Hard Drive vs SSD- The Difference
You must have heard about SSD or HDD and have thought at-least-once that what is the difference between both of them. The basic answer is that both of them are storage devices. But they are different in terms of specifications and many more features. Before giving any conclusion to hard drive vs SSD let me explain to you what exactly Hard drive and SSD are.
HDD or Hard Drive
IBM introduced the hard disk in1965. The HDD stands for “Hard Disk Drive”. A hard disk is a mass storage device. The data stored in a hard disk can be recovered at a very fast speed. Today more than 150 companies have produced hard disk drives. The hard disk is made up of the platters. Each and every platter is a thin, metal plate is circular coated on both sides with magnetic material. The speed of the hard disk is recorded in revolution per minute (RPM). All these Platters are placed half an inch apart from each other. Each platter has an upper and lower surface. Each surface of a platter has a corresponding read/write head attached to a moveable arm.
All the disks of the hard disk drive move simultaneously, the central shift rotates in the same direction and at the same speed. In a hard disk drive, the information pack is stored on both the surface of each and every disk plate except the upper surface of the top plate and the lower surface of the bottom plate. Each and every disk has a number of invisible co-centric circles called tracks. The tracks are numbered starting with zero(0) from outside. Each and every track is divided into sectors. The size of the sectors may vary.
Advantages Of Hard Disk:-
- The capacity of the Hard Disk is large.
- It is very faster than optical disks like DVDs.
- The Hard disk has persistent storage.
- It can easily be replaced and upgraded.
Disadvantages Of Hard Disk:-
- The Disk surface of the hard disk can be damaged.
- It has heavy power consumption.
- Very Noisy.
- The read and write speed of HDD is slower than RAM.
Best 5 Hard Disk Drive:-
- Buffalo MiniStation Extreme NFC.
- Samsung T5 SSD.
- Western Digital My Passport Ultra 4TB.
- WD My Book Duo 4TB.
- Adata SD700.
SSD
Sandisk introduced the SSD in 1991. SSD stands for “Solid State Drive”. It is a device that uses integrated circuit assemblies as memory to store data persistently. It has an in/out interface in the form of SATA or PCle that feeds power and transfers data. SSD has no moving mechanical components that distinguish them from conventional storage devices such as HDD. The standard disk drives HDD which has been the predominant today tie storage for both computers and laptops. SSD uses flash memory technology which involves no moving parts. Flash memory is much faster than HDD, but it is more expensive. Solid State Drives are durable, run cooler, and consume less energy.
Types Of SSD
- PCIe and NVMe SSDs:- PCIe stands for “PCI Express“. It is used to connect graphic cards and network cards. This type of interface gives you high bandwidth and a low amount of latency and making it ideal when you need fast communication between SSD and RAM/CPU. Solid State Drives that use this connection are based on the NVMe (Non-volatile Memory Express Standard), it offers high input-output per second and low latency than SATA.
- mSATA III, SATA III, and SSDs:- SATA stands for “Serial Advanced Technology Attachment”. It is an older interface designed for storage
Advantages Of SSD
- Speed:- An SSD has access to a speed of 35 to 200 microseconds which is nearly 100 times faster than HDD. The faster access speed means the program can run more quickly which is very significant especially for programs that access large amounts of data often like your operating system and software.
- Reliability:- The SSD has no moving part is used flash memory to store data which provides better performance and reliability.
- Power:- The SSD uses less power than standard HDD, which means more energy saving, less electricity bill, and an increase in battery life on your laptop.
- Noise:- SSD has no moving parts. SSD generates no noise.
- Size:- Size of SSD is much smaller than HDD. SSD is available in 2.5 inches,1.8 inches, and one inch. This means increasing space and a decrease in size which is very good for us.
Disadvantages Of SSD
- SSD’s are more expensive than other storage devices.
- Data extraction is a very difficult and lengthy process in SSD.
- SSD has a limited number of memory chips which leads to unrecoverable data loss.
- The data recovery process in SSD is very expensive.
Best 5 Solid State Drives
- Samsung 970 EVO Plus (512 GB).
- Sabrent Rocket Q (8 TB).
- Patriot Viper VPR100.
- WD Blue SN550 (250 GB).
- Samsung 860 EVO (250 GB).
Hard Drive vs SSD – Conclusion
In terms of speed between HDD and SSD, Solid State Drive (SSD) are much faster than Hard disk drive (HDD). Today, HDD has a storage capacity from 1TB to 10TB. While SSD has a storage capacity from 120 GB to 4 TB. The price of SSD is very expensive as compared to HDD. Solid State Drive is more reliable than Hard Disk Drive and very less prone to accidental damage. The power consumption of HDD is more as compared to SSD, as it involves mechanical moving parts. The data durability of HDD is more durable than SSD.
Hard Disk Drives win on price and capacity. In terms of speed, ruggedness, form factor, noise, and fragmentation (a subset of speed) SSD performs better. If the price and capacity were not the major issues, Solid State Drive would be the winner.
