At the moment, if you are looking to invest in a hard drive, you basically have a couple of choices.
For starters, there's the traditional hard disk drive, and then there is the relatively new kids on the block, the solid state drive also known as SSD.
At first glance you might not think there's such a huge difference between the two types of drives - especially given that they both used the same type of connection.
They are in fact quite different, the main difference being that they each store and access data in unique ways.
One much better than the other.
HDD vs.
SSD The standard HDD models have many moving parts and depend on magnetic materials and fields in order to function.
The solid state drive (SSD) does NOT.
All of the data is stored on memory chips like the everyday USB key or memory card you might use for your point and shoot camera.
Standard hard drives can also lose data or get damaged if they are exposed to magnest, while solid state drives just don't have that problem.
The Disadvantages of a Hard Disk Drive The most common form of hard drive is still the hard disk drive, and this has a lot to do with the price, as they are much cheaper than solid state ones.
Nevertheless, these are becoming less expensive, and more people are starting to see the benefits of them over the slower hard disk drive alternative.
These are also more prone to damage, and this is due to the fact that the read and write heads are in close proximity to the storage disk, than any dust or jolt or sudden movement can cause data to become corrupted and lost.
Due to the fact that solid state drives do not have any moving parts, there is less search time, and there is also less chance of the drive being damaged.
Data Access Speeds In order to get a feel of how fast they work here are some numbers.
The solid state drive can read data at an average of 200MB per second, compared with the 50 to 120MB per second of a hard disk drive.
In fact, some of the top end solid ones can read data at an amazingly fast speed of up to 500MB per second.
As you can see, there seems to be a number of advantages of using an SSD over a HDD, however, SSD's are not without their flaws, although it is only a matter of time before SSD's become more common than HDD.
For starters, there's the traditional hard disk drive, and then there is the relatively new kids on the block, the solid state drive also known as SSD.
At first glance you might not think there's such a huge difference between the two types of drives - especially given that they both used the same type of connection.
They are in fact quite different, the main difference being that they each store and access data in unique ways.
One much better than the other.
HDD vs.
SSD The standard HDD models have many moving parts and depend on magnetic materials and fields in order to function.
The solid state drive (SSD) does NOT.
All of the data is stored on memory chips like the everyday USB key or memory card you might use for your point and shoot camera.
Standard hard drives can also lose data or get damaged if they are exposed to magnest, while solid state drives just don't have that problem.
The Disadvantages of a Hard Disk Drive The most common form of hard drive is still the hard disk drive, and this has a lot to do with the price, as they are much cheaper than solid state ones.
Nevertheless, these are becoming less expensive, and more people are starting to see the benefits of them over the slower hard disk drive alternative.
These are also more prone to damage, and this is due to the fact that the read and write heads are in close proximity to the storage disk, than any dust or jolt or sudden movement can cause data to become corrupted and lost.
Due to the fact that solid state drives do not have any moving parts, there is less search time, and there is also less chance of the drive being damaged.
Data Access Speeds In order to get a feel of how fast they work here are some numbers.
The solid state drive can read data at an average of 200MB per second, compared with the 50 to 120MB per second of a hard disk drive.
In fact, some of the top end solid ones can read data at an amazingly fast speed of up to 500MB per second.
As you can see, there seems to be a number of advantages of using an SSD over a HDD, however, SSD's are not without their flaws, although it is only a matter of time before SSD's become more common than HDD.