Types of hard drive. What types of hard drives are there?

Now I will tell you what a hard drive is, how to choose a hard drive, and how it works.

Hard drive – hard, disk drive (hard drive in computer geek slang), HDD – is a mechanical information storage device (data storage medium).

Winchesters differ:

A hard drive consists of a mechanical part and an electronic part. The mechanics are:

1. Sealed housing;
2. Metal plates (pancakes), most often aluminum;
3. Magnetic head block;
4. Loops and other details.

Operating principle

Metal plates are lined with a magnetic layer (usually a ferromagnetic material). A block of reading heads moves between them.

They do not come into contact with the plates and float in the air between them at a distance of about 10 nm. That is, the recording principle is magnetic, similar to the principle of recording on magnetic tape.

• Due to the rapid rotation of the plates, a powerful air flow is created between them and the heads, thanks to which the read heads do not touch the surface.

• When idle, the “heads” park and move to the (safe) parking zone. “Pancakes” can either work or stop, depending on the controller firmware.

Hard drives – HDD

The main differences between hard drives

• Today there are the following types of hard drives: HDD with outdated interface - IDE and common - SATA.

• Capacity ranges from 160 GB to 10 TB. By manufacturer, the most popular ones on sale are Seagate (Samsung), Western Digital (WD), Toshiba, and HGST. Hitachi recently became the property of WD.

• The main differences are in physical size (there are form factors 2.5 for laptops and 3.5 for desktop PCs. In terms of reliability, they are all the same.

Thickness 2.5 inches. There are different types of hard drives(for laptops, netbooks and ultrabooks):

• It is also important what spindle speed is 5400 or 7200 rpm and the amount of cache memory. Cache memory ranges from 8 to 128 MB. 32 – 64 MB is quite enough. In laptop HDDs (2.5), it doesn’t matter how much cache there is, you won’t see the difference. It is these indicators that you should pay special attention to when purchasing. Since the speed of the disk and the price, respectively, depend on them.

• In practice, it is believed that WD are considered more or less reliable and stable. This is the average price category. Moreover, Western Digital discs have an interesting series of “color” discs, which I described in detail in a separate article - for .

So, let's draw conclusions:

1) For laptops, select 2.5 format hard drives with a spindle speed of 5200 rpm. (since they make less noise and heat up less, but there is almost no difference from 7200 rpm)

2) For stationary PCs, select 3.5 format hard drives with a spindle speed of 7200 rpm (since the cases have large fans and heating of the HDD is not a problem).

3) We choose WD as the manufacturer. They are a little more expensive but more reliable.

4) Select the volume 1 TB (optimal price per gigabyte). 500 GB is not much cheaper, but 2 TB is significantly more expensive.

Now you know how to choose a hard drive to suit your needs, how these technically complex devices work.

The hard drive is one of the key components of every computer. It is used to store information. The operating system is installed on it, user data is recorded - photos, music, videos, programs are installed, and so on. The hard drive must be reliable, otherwise the user may lose his data. In this article, we will consider how to choose a hard drive, what parameters to pay attention to, when it is better to give preference to SSD drives and other issues.

Table of contents:

What kind of disks are there?

In the minds of users there is a well-established familiar concept of “hard drive”. But if earlier it meant one device made on magnetic platters (HDD), now this concept also includes hybrid disks (SSHD) and solid-state disks (SSD). Let's take a closer look at each type of disk:

• HDD disk. The cheapest of the three listed options, based on the cost per amount of available space. Modern HDDs have a capacity of several hundred to several thousand gigabytes. Such disks have a speed of about 120-150 MB/s. They can be used to store any information;
• SSD disk. It is not entirely correct to call an SSD drive a disk, since there are no disk elements as such. This is a solid-state device, something like a flash drive, with high operating speed (from 500 MB/s). The cost of such drives in terms of volume is significantly higher than the price of HDD drives. On sale you can find SSD drives of various sizes, from tens to hundreds of gigabytes. There are also terabyte options, but their price is extremely high. Typically, SSD drives are used to install an operating system on them.

We recommend reading:

Please note: SSD drives are different, depending on the type of memory on which they are built: V-NAND, 3D NAND.

