Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drive and Its Main Types

From the last few decades in technological growth, data storage technology is the most important one. In a couple of years, we have managed to reduce the size of 1TB of storage from massive and standalone drives. The average user now has more and more storage options that are cheaper, compact and more efficient.

All the data on your computer exists on these devices. From operating system files to your important work documents, all are stored in the hard disk drive. Connect with our experts to learn more about our 900+ self-paced IT courses.

What Is Hard Drive?

In 1956, IBM first launched a hard drive that revolutionized data storage. Faster handling, safe storage and the capacity for bigger data are the most important advancements. Data storage and processing are some of the most critical types of hard drives. A hard drive is used to store and process data on the computer. It is often abbreviated as “HDD”.

Reasons to Buy a Hard Drive

The following are the reasons for you to buy a hard drive:

• You need a bigger storage room
• Your system getting slower and needs more space
• Establishing a new system (PC) from scratch

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Types of Hard Drives

Different types of hard drives differ, but they serve the same purpose of data processing and storage. Three different types of hard drives exist:

• Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA)
• Solid State Drive (SSD)
• Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe)

You'll learn about each form in this article and what their advantages and disadvantages are. This can help you pick one over the others, whether you are considering buying or constructing a new PC or updating your present one.

SATA

Even today, SATA is considered the most commonly used hard drive. It was introduced in 2003 and supports nearly all types of motherboards and computers. It usually comes in one of two sizes:

• For desktop computers: a 3.5 hard drive
• For laptops: 2.7 small hard drive

SATA drives disk can rotate at multiple intervals depending upon the model. The maximum speed limit is 10,000RPM to increment the transmitted data. Even some storage devices can lead to 15,000 RPM.

SATA hard drives compared to its predecessor, the PATA hard drives, are extremely fast and can write up to 6 Gb/s interface rate. A single drive can be approximately between 500GB TO 16TB. Moreover, compared to other hard drives it is available at a low cost.

Advantages

• Affordable
• Bigger disk size

Disadvantages

• Need periodic de-fragmentation
• Not laptop friendly

SSD

SSD is one of the new hard drive types that do not consist of moving components. This makes them less vulnerable to injury. Instead, they make use of flash memory chips to store data and provide quicker access to data. Alternatively, all data is stored on a non-volatile memory flash. They are much faster than SATA drives, as there is no needle to shift to read or write information. An exact speed is hard to find since it varies by supplier and form factor, but even the lower-performing drives are compared to SATA drives.

The downside is that these drives are considerably more costly and do not come in as many dimensions. SSD drives vary from about 120 GB to 2 TB and are roughly four times the price of the same size SATA hard drive. These drives are also much more reliable, as there are no moving parts, and they are made specifically for laptops, making them suitable for storage on the go. Nowadays they are very popular on laptops. For cellular transfers, SSDs are also used. This, like the flash drive, also has overall compatibility. To render it compatible with other devices, an additional wire is used.

Advantages

• Speedy
• Long-lasting

Disadvantages

• Fewer disk sizes
• More costly than SATA drives

NVMe

Non-volatile memory express was released in 2013. It is one of the models of SSD and adhered to the mainboard PCI Express (PCIe) slot. Originally, these slots were designed for graphics cards, so they are fast-moving. With a throughput of 3.9 GB/s, speeds on NVMe drives can exceed an interface rate of 32 Gb/s. If you are doing something that requires a lot of disc throughputs, such as gaming or high-resolution video editing, it can be useful.

Moreover, NVMe has some disadvantages. They are only available on desktop PCs and are very costly. You'll still want to install your operating system on it while they can be used as secondary drives, to use it to its maximum potential. At this time, most BIOS don't support booting from NVMe. One that does is always possible to have, but it might mean changing the entire mainboard.

Advantages

• Speedy disk drive in the market

Disadvantages

• Extremely costly
• Only available for desktop PC’s
• Require restoring of the mainboard to gain the full benefit

Which One to Buy?

If you are confused about which hard drive is best suitable for your laptop or PC, continue reading to find the answer. You have to choose what fits your technical specifications, capability and budget. Below are some guidelines that may help, and while they may not suit every scenario, when preparing your next PC build, you will find them useful.

If you want to consider a SATA drive, you may consider:

• Needs a considerable amount of room
• Requires a strict budget
• Needs a hard disc for general purposes

 SSD drive, best suitable for:

• For laptop customization
• Need fast storage of 2TB under 2TB

 You could be better served by an NVMe drive if you are:

• Constructing a high-end workstation or gaming PC
• Having no budget limitations
• Creating a server that will host a storage-intensive app.

It is also worth noting that you are not limited to purchasing only one hard drive; PCs will normally support several drives at a time. And depending on where you save files, whether you get the value you want from it will depend.