Solid State Drives (SSD)
A Solid State Drive (SSD), like a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) is a form of non volatile storage. This means that it does not "forget" data when it has no power and as such it can be used as secondary (permanent) storage.
Unlike like a HDD, a SSD has no moving parts - such as platters, or a mechanical arm, and it doesn't use magnetism to store data. Instead an SSD uses flash memory chips to store data. It is the fact it has no moving parts that gives it the name Solid State drive.
An SSD has several advantages over a HDD:
- No moving parts means an SSD is generally more durable and reliable than a HDD - it can probably survie being dropped for example, or bashed. This makes them more suitable for portable devices like laptops and phones7
- Speed - SSD's can read and write data at a much much faster rate than a HDD (this is one of the reason they are popular for storing and loading things such as operating systems and games)
- Size - SSDs can be smaller and lighter than a HDD making them more suitable for portable devices
- Shape - an SSD can be made to be designed to fit an available space, where as a HDD demands a space that fits it
However there is one significant disadvantage : A SSD is more expensive than a HDD for the same storage space (capacity), and as the capacity increases a SSD can be twice the price of an equivalent HDD.
This is why a lot of modern PC's have both in - A SSD for the operating system and key software that needs to be fast, and a HDD for storing everything else.
Comparisson between SSD and HDD
