Hard Disk Drive Versus Solid State Drive

The hard disk drive or hard disk is considered as the heart of a computer. It is the most important part of the hardware. Programs and data are stored in the magnetic disks. This storage device of the computer is to store digitally encoded data on rotating plates with magnetic surfaces. The hard disk consists of many magnetic disks. This part of the hardware is a sealed unit with a magnetic read/write head. The unit works on two electrical motors which are meant for spinning the disk and to retain the position of the read/write assembly.

The hard disk drive is widely used in computers and is considered as a reliable device without which the computer cannot operate. But now there is an alternative to hard disk drive. Research and development activities have yielded a substitute. The new alternative is solid state drive which uses solid state memory. Unlike the hard disk drive it has no magnetic field or moving parts. Similarly the solid state drive does not require electricity. As there are no moving parts it is not fragile as a hard disk drive. More over this device is silent as there are no mechanical operations involved therein. Many experts on the subject have termed this innovative technology as the most important development in the history of computers. Having used it as an alternative to hard disk drive in desktops, it is now progressively adopted in PCs also. The new application is acclaimed as the ideal component to offer enhanced speed capabilities. The medium is not magnetic as in the case of hard disk drives as pointed out earlier. Semiconductors are employed for storing data in solid state drives. These drives are capable of accessing data in random and therefore offer faster speeds. They do not require an interface to read/write and a rotating disk as their counterpart.

However, there are skeptics who question the affability and cost advantage of the new version. They point out that the advantages of using solid state drives are not much attractive to consumers. The cost escalation is one adverse factor for those who seek economically viable products. The solid state drives are expensive than the hard disk drives. The low cost hard disk drives are reliable and of late their capacity has been enhanced. But then, the solid state drives are also becoming cheaper and energy efficient. It is now difficult to compare the advantages and disadvantages of both the products. Some of the experts are in the opinion that the advantages of Solid state drives are not very significant. For example, the performance of computers with 7200 rpm 2.5 inch hard disk drives and the performance of solid state drives are equal if all the relevant aspects in the system are considered in totality.