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What is the Difference between HDD vs SSD?

David Logan 4,170 Comments

Video – VLog #40

What is the difference between HDD vs SSD?

Which is better SSD or HDD?

Is SSD better than HDD for backup?

Script – VLog #40

Willie Nicol: Hello everyone. And welcome to week 40 – we deserve a medal – of The Techno Dinosaur Meets the IT Geek. I’m Willie Nicol, the Techno Dinosaur and also a personal development life coach. I’m based in Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland.

Willie Nicol: My partner in crime today, the IT Geek, is David Logan. So, David, how are you today and where are you?

David Logan: Hi Willie, I’m good thank you. I’m David Logan, the IT Geek, the guy who takes the jargon out of technology for the homeworker.

David Logan: I’m great. Amazing isn’t it? 40 weeks since we’ve started. So, before we jump in, I’m based here in Annan, south west of Scotland. But isn’t it amazing, 40 weeks. Willie, did you think we were going to get to this point?

Willie Nicol: No, I did not, no. However, we’ve plugged away at it, David, so I think we do deserve a medal. But it’s been since just the start of lockdown. We have been on, week in week out, with hopefully helpful information and handy tips on life coaching matters and technology matters.

Willie Nicol: So, today my questions refer to technology again. And we have covered this before but it was fairly superficial and I understand that you have some more in depth information for us today. So, we’re back to the topic of hard drives. What do you have to tell us today David?

David Logan: Excellent. Thank you, Willie. Yes, it’s just going through material which we’ve done in previous weeks but it’s the difference between SSD and an HDD. So, SSD is solid state drive. HDD is a hard disc drive.

David Logan: So, basically why, who would want each type of drive? If you want performance and you don’t have a lot of data to store you would go for the SSD, if you want performance. So, say you’ve got a laptop or a netbook that’s mobile, have an SSD in it. It’s fast access and that’s you. Whereas the hard disc drive, it can contain a lot of data and it’s cheaper, so it depends upon your budget and if you want to access that data fast, okay?

David Logan: So, I’m going to go through just a couple of quick, go into that in a bit more detail. So, that’s basically the difference there, base difference there. We’ve got to look at the speed. So, why is one faster than the other?

David Logan: The SSD, solid state drive, has got no moving parts. It’s like your RAM, it’s solid, whereas your traditional hard disc drive has got a circle of platters and has got a head that reads it, reads that data. So, I think this is back to your old, I was going to say violin, not violin, your old record player, your vinyl records. So, they’re spinning around so that’s your platter as it goes around with the head that reads the data. So, they were really going out of fashion when I kind of started knowing what was going on in the world, but you’ll be more familiar with that. But you can imagine, it’s all got moving parts so it’s easily damaged. So, that’s the difference there.

David Logan: Price we touched upon briefly. Price we talked about before where I said if you’re looking for a lower cost storage media, go for your hard disc drive – HDD. If you’re not bothered, if you’ve got loads of money go for the SSD. It depends on your budget. So basically, per gigabyte, per GB, the price is greater for SSD than it is for the HDD. Depends upon your budget but this obviously comes into the budget for your new machine whether it’s a computer or a laptop. Reliability. Which is the most reliable? You want to have a guess at that?   

Willie Nicol: I would suggest the SSD, since it has no moving parts, it would be more reliable than the HDD.

David Logan: Absolutely, yip. Do you know if you were to hit an SSD …. If you dropped a hard disc drive from a height onto a concrete floor it wouldn’t work. Doesn’t need to be any great height either can be a four foot drop. An SSD, it’s fine.

David Logan: I read somewhere actually before, took a leaf out your book and did a bit of research, that somebody actually hit an SSD drive with a baseball bat. Now how hard they hit it, I don’t know but it still worked. It still performed because it’s got no moving parts. Guess which variant has got the longer life span?

Willie Nicol: I would probably go with the SSD again.

David Logan: Correct. So, you see where the SSD is coming in more and more common now. Longer lifespan, more reliable. Why it’s got a longer lifespan? It’s because it’s not got moving parts. Doesn’t matter what you look at mechanically, our bodies as in my hips or moving parts in a car. If there’s any moving parts they’re going to rub against each other and, tear and wear, they’ll wear away. SSD doesn’t.

Willie Nicol: So, the only advantages of the HDD are (a) it’s cheaper and (b) it can hold more information. Is that correct? 

David Logan: Correct. Yes. SSD’s you can get to the same capacity but you’re talking about a lot of money. Currently, a lot of money. Now, as technology improves, I can see that coming down in price and you’ll see more devices being supplied with HDD’s cause you can imagine they’re more reliable, the cost is getting similar, the cost is the same. What are you going to go for?

Willie Nicol: You said there HDD’s, I think you meant SSD’s?

David Logan: Okay, SSD’s sorry. SSD’s are more reliable.

Willie Nicol: Well that makes sense, yes, as technology progresses things generally become a bit cheaper.

David Logan: Correct. So, let’s hope it comes down but up until this point there’s still quite a distance, quite a difference between one and the other. Hence the reason why the majority of low-cost systems come with HDD.

Willie Nicol: Okay. My final question would be what would you recommend in terms of capacity, storage capacity, gigabytes. How many?

David Logan: If you are looking at the lowest and cheapest, I would say 256 gigabytes. Now, the SSD’s can go right down to …. I think I’ve got a netbook with 128 gigabytes in it which is very borderline. I’m thinking now right I need to move this up now. Think about this project. I’ve got all the videos stored there.

David Logan: So, you’ve got to think that’s another aspect to using SSD or HDD. If you’re doing a lot of films, a lot of videos, a lot of photos, you’ll probably want an HDD storage where it’s cheap. Whereas an SSD is no good for that type of application.

Willie Nicol: Thank you David, I think that’s been very informative. So, it’s up to the consumer to make up their mind based on the criteria you’ve told us, whether to go for one or the other and if so, which storage capacity they need. I’m happy with that if you’re happy with it?

David Logan: I’m good with that, yes, thank you.

Willie Nicol: Brilliant. So, once again, David, thanks very much for that. I hope the viewer has got some useful tips and hints there on the difference between HDD and SSD and the storage capacity thereof.

Willie Nicol: So, all that remains for me to say, is thanks again David. To the viewer, stay safe, keep well and have some fun. It’s goodbye from me, Willie Nicol, the Techno Dinosaur.

David Logan: Thanks for your time Willie. To the viewer, if you have any questions fire them to us on the comments below. Doesn’t matter if it’s stress or anxiety to Willie. Or technical to myself. If you want to keep it confidential send us a private message, a direct message.

David Logan: For now, stay safe, stay healthy. All the best for 2021. Thank you.

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