• SSHD disk. This is a hybrid drive that includes elements of SSD and HDD drives. That is, the main volume of such a drive is carried out on magnetic platters (HDD), and a small volume is solid-state (SSD). Typically, the solid-state part of SSHD disks is used to install the operating system, and the main information is stored on the HDD component.

Physical sizes of hard drives

Currently, hard drives on sale can be divided according to physical dimensions (that is, width, length, height) into two groups:

• 3.5 inches are standard HDD drives for computers (stationary system units);
• 2.5 inches are SSD drives, as well as HDD drives for laptops.

Please note: If you are installing a 2.5-inch hard drive into the computer system unit, you will most likely need to purchase a special additional mount that allows you to securely fix it in the case. Some models of SSD drives come with such a mount.

Hard drive connectors

We recommend reading:

Each hard drive has 2 main connectors:

Hard disk capacity

The main parameter that you should pay attention to when choosing a drive for your computer is its capacity. Depending on what tasks a particular drive and computer will face, we can identify some algorithms for selecting the optimal volume.

Hard disk capacity (HDD) for a computer or laptop

The Windows operating system currently occupies about 10-20 GB on the drive, depending on the version and edition. Accordingly, the entire remaining volume of the drive will be allocated for storing other information - programs, multimedia, documents and other things. We recommend using the following methods for selecting a hard drive with the optimal capacity:

• When choosing a hard drive for an office computer on which you work with documents and interact with the Internet, you can choose a drive option from 320 to 500 gigabytes;
• For a home computer on which movies, various programs, etc. will be stored, it is better to choose a drive with a capacity of at least 1 terabyte. Considering that nowadays photographs and films weigh more and more due to their high resolution, a storage device of up to 1 terabyte will fill up with information extremely quickly;
• For a home computer that will be used as a data storage, and games and heavy applications will be installed on it (for example, for editing or creating 3D graphics), it is better to choose a hard drive with a capacity of 2 terabytes or more.

Please note: If you have a monitor connected to your computer that supports 4K resolution, it makes sense to choose larger hard drives, since one 4K movie can weigh about 100 gigabytes.

SSD storage capacity for a computer or laptop

The choice of SSD storage capacity depends entirely on the buyer’s finances. SSD drives are much faster than HDDs, but they also cost several times more.

If you need an SSD drive to install only the operating system on it, then you can choose options with a capacity of 32 gigabytes or more. But it is worth noting that in some situations it is more profitable to purchase an SSHD drive, that is, a hybrid drive with a small amount of solid-state memory for installing an operating system.

If an SSD drive is purchased for a computer on which the user actively works with “heavy” applications, for example, Adobe Photoshop, After Effect, Sony Vegas and others, it makes sense to install such applications on a solid-state drive so that they work faster. Accordingly, you need to choose the disk size based on how much space such applications will take up on it. An SSD drive of 128-256 gigabytes will be sufficient for most users.

Please note: SSD drives of several terabytes can now be found on sale. The price for them is tens of times different from the cost of HDD drives of similar volumes.

Which is better: one large disk or several small ones?

When choosing a hard drive for a computer, the user may wonder whether it is best to purchase one drive or several.

If you purchase a drive for a laptop, you have to rely on the free space in the laptop case. Most often, it has space for one or two disks.

If you are purchasing a hard drive for a desktop computer that has enough space to install disks, it is better to buy several drives rather than one large one. It is optimal when the operating system is on a separate disk (preferably an SSD), so that if a problem arises with the drive, other files will not be affected. It is also better to store work programs and files on a separate drive, while backing up the most necessary things to another large hard drive.

It is convenient to purchase a hard drive with a capacity of several terabytes (it may not be the fastest in terms of operating speed) in order to store various information on it - backups, photos, films, etc. Allocate a separate hard drive (SSD) for the system, and another for working programs.

Please note: When purchasing a hard drive for a desktop computer, you should not choose the SSHD option. Such solutions are aimed primarily at laptops.

How to choose a hard drive: characteristics

Hard drive capacity is an important parameter, but the speed and durability of the device does not depend on it. There are a number of parameters of HDD and SSD drives that directly affect their operation. We recommend paying attention to them when selecting a drive.

