HDD Vs SSD Vs SSHD? Which One Is The Best

If you go for buying a system or laptop then there are certain specs you might know before buying. One of them is storage components. The storage components have three type of drives one is Solid State Drive, second is Solid State Hybrid Drive, and other is Hard Disk Drive. Now the question is what are all of these and what is the difference between these three. This is very must to know about these two storage components so you can easily configure them and decide that which one your system should have. The usability of HDD, SSD, and SSHD are different according to the requirement as three of them are used on different events.

Let’s have a complete difference between these three so you can have a clear understanding of these HDD, SSD, and SSHD before buying a the storage component.

HDD – Hard Disk Drive

Use hard drives if you want to store more data inexpensively. HDDs are slower than other variants.

HDD is termed as Hard Disk Drive. The HDD s available since very old. In 1956, IBM used it for the first time. It has a mechanical arm which moves to read and write the data on particular location. If the user needs any information, HDD has to walk around that place and grab the data, so this takes the time to retrieve any required information with HDD. In short, HDD requires physical movement to fetch or get any information.

For writing the data, HDD can write data to any location on the plate at any time so there is a chance of data overwriting with HDD which can create an issue for some events. The HDD has an advantage, it has the capability of storing a large amount of data into it.

The size of HDD used in laptops is 2.5 inches. While in Desktops, the size of HDD used is 3.5 inches.

How HDD works

Hard Disk Drive has one platter, the both sides of this platter is coated with a magnet. This platter has millions of very small areas. Each area of this platter works on magnetizing and demagnetizing. The information in HDD will remain store even power is switched off due to the magnetizing mechanism. It only demagnetizes when you demagnetized it.

A read or write head moves above the platter to read and write the data. Each platter has 2 read or write heads. One is for reading the top surface and other is to read the bottom surface.

The data is stored in an order properly. Firstly HDD stores the map of sectors, that which sector is having data already or which sectors are free. Then after finding the free sector, it writes the new data over those free sectors. And if HDD has to read the data, the same process will run but in opposite.

Advantages

• HDD is easy to buy as it is not as much expensive.
• The storage capacity of HDD is very large.
• HDD are so common and easily available in any market or place.
• The life span of HDD is longer in terms of read and write cycle.

Disadvantages

• HDD has moving parts so chances of failure of any part can occur at any time.
• It has to move around to get the information, this makes HDD little slow in performance.
• HDD is large and bulky in size. So you can’t use it in small devices like mobiles phones, tablets or mini laptops.
• HDD uses a large amount of power.
• It creates noise while working.
• HDD uses more powers

SSD – Solid State Drive

Use SSD especially as Operating System drive for better performance and stability. SSDs are up to 10x faster than normal HDDs.

SSD is termed as Solid State Drive. It is like USB memory sticks but you can take SSD large size and sophisticated USB memory sticks. SSD can not be moved as there are no moving parts of it. The memory in SSD is stored in microchips.

If you need any information, SSD does not have to walk around anywhere to retrieve any information, it gets it directly within. It’s a very quick way than HDD, as HDD have to move around to get the required information.

SSD comes in standard size of 1.8 inches, 2.5 inches or 3.5 inches.

How SSD works

SSD have a Controller which serves as a processor. All operations of reading and writing are done by this Controller. SSD uses “flash memory” as RAM but SSD does not clear the memory when power is down, the memory remains stored in it.

SSD uses grid of electrical cells to quickly recieve and send the data. These grids are seperated by Pages. Pages are the location where data is stored. Many pages together makes a block.

SSD only writes if any blank page is available otheriwse it does not write on already written page. So there s no chance of data overwritting in SSD.

Advantages

• SSD is fast as it has no moving parts.
• As SSD has no moving parts so chances of failure is less, and this makes SSD reliable and durable,
• No data is overwritten in SSD.
• It uses less power.

Disadvantages

• SSD is expensive to buy if we talk about money.
• It has less and limited memory space.
• It is hard to find SSD in market as its availability is not so common.
• SSD has shorter life span because its flash memory can only be used for a limited number of writes.

SSHD – Solid State Hybrid Drive

A mix of both worlds, a fast cache of SSD while larger storage of HDD.

SSHD is termed as Solid State Hybrid Drive. SSHD is the mixture of both SSD and HDD. You can take SSHD as the ultimate solution for storage and performance within the budget. SSHD provides you storage capacity like HDD and working performance like SSD.

It has combined the small and fast amount of NAND flash memory. The SSHD uses SSD for lightning speed. The high capacity and reliability of HDD are integrated into it. And the Adaptive Memory technology is introduced in SSHD.

How SSHD works

SSHD works by using a small amount of high-performance NAND flash memory. It stores the most frequently used data with the help of this flash memory. With SSHD, files can be accessed quickly as it has SSD portion of the drive which is 8 GB in size.

It has a memory manager in the hard drive, and it will identify which data and files are used most frequently and it will store that most frequently used data and files in the flash memory that is the solid state part of the drive. So it is very easy to access those files as your system knows all your frequently used data and files.

Advantages

• SSHD drives are more reliable in use, as it has high speed with large space.
• It spins less and parts move less.
• You can easily access to those files and data which you use frequently.
• SSHD lasts much longer.
• SSHD is not expensive so you can easily buy it staying in your budget.

Disadvantages

• The HDD portion of SSHD is made up of fragile, so there is a chance of damaging if SSHD dropped or exposed.

So this is all the discussion about three drives. I hope you have now clear idea about each drive. If you are concerned about storage then you should go with HDD, and if you are concerned about speed then go with SSD. Whereas SSHD is the latest technology, so you want to explore new things and checks the latest technology then go with SSHD.

Which drive you prefer to use and why?