Week 4 - Storage Devices

Week 4 - Hard Drives and SSDs compared

This week, I thought it would be interesting to talk about storage devices. In my experience, storage devices are one of the easiest upgrades you can make to your computer. Well, besides graphics cards and memory. Depending on your system, upgrading your storage could be a huge benefit. Nowadays, SSDs (Solid State Drives) are the preferred storage drives to have on computers. But, HDDs (Hard Disk Drives) still have their uses and are pretty cheap. So, what exactly are HDDs and SSDs?

So with hard drives, there are 2 distinct types. There are types with moving parts and those without moving parts. Magnetic hard drives are hard drives that contain moving parts. These are disk drives that read/write data by a servo motor with controlled arms. There are two tiny reads and write heads for each of the platters. These platters contain a magnetic medium which is why they are referred to as magnetic hard drives. There is one to read the top of the platter, and the other to read the bottom of the platter. The heads on this disk drive contain a small transducer to read or write data on each spot of the drive. Many people refer to HDDs as magnetic hard drives, rotational drivers, or platter-based drives. To put all this simply, the motor on this drive with 2 arms controls the data being written by a moving disk to read said data.  A transducer is then able to read the data on each portion of the drive. This is all able to happen thanks to a controlled magnetic aluminum platter.

SSDs serve as a nice upgrade to HDDs. Why? This is because SSDs are made of semiconductors and transistors that create electrical components with no moving parts. SSDs utilize flash memory chips to store data rather than spinning metal parts. HDDs on the other hand, have moving parts that require quite a lot of power, which generates more heat. With physical parts having to move as well, they will naturally wear down over time. SSDs are able to access their data much more quickly compared to HDDs. Because of this, SSDs can read and write data much faster. 

So what storage device should you choose? A lot of factors come into this. Performance, price, ease of upgradability, portability, form factor preference, reliability, etc...

Generally speaking, HDDs are good for reliably storing data for a longer period of time. If you are looking to hold a large number of files on a drive and want something that is relatively cheap, HDDs are the way to go. They may not have the fastest speed but tend to have larger capacities if that is necessary.

SSDs on the other hand, tend to be more expensive and have lower overall capacities. However, they handle data processing much faster and offer great quick data transfer. Nowadays, many people prefer to have SSDs in their systems. It is important to note, SSDs aren't as reliable long-term though. I suggest researching based on your needs to figure out what storage type is best for you.