Rotation speed

The primary parameter for each hard drive made using magnetic plastic, that is, for HDD and SSHD options. SSD drives do not have rotating elements, so this parameter cannot be specified for them.

Its operating speed depends on the rotation speed of the disk spindle. The rotation speed parameter is limited, and it cannot be increased indefinitely, otherwise this will lead to a greater chance of device failure. Currently, most of the disks on the market have a rotation speed of 5400 to 7200 rpm.

The higher the rotation speed, the faster data is read from the disk. But at the same time, the device works more, heats up more, and consumes more energy.

Memory Buffer Size

The size of the hard disk memory buffer refers to the size of the cache memory. That is, it is memory that allows you to quickly perform minor operations. In modern hard drives, the memory buffer size does not exceed 128 MB. At the same time For normal operation of the hard drive, a buffer of 32 MB is sufficient, since the information sent to the hard drive cache is most often insignificant.

Linear reading speed

This parameter refers to the speed of the hard drive. It depends on the device components themselves, as well as on the rotation speed if we are talking about HDD or SSHD drive options.

In modern hard drives (HDD, SSHD), the normal read speed is about 150-200 MB/s. We do not recommend considering purchasing slower hard drives that have a linear read speed below 100 MB/s, especially if an operating system will be installed on such a drive.

Please note: Slow, large-capacity hard drives can be considered as information storage, for example, for storing photos.

As for SSD drives, they are much faster. On average, the speed of consumer SSDs is 450-500 MB/s. There are also slower (and cheaper) options, but choosing them is not advisable due to cost and characteristics; it is better to give preference to a high-speed HDD.

Important: Linear read speed is usually not indicated in the specifications of a hard drive - HDD or SSHD. You can check it using applications. For SSD drives, the read speed is indicated.

Linear write speed

We recommend reading:

As the name suggests, this is the speed at which information is written to the hard drive. Typically, disks have a linear write speed that is lower than their linear read speed. This is due to the fact that this parameter has practically no effect on the speed of the disk - loading time of the operating system, response time of programs, and so on.

Important: High-quality SSD drives have linear read speeds equal to linear write speeds.

Access time

Another important parameter to pay attention to is access time. The speed of reading and writing information to the hard drive directly depends on it. The shorter the access time, the better. This time indicates how long when the hard drive is accessed by the system, the drive responds, that is, provides the necessary data.

For HDD drives, access time usually varies from 13 to 15 ms, if we are talking about high-quality drives. It is not recommended to purchase disks with a higher indentation time, especially if this drive will contain an operating system. This will seriously slow down your entire computer.

For SSD drives, manufacturers usually do not specify the access time parameter, since it is hundreds of times lower than that of HDD drives.

The best manufacturers of HDD and SSD drives

There are hard drives from dozens of different manufacturers on the market. Depending on who produced the drive, the duration of its uninterrupted operation depends. When purchasing a hard drive, we recommend giving preference to trusted manufacturers, such as:

• Seagate- a company whose main activity is the production of SSD and HDD drives. This manufacturer holds patents on many key technologies that allow their hard drives to perform faster than competitors' options;
• Samsung- the largest brand, which, among other things, produces hard drives. Often laptops come with Samsung hard drives installed by default;

Hello! In we looked at the hard drive device in detail, but I didn’t specifically say anything about interfaces - that is, ways of interaction between the hard drive and other computer devices, or more specifically, ways of interacting (connecting) the hard drive and the computer.

Why didn't you say so? But because this topic is worthy of no less than an entire article. Therefore, today we will analyze in detail the most popular hard drive interfaces at the moment. I’ll immediately make a reservation that the article or post (whichever is more convenient for you) this time will have an impressive size, but unfortunately there’s no way to go without it, because if you write briefly, it will turn out to be completely unclear.

