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The decade-old battle between hard-disk drives and SSD’s is essentially the fight of older, legacy technology (HDD)—yet still a viable option today—versus the emerging technology of SSD. The difference between SSD’s and HDD’s are as follows: a hard drive employs the tried and true system of disks (called platters) that can be written to via read/write heads.
The solid state drive has no moving parts. It utilizes microchips and is flash-based—very similar to the type of technology found on the common flash drive, or ‘thumb drive’ as some dub it. Additionally, an SSD is usually non-volatile, meaning that it even when it loses its power source, nothing is lost.
Solid state drives are much more rugged by design
As you might have already guessed, SSD’s are essentially more developed and more reliable than hard drives. Not only are they almost completely silent and produce very little heat (in contrast with an HDD), but they’re also more fault tolerant. If you were to drop (God-forbid!) your precious laptop that’s got an HDD, there is a much greater chance of damage and corruption of not only the drive—but the information on it too. Solid state drives are far less susceptible to drops, knocks, heavy vibrations, and even extreme temps.
SSD’s are the cutting-edge, but HDD’s won’t be obsolete for some time
All is not lost on the HDD’s side of the battleground, yet. Hard drives, despite their inherent vulnerabilities, are still the overwhelming technology being used today. Why? Because the price, per gigabyte, has fallen dramatically in the last 20 or so years—down to virtually pennies on the dollar in 2010. Moreover, solid state drives are still in their infancy, tech-wise. Many corporations, and even military outfits, are using SSD’s in their servers, databases, and elsewhere. So if you’ve got a hard drive, it’s safe to say that that it’ll still be a legitimate device for everyday use for some time to come.
SSD’s are to HDD’s as Blueray’s are to DVD’s
That’s a pretty accurate analogy. SDD’s are making their way onto the consumer scene in the form of in laptops and other portable devices, be it quite slowly. Cost is one of the most prohibitive features today. However, cost is probably—if not only—the only disadvantage that SSD’s have in contrast with HDD’s.
Hard drives just can’t compete with the SSD in terms of I/O rate (input/output), since the latter doesn’t rely on electromagnetic read/write device that have to “travel” across a platter. Furthermore, it’s been known for ages that hard drives—like cars and everything else that moves—take wear and tear. What’s the life of an average hard drive? Roughly 4-5 years. SSD technology almost puts HDD drives to shame in this regard.
In summary
What it all boils down to is economics. SSD’s are newer, faster, and more reliable. Hard drives, on the other hand, are more affordable, and still offer a viable method of data storage given that they aren’t exposed to extreme heat, shocks, or any other undesirable condition.
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