What is the difference between a hard drive HDD and SSD

Venturing into the world of computing with hardly any knowledge will undoubtedly be a challenge.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
07 August 2023 Monday 22:47
21 Reads
What is the difference between a hard drive HDD and SSD

Venturing into the world of computing with hardly any knowledge will undoubtedly be a challenge. At first, all the concepts will sound very new and complex, but you just have to go into it with patience and a great desire to learn. One of the aspects around which most doubts revolve are hard drives. These are devices whose function is to store digital data. That is, the space in which all the content of a computer is stored.

Over the years they have been perfected more and more. Increasingly fast and efficient, with smaller size and greater storage capacity, installed inside the computer or available externally and portable. But before getting hold of one of them, it will be important to know which type to opt for. Mainly you can find HDD or SSD category hard drives.

The first thing to keep in mind is that referring to both as “hard drive” is a mistake, since it is really a hard disk drive (HDD) and a solid state drive (SSD). Therefore, their nature and operation are also different, although both are devices dedicated to data storage.

While solid state drives or SSDs manage to store files in flash memory, hard drives or HDDs do so on magnetic hard drives. In other words, the technologies that both use to collect this data are different. The SSD is more recent and modern, it is based on the physical and chemical properties of silicon. So one of its most striking distinctions is that SSDs don't have moving parts, but HDDs do.

The writing and reading process in both works in a particular way. SDDs are faster than HDDs, since HDDs are largely limited by their moving parts. This becomes more than evident when working with large files that place greater demands on these devices. In this sense, SSDs are superior, since they can work faster and using less energy with larger files than HDDs.

When purchasing one of these drives, it is also necessary to be aware that SDDs are more durable than HDDs, since they do not have these mechanical parts that characterize hard drives. However, there is less variety of storage capacity on the market, especially if you are looking for large sizes, because SDDs are considerably more expensive in price than HDDs.