Computer hard drive interface concept

First, let's define the concept of "interface". In simple terms (and this is what I will express myself in as much as possible, since the blog is intended for ordinary people, like you and me), interface - the way devices interact with each other and not only devices. For example, many of you have probably heard about the so-called “friendly” interface of a program. What does it mean? This means that the interaction between a person and a program is easier, not requiring much effort on the part of the user, compared to a “non-friendly” interface. In our case, the interface is simply a way of interaction between the hard drive and the computer motherboard. It is a set of special lines and a special protocol (a set of data transfer rules). That is, purely physically, it is a cable (cable, wire), on both sides of which there are inputs, and on the hard drive and motherboard there are special ports (places where the cable is connected). Thus, the concept of interface includes the connecting cable and ports located on the devices it connects.

Well, now for the “juice” of today’s article, let’s go!

Types of interaction between hard drives and computer motherboard (types of interfaces)

So, first in line we will have the most “ancient” (80s) of all, it can no longer be found in modern HDDs, this is the IDE interface (aka ATA, PATA).

IDE- translated from English “Integrated Drive Electronics”, which literally means “built-in controller”. It was only later that IDE began to be called an interface for data transfer, since the controller (located in the device, usually in hard drives and optical drives) and the motherboard had to be connected with something. It (IDE) is also called ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment), it turns out something like “Advanced Connection Technology”. The point is that ATA - parallel data interface, for which soon (literally immediately after the release of SATA, which will be discussed below) it was renamed PATA (Parallel ATA).

What can I say, although the IDE was very slow (the data transfer bandwidth ranged from 100 to 133 megabytes per second in different versions of the IDE - and even then purely theoretically, in practice it was much less), but it allowed you to simultaneously connect two devices to the motherboard at once , using one loop.

Moreover, in the case of connecting two devices at once, the line capacity was divided in half. However, this is far from the only drawback of the IDE. The wire itself, as can be seen from the figure, is quite wide and, when connected, will take up the lion's share of the free space in the system unit, which will negatively affect the cooling of the entire system as a whole. All in all IDE is already outdated morally and physically, for this reason the IDE connector is no longer found on many modern motherboards, although until recently they were still installed (in the amount of 1 piece) on budget motherboards and on some boards in the mid-price segment.

The next interface, no less popular than the IDE in its time, is SATA (Serial ATA), a characteristic feature of which is serial data transmission. It is worth noting that at the time of writing this article, it is the most widespread for use in PCs.

There are 3 main variants (revisions) of SATA, differing from each other in throughput: rev. 1 (SATA I) - 150 Mb/s, rev. 2 (SATA II) - 300 Mb/s, rev. 3 (SATA III) - 600 Mb/s. But this is only in theory. In practice, the writing/reading speed of hard drives usually does not exceed 100-150 MB/s, and the remaining speed is not yet in demand and only affects the speed of interaction between the controller and the HDD cache memory (increases the disk access speed).

Among the innovations we can note - backward compatibility of all versions of SATA (a disk with a SATA rev. 2 connector can be connected to a motherboard with a SATA rev. 3 connector, etc.), improved appearance and ease of connecting/disconnecting the cable, increased compared to with IDE cable length (1 meter maximum, versus 46 cm on the IDE interface), support NCQ functions starting from the first revision. I hasten to please owners of old devices that do not support SATA - they exist adapters from PATA to SATA, this is a real way out of the situation, allowing you to avoid wasting money on buying a new motherboard or a new hard drive.

Also, unlike PATA, the SATA interface provides for “hot-swappable” hard drives, which means that when the computer’s system unit is powered on, hard drives can be connected/detached. True, to implement it you will need to delve a little into the BIOS settings and enable AHCI mode.

Next in line - eSATA (External SATA)- was created in 2004, the word "external" indicates that it is used to connect external hard drives. Supports " hot swap"disks. The length of the interface cable has been increased compared to SATA - the maximum length is now two meters. eSATA is not physically compatible with SATA, but has the same bandwidth.

But eSATA is far from the only way to connect external devices to a computer. For example FireWire- high-speed serial interface for connecting external devices, including HDD.

Supports hot-swappable hard drives. In terms of bandwidth it is comparable to USB 2.0, and with the advent of USB 3.0 it even loses in speed. However, it does have the advantage that FireWire is able to provide isochronous data transmission, which facilitates its use in digital video, since it allows data to be transmitted in real time. Sure, FireWire is popular, but not as popular as, for example, USB or eSATA. It is used quite rarely to connect hard drives; in most cases, FireWire is used to connect various multimedia devices.

