Solid State Drive (SSD) and Hard Disk Drive (HDD) are data storages for operating systems (OS) accumulating all system applications and personal files. They also help with booting systems. Many wonder what the actual differences are between these two drives and which one they should chose for their hardware. On this blog, we review comparisons on both SSD and HDD.
If you are not already aware, HDDs are much older than SSDs. They are metal platters with magnetic coating that contains all saved data. Because this type of drive is older, it is more established, therefore two times less expensive than an SSD. Because of this, there are also more available choices for these from different manufacturers. This point is something you should definitely keep in mind if you decide to go with an HDD, and especially if you are one to be rougher with your technology, considering the fact that HDDs are easier to be ruined if your computer or laptop is dropped, due to its moving disk.
Another downfall that comes with an HDD is that files, especially larger ones, can become fragmented much more frequent than with an SSD. This is due to OS saving data wherever possible, on any free space available on the disk.
A big difference between an SSD and an HDD is the way they are built and how they save data. Unlike an HDD, an SSD does not have any moving parts. Instead, it has many interconnected flash memory chips that gather all data. Because SSDs are much newer, they are set up to boot more quickly and allow computers to perform a lot faster overall. Unlike HDDs, which makes noise when running, they also do not make any noise when powering through, this is due to it being non-mechanical. For this same reason, they are likely to be more durable than an HDD because they do not acquire movable disks that can be ruined. With laptops becoming smaller over time, SSDs are becoming the more popular drives to use because of its ability to be created in smaller sizes. HDDs in the other hand are limited to how small they can be produced because of their spinning platters.
The only main downfall that comes with an SSD is that they are more expensive than the older drives. If you could look past this initial purchase, then you could potentially save a lot of time and future expenses by changing to one of these.
Categorised in: computer lifespan, Computer Support, data management