There are no platters, and no read-write head.

The key difference between a hard drive and a SSD is that, unlike a hard drive, a SSD has no moving parts. In fact, they are standard in many Apple laptops, including the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

Recently, solid state drives (SSD) have gained popularity.

Because hard drives are mechanical devices, they are susceptible to wear and tear.

Solid state drives are much faster than hard disk drives.

They can cause your computer to overheat.

Hard drives take a ton of power to run.

Depending on your computer, you may be able to increase your storage capacity without spending too much money.

They are cheaper per gigabyte than solid state drives.

Hard disk drives are a tried and true piece of technology.

Here’s a list of pros the come with opting for a hard disk drive: Because hard drives come in these standard sizes, repair and replacement is fairly straightforward. The most common sizes of hard drives are 2.5 inches, found in laptops, and 3.5 inches, found in desktops. Although it looks like the arm of an old record player, it doesn’t actually touch the surface of the platters. What this does is change the magnetic fields of the spinning platters.

There are one or more platters or disks that spin between 5,400 to 7,200 revolutions per minute around the centre axis.ĭata is written and read by something called a read-write head. Inside every hard drive is something that looks like a turntable. Now, we’re able to fit 10 terabytes into something as big as the palm of your hand. In those days, the drives were over half a metre long. The spinning hard drive was invented way back in the mid-fifties. They are the cheaper option of the two, especially with new technologies allowing for greater storage space on smaller drives. The hard disk drive has been a staple in computers and laptops for decades. If you are looking at a new computer setup or you need some computer repairs, then this article can point you in the right direction. This should give you a better understanding of the difference between hard drives and solid state drives. In this article, I’ll run through how each type of drive works, and list their pros and cons.

Hard disk drive vs solid state drive – you’ve probably heard these terms before, but do you know what they mean?

External solid state hard drive staples