USB (Universal Serial Bus), perhaps the most common interface used to connect external hard drives, flash drives and solid-state drives (SSD). As in the previous case, there is support for “hot swapping”, a rather large maximum length of the connecting cable is up to 5 meters when using USB 2.0, and up to 3 meters when using USB 3.0. It is probably possible to make the cable longer, but in this case the stable operation of the devices will be in question.

USB 2.0 data transfer speed is about 40 MB/s, which is generally low. Yes, of course, for ordinary everyday work with files, a channel bandwidth of 40 Mb/s is enough, but as soon as we start talking about working with large files, you will inevitably begin to look towards something faster. But it turns out there is a way out, and its name is USB 3.0, the bandwidth of which, compared to its predecessor, has increased 10 times and is about 380 Mb/s, that is, almost the same as SATA II, even a little more.

There are two types of USB cable pins, type "A" and type "B", located on opposite ends of the cable. Type "A" - controller (motherboard), type "B" - connected device.

USB 3.0 (Type "A") is compatible with USB 2.0 (Type "A"). Types "B" are not compatible with each other, as can be seen from the figure.

Thunderbolt(Light Peak). In 2010, Intel demonstrated the first computer with this interface, and a little later, the no less famous company Apple joined Intel in supporting Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is quite cool (how could it be otherwise, Apple knows what is worth investing in), is it worth talking about its support for such features as: the notorious “hot swap”, simultaneous connection with several devices at once, truly “huge” data transfer speed (20 times faster than USB 2.0).

The maximum cable length is only 3 meters (apparently more is not necessary). However, despite all the listed advantages, Thunderbolt is not yet “massive” and is used mainly in expensive devices.

Let's move on. Next up we have a couple of very similar interfaces - SAS and SCSI. Their similarity lies in the fact that they are both used primarily in servers where high performance and the shortest possible hard disk access time are required. However, there is also a flip side to the coin - all the advantages of these interfaces are offset by the price of devices that support them. Hard drives that support SCSI or SAS are much more expensive.

SCSI(Small Computer System Interface) - a parallel interface for connecting various external devices (not just hard drives).

It was developed and standardized even somewhat earlier than the first version of SATA. The latest versions of SCSI have hot-swap support.

SAS(Serial Attached SCSI), which replaced SCSI, was supposed to solve a number of shortcomings of the latter. And I must say - he succeeded. The fact is that, due to its “parallelism,” SCSI used a common bus, so only one of the devices could work with the controller at a time; SAS does not have this drawback.

Plus, it's backwards compatible with SATA, which is definitely a big plus. Unfortunately, the cost of hard drives with a SAS interface is close to the cost of SCSI hard drives, but there is no way to get rid of this; you have to pay for speed.

If you are not tired yet, I suggest you consider another interesting way to connect an HDD - NAS(Network Attached Storage). Currently, network attached storage systems (NAS) are very popular. Essentially, this is a separate computer, a kind of mini-server, responsible for storing data. It connects to another computer via a network cable and is controlled from another computer through a regular browser. All this is needed in cases where large disk space is required, which is used by several people at once (in the family, at work). Data from the network storage is transferred to user computers either via a regular cable (Ethernet) or using Wi-Fi. In my opinion, a very convenient thing.

I think that's all for today. I hope you liked the material, I suggest you subscribe to blog updates so as not to miss anything (form in the upper right corner) and we will meet you in the next blog articles.

Hello, dear friends!

In today's short article we will talk to you about hard drives (HDD), more precisely, what a hard drive is, its classification and types. Before choosing a hard drive, you should know what types of drives there are and what types of interfaces they support. In this note you will find all the necessary information on this issue. And we will start with the question, what is a hard drive?

What is a hard disk drive (HDD)?

Hard magnetic disk drive (English hard (magnetic) disk drive, HDD), hard disk, in computer slang “hard drive” - a random access storage device (information storage device), based on the principle of magnetic recording. It is the main data storage device in most computers.

