Source: (3) SSD vs HDD, which one is better? – Quora
Ken Gregg
Software Engineering and Management Positions for decadesUpvoted by
Sanjog Pandya, BIS Computer Science & Information Technology, Australian Catholic University (2004)Updated May 22
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Are solid state drives better than hard disk drives?
By most (but not all) measures, SDDs are “better”:
SSDs are faster than HDDs.
SSDs use less energy than HDDs.
SSDs have no moving parts, unlike HDDs, so motor and head/solenoid failures are not an issue.
SSDs are silent, while HDDs generate some noise from the motor and head mechanisms.
SSDs weigh less than HDDs, for comparable amounts of storage.
SSDs don’t require defragmenting to improve performance, because there is no time delay for mechanical rotation or head positioning activities that HDDs have.
However, nothing is perfect and nothing is free. Here are some potential downsides to SSDs:
Although prices have dropped some in recent months, SSDs still cost significantly more per byte of storage than HDDs.
SSDs capacities tend to lag behind HDDs. So, if you need a very large capacity on a single drive, it might not be available yet as an SSD.
SSDs tend to “wear out” over time as they are written to, although improvements in software, firmware, and hardware designs have helped to mitigate this issue. In most cases, an SSD will outlive the useful life of the system, but in some usage scenarios, it can become an issue sooner than later.
Note: If you (or the operating system) forgets to turn off scheduled disk defragmentation of your SSD drive, you can prematurely wear out the drive.
SSDs can start to lose their data over time, if not supplied with power and/or if stored at higher ambient temperatures. There is a lot of discussion about this, and many have hit the panic button about it without looking carefully at the data. But it’s something to consider. If an SSD is to be stored away, it should be imaged to a hard drive or some other non-SSD backup media for long-term storage. In general, don’t rely on stored-away SSDs as reliable, long-term, archival storage.
As an anecdote, I had a customer who switched a system from using HDDs to SSDs. The upgrade was pricey, but the improved performance, lower noise, and lower power draw were worth it. But while monitoring the drives’ S.M.A.R.T data on this system, which happened to have most of the data on drives rewritten two to three times a day, they discovered that the drives were going to wear out before the five-year warranty was up. Based on continuing the same usage pattern, and extrapolating the S.M.A.R.T. data, it looks like they’ll have to replace all the drives in under four years. Now, this is not a common usage pattern for the average user, but it does highlight the fact that the reliable lifetime of these drives can be affected by how frequently the entire drive is rewritten.
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Theo Lucia
10+ years experiences in Data Recovery IndustryUpvoted by MD Alebouyeh Nouredin, M.S, Computer Science, Stamford International University (2012)3y
There is no straight forward answer to your question. First, you need to know that how HDD and SSD work and then cross-match some parameters of HDD and SSD with your needs. Finally, you will decide which will be better for you. (So, Read till the end and then pick one of them)
The Hard Disk Drive (HDD), which has been around for the last half-century and still used in many mainstream systems. The Solid-State Drive (SSD), widely introduced in the previous decade. SSD has quickly transformed the performance and capability of modern data storage systems. Here are the parts of HDD and SSD:
How HDD and SSD work?
The HDD uses small moving parts to seek out data on a spinning platter mechanically. In contrast, SSD uses flash memory to store and access data. As a result, SSD can access your files and programs almost instantly.
Let’s see some comparisons like price, storage capacity, speed:
HDD vs. SSD: Price
- A 1TB internal 2.5-inch hard drive costs between $40 and $60 or less than that. The price of Hard drive (HDD) has decreased day by day.
- SSDs are more expensive than hard drives in terms of dollar per gigabyte. To buy a quality SSD of 1TB, you need to spend $125-$500 or more than that.
HDD vs. SSD: Capacity
- Commercial hard drives (HDDs) capacities range from 40GB up to 12TB for a while 8TB to 12TB size primarily used for servers and NAS devices. For Instance, you can get a 2TB hard drive for an affordable price, which offers you plenty of space.
- You can get an SSD up to 4TB Storage capacity. You can try a smaller SSD, maybe around 160GB–256GB.
HDD vs. SSD: Speed
- Solid-state drives (SSD) have always been much faster than traditional hard drives. In general, a SATA III hard drive speeds will be around 100MB/s (5,400 RPM) to 150MB/s (7,200 RPM).
- Average speeds for PCIe/M.2 SSDs will be from 1.2GB/s up to about 1.4GB/s. And if you’ve got the budget, you can reach 2.2GB/s.
When you need to use an SSD or HDD?
- You can use HDD for Disk arrays (NAS, RAID, etc.) where high capacity is needed, Desktops, when low cost is the priority, Media storage, etc.
- You can use SSD for Notebooks, laptops, where performance, lightweight, areal storage density are desirable, Boot drives holding operating system, Cache drives, Database servers, etc.
Best practice:
Use smaller SSD like 256 GB for your operating system to take advantage of the SSD’s higher speed and then you can use an HDD to store other files where speed isn’t as important.
The Decision
Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) are very cheaper, and you will get more storage within your budget. However, Solid-State Drives (SSDs) are faster, lightweight, durable, and consume less energy. Now, it’s time to make a decision on which storage drive will work best for you.