In the past, most of us have been accustomed to the Hard Disk Drive (HDD). These days, it is possible to purchase an HDD that stores more than 200,000 times more data, fits in the palm of your hand, and costs around $100.
So why is it important that there is this other kind of storage, this “SSD,” or “flash storage,” as it is also referred to? The hard disk drive writes and reads data magnetically using a thin “arm” to access or manipulate data on spinning “platters,” that resemble tiny stacked CDs. Solid state drives, on the other hand, read and write data with electricity: unlike hard disk drives, SSDs do not contain moving parts, this offers a level of physical durability that the HDD cannot.
Another leg up SDDs have is their data access speed. Because there are no moving parts and because the drives exclusively rely on electricity to interact with data, an SSD can easily perform at least twice as fast as an HDD spinning at 7200 RPM. You’re probably thinking, “wow this is perfect, why do we even keep hard disks around?!” One draw back to SSD drives (aside from costing more than a traditional hard disk) is storage capacity.
As consumers, our computer usage has only grown, and our file size along with it and for some users this drawback is significant. When thinking about the options and benefits between the traditional hard disk and a solid state disk it might mean choosing between efficiency, security, and capacity. However, many who have transitioned to SSD drives in their computers will tell you the benefits outweigh the sacrifices!
If you want to know the nitty gritty of how SSDs work, check out this bibliography it’s a worthwhile read!