Why is a hard drive called "Winchester"? According to one version, the drive received the name “Winchester” thanks to Kenneth E. Haughton, who worked at IBM, the head of the project, which resulted in the release of the 3340 hard drive in 1973, which for the first time combined disk platters and read heads in one one-piece housing. When developing it, engineers used a short internal name "30-30", which meant two modules (in maximum configuration) of 30 megabytes each, which coincided with the designation of a popular hunting weapon - the Winchester Model 1894 rifle, using a rifle cartridge 30-30 Winchester.

Unlike a “floppy” disk (there used to be so-called floppy disks or floppy disks), information in a HDD is recorded on hard (aluminum or glass) plates coated with a layer of ferromagnetic material, most often chromium dioxide - magnetic disks.

An HDD (hard disk drive) uses one or more platters on one axis. In operating mode, the reading heads do not touch the surface of the plates due to the layer of incoming air flow that forms near the surface during rapid rotation. The distance between the head and the disk is several nanometers (about 10 nm in modern disks), and the absence of mechanical contact ensures a long service life of the device. When the disks do not rotate, the heads are located at the spindle or outside the disk in a safe (“parking”) zone, where their abnormal contact with the surface of the disks is excluded.

Also, unlike a floppy disk, the storage medium is usually combined with a storage device, a drive and an electronics unit. Such a hard drive is often used as a non-removable storage medium.

The following types and types of hard drives are distinguished:

Desktop Hard Drive: their size is 3.5″, rotation speed is 5400 and 7200 rpm, they support IDE, SATA, SATA-II and SATA-III interfaces. Server hard drives: These are the same size as desktop hard drives, but are faster (their rotation speed can be up to 15,000 rpm, possibly even faster). They support parallel SCSI and serial SATA and SAS interfaces. Compared to desktop drives, server drives are much better quality. Their continuous operation time is approximately 1,000,000 hours.

External hard drive designed for storing and transporting large volumes of information. They are also called mobile media. They allow you to transport, for example, audio and video files or office archives. The external hard drive is equipped with a controller for connecting to a specific port. The controllers support USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and FireWire (1394) interfaces.

Laptop Hard Drive: their size is 2.5″, rotation speed is 4200 or 5400 rpm. They support the SATA interface and, as a rule, have (at least should have) high shock resistance.

Types of interfaces for connecting hard drives.

Make sure that the interface supported by the hard drive is available on the motherboard.

USB- interface for serial information transmission. Its throughput is 12 Mbit/s (USB 1.1) and 480 Mbit/s (USB 2.0). Now USB 3.0 has appeared with even greater bandwidth. It is considered a standard interface for connecting hard drives, especially external ones.

IDE- interface for parallel information transfer. Its throughput is 133 Mb/sec. Most often, desktop computers and laptops have this interface. Its competitor is the SATA interface.

SATA- interface for parallel information transfer. Its throughput is much higher - up to 300 Mb/sec. It is more resistant to interference and is significantly superior to the IDE interface.

SCSI- interface for parallel information transfer. Used primarily in servers. Has high performance and reliability.

SAS- (Serial Attached SCSI) - serial information transfer interface. This is a more advanced modification of the SCSI interface with a higher data transfer rate.

FireWire- interface for serial information transmission with speeds up to 400 Mbit/s and high throughput. It simply has no analogues when working with video information.

Note. The numbers here may not be accurate or outdated, because technology today does not stand still, but is developing at a rapid pace.

That's all for now! I hope that you found something useful and interesting for yourself in this post. If you have any thoughts or considerations on this matter, please express them in your comments. See you in the next posts! Good luck!

Today, on the computer components market, hard drives are represented by two main types - SDD and HDD. Which one is better? Let's look at this issue in detail.

HDD – classic hard drive

HDD is a classic hard drive, which is a box containing round magnetic plates and read heads. Data is stored on magnetic plates, and read heads, accordingly, read this data. The principle of operation of an HDD is similar to a gramophone, except that the spindle speed is much faster. The HDD spindle spins magnetized plates at speeds of 5400 and 7200 rpm. These are the most common spindle speeds for HDDs intended for consumer computers. The spindle rotation speed can be much higher - for example, 10,000 or more revolutions per minute, but these are already server equipment standards.

