silicon and copper. How does something physical like that create and use things we can’t “see”, like data (0s and 1s)?
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Are you familiar with an [abacus](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacus) – it’s a counting device that uses mechanical manipulation of physical beads to encode data (numbers) and has been around for quite some time.
Most digital storage operates on a surprisingly similar concept. Just like rows on an abacus, there are locations (cylinders and tracks on a drive, offsets in memory etc) and at those locations there is a detectable signal (magnetic, electrical etc) that is or is not present.
Conceptually it’s just that simple, but of course the devil is in the detail
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