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Hard disk drives(HDD) and Solid state drives(SSD) explained: Advantages included:

The SSD and HDD both provide suitable means of storage but they have their good and bad sides, which customers may not be aware of.



First off, let's start with the basic explanation of the two.

What is HDD?:

The HDD( Hard disk drive) was invented in 1956 by an american multinational information technology company called IBM( International business machines). This form of storage is rather common and is available at cheap prices. For example a Terabyte hard drive can be gotten for at least 50$. This is an obvious advantage of the HDD compared to the more expensive SSD.

The HDD is a plain magnetic disk that rotates at a high speed and the rotation is measured in RPM( rotations per minute) . It consists of a head that writes data on the rotating disk. Magnetic Platters stores all the information in the  Hard Drive. Physically platters are round in shaped coated with a magnetic plate over it. Each one platter is organized into circles, known as tracks. Tracks are separated into logical units called sectors. As result of each track and platter form unique address that used to locate and organized the data with pointer method.

Now with the the little explanation above it can be seen that the HDD has moving parts so therefore is a mechanical  device. It also has slower read/write speed compared to the SSD which is about 50mb/s.

The maximum flow of data depends on the RPM of the Hard drive. That means a hard drive of 7200 RPM will be much faster than a hard drive of 5400 RPM. Now let's break into the advantages of the HDD.



Advantages of HDD over SSD:

1: Higher storage space:
The HDD is readily available at different storage options- usually at a higher base capacity than the SSD. HDD can be bought at 2TB or 4TB at the market. Even going up to 10TB per hard drive. In gaming laptops or generally notebooks as a whole, 1TB is common while a boot drive of SSD of about 128gb might be present to speed up loading times.

2: HDD is readily available in stores:
The HDD is actually consistent in online stores and local shops alike. As mentioned that 1TB is a common standard for storage, people who already have SSD's can obtain a hard disk drive to increase storage capacity. For example some gaming laptops only come with SSD for faster boot and to increase the overall performance of the laptop. Western digital and Seagate drives are readily available at online stores like Amazon and Bestbuy.

3: HDD is cheap:
The main advantage of the hard disk drive is the relatively low price of the various configurations. A 1TB drive can be gotten for as low as 50$. The SSD on the other hand is expensive and not usually going above 1TB due to the high cost of Silicon chips.

Although the advantages of the HDD looks good, it does have some consequences.

Disadvantages of HDD:

1:Noticeable noise:
As said previously, the HDD is a mechanical device.When the HDD is being used, the metallic splatter spins continuously therefore making a  unique metal sound This is even more prominent during boot times and backup of data.

2:HDD is much slower:
A major disadvantage of the HDD is the speed factor. As stated above, Different HDD have various read and write speeds as RPM.A computer with HDD would boot slower than a computer with SSD. That's why gaming computers come with at least 128gb of SSD for boot.


3:Higher power consumption:
Another disadvantage of a hard disk drive is that it consumes more power than SSD. The storage device basically needs more power input to rotate the metallic platter and position  the magnetic head.to read properly. The implication of this is that manufacturers would instead opt for an SSD for computers that are more compact or that have limited battery capacity.

With that explained, Let's move unto the Solid state drive:

What is SSD?:

The SSD is basically an improved version of the hard disk drive. It was used as RAM(random access memory) when it was invented in 1972. It is mostly expensive and only available at limited configurations. Most computers use it as boot due to it's impressive speed. The SSD in turn edges out the hard disk drive in terms of speed.

The SSD uses integrated memory as it's means to store data.This can also be said to be flash memory-as it does not need power to operate making it power efficient.


The HDD uses a rotating metal platter or disk with magnetic coating to store data. This is a clear advantage of the SSDover the hard disk drive.

SSD isn't mechanical like the HDD, So doesn't have any moving part. This in turn prevents  any type of data loss problem or drive corrupt problem. The best part of SSD is, the read/write speed of SSD is 250mbps-500mbps which is an upgrade compared to the 50mbps of HDD drives. But SSD drives are more expensive with less storage space compare to HDD.



Remember we haven't outlined the various advantages of
the SSD over the HDD.

Advantages of SSD:

1: speed factor:
Unlike a HDD, An SSD  doesn't have any moving parts, Hence  it's much faster  when it comes to reading and writing data. In the solid state drive, there are Semiconductor flash chips. The data is stored in the that Semiconductor Flash Chip compared to the HDD's revolving disk. This would mean that the SSD would be ideal for faster boot times and data transfer, as well as reduce loading times in applications and video games.

2: Less Noise:
The SSD operates at a lower sound level than the HDD. This is due to the fact that it isn't a mechanical device.

3:Higher power optimization:
The HDD consumes more power because of rhe rapid rotation of the magnet-coated metal platter. An SSD has no moving parts and it does not require mechanical work to become operational. This low power consumption gives solid-state drives another advantage. This means that an SSD is suitable for energy efficient computers and consumer electronic devices. Furthermore, using a solid-state drive reduces the probability of overheating.

4:Compact and less data loss incidence:

An SSD is more compact than HDD because of the absence of movable parts. This also means that a solid-state drive is a more suitable storage component for portable devices such as Gaming handhelds, Phones and Notebooks. The ssd is obviously more reliable than a HDD.

Now the SSD isn't 100% Perfect, but let's outline the disadvantages.

Disadvantages of the SSD:

1: Price factor:
The SSD is more expensive than a regular hard disk drive due to the more sophisticated parts involved.  That is mostly the reason why an SSD can cost twice as much.

2:limited storage configurations:
These drives have limited storage capacities due to the high price. Most computer manufacturers  use less Gb SSd's for the Reason of boot. SSD's can be gotten up to 256Gb, with 1 Tb SSD's being a rarity.

3:Not readily available:
HDD's are relatively abundant in the markets, spawing from local retailers to online stores. But SSD's are really rare and often in limited stock. We believe in the future, SSD's will be more available.

4: Rather short life-cycle:
The SSD has a limited write cycle. The flash memories of the SSD can only be used for a limited number of writes. An SSD cannot write a Strip of information without deleting and then rewriting very large blocks of data at one time. As the process get's repitited, it dies the SSD more. However, this decaying process does not affect the read capability of the entire SSD. In addition, because of technological advancements, the lifespan of an SSD lasts until the Computer itself breaks down.
With these evaluations, You can select the drive that would be more convenient for your use.  

But if you're stuck with a HDD, go for a hard disk drive with a higher RPM( rotation per minute) as a HDD with 7200rpm is faster than one with 5400rpm.

Or you might look into SSHDD's which are an advanced Hybrid of SSD's and HDD's.

Please drop your comment's as we would love to hear from you. 

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