HDD inside / forumrostov.ru

What does the HDD spindle rotation speed give? This indicator often measures the speed of reading and writing data from a hard drive - the higher the spindle speed, the faster the speed of reading and writing data. But this is not entirely true, since the performance of the HDD is also affected by its other indicators - recording density and random access time.

The higher the recording density, the faster the HDD will be. The recording density of modern HDDs is 100-150 GB/sq.in. With the random access indicator, the opposite is true, because this is the time during which the hard drive will read or write data on any part of the magnetic plate. Therefore, the shorter this time, the better. The range of this parameter is usually from 2.5 to 16 ms.

Thus, in computer operation, the difference between two HDDs with a spindle speed of 5400 and 7200 may not be noticeable.

HDDs also differ in physical dimensions and in the technical characteristics of models are designated according to their width. This size is 3.5 inches - the standard HDD size for PC assembly - and 2.5 inches - the HDD size for laptops.

SSD – new format hard drive

SSD– in the technical characteristics of computer devices you can also find its other name “solid-state drive” - in fact, it is a voluminous flash drive with enormous data reading and writing speeds compared to HDDs. SSD is 3-4 times faster than HDD. It will take no more than 10 seconds to fully load Windows installed on the SSD, while this operating system on the HDD will load in about two minutes.

What is the secret to SSD performance? The HDD, for example, when Windows starts, spends time searching for sectors on the magnetic platter and moving the read heads. When running exactly the same version of Windows with exactly the same functionality at startup, the SSD simply reads data from the specific block of the matrix where this data is located. The operating system, programs, and individual files launch faster on an SSD drive.

SSD inside / fotkidepo.ru

SSDs do not add much weight to laptops, because they weigh no more than 100 g. While a 2.5-inch HDD weighing 700-800 g clearly will not make it easier to carry the device on a daily basis.

Unlike HDDs, SSDs are not susceptible to shocks or falls. But if you accidentally drop your laptop, you can add to the hassle of replacing the HDD and restoring data.

SSDs operate silently, while a good high-speed HDD can even interfere with sleep if the computer is left on overnight.

By the way, about data recovery, in this matter the SSD loses to the HDD. Recovering data from an SSD is problematic. If, for example, there is a power surge, the SSD will burn out completely and all data will be destroyed. But in an HDD in exactly the same case, only a small board will burn out, while all the data will remain on the magnetic plates. If desired, IT specialists can restore this data. The same applies to the recovery of data previously deleted by the user using special software. On most SSD drives, it will not be possible to recover deleted files after emptying the Recycle Bin. But SSD manufacturers are already working on this issue; moreover, some models of solid-state drives may not physically clear the matrix blocks from the recorded data at the time the user command is received, but do it later, when it becomes necessary.

But this is far from the most vulnerable point of solid-state drives. Their disadvantages are as significant as their advantages over HDDs.

Firstly, this is the price. SSD is very expensive. For the price of a 60 GB SSD, you can buy a good HDD with 1 TB of disk space.

Secondly, it is a small volume - an SSD with a capacity of 512 MB is quite rare in the computer components market; much more common standards are volumes of 128 GB or 60 GB. As we can see, such arrangements do not make an SSD a full-fledged device for the user’s needs, and if we are not talking about an ultra-thin ultrabook, a laptop or PC will still have to be equipped with an HDD for file storage. Using only an SSD for data storage, we repeat, can result in a decent amount of money.

Thirdly, SSDs have a clearly defined service life. You can rewrite data on an SSD up to 10,000 times. HDDs do not have such restrictions, and it is rare that users change a hard drive for this very reason. As a rule, this is either mechanical damage, overheating, or modernization. Given the high cost of SSDs, the computer device must be equipped with at least 8 GB of RAM to be able to disable the Windows page file. After all, constantly overwriting the data in this file will help the SSD resource run out faster.

SSD or HDD: which is better to choose?

Which is better HDD or SSD? If you have free funds, of course, an SSD as part of a PC build or in a laptop will not hurt. Despite all the technical shortcomings of a solid-state drive, it is beneficial for using it as a system partition for Windows. If your income is not yet particularly conducive to serious spending, a good high-speed HDD is a much more practical option.

Photo on the main page: HDD hard drive next to an SSD drive / 123rf.com