Ah, the the art of comparison. If you are unsure what (HDD) and (SSD) stands for, do not worry. I will explain the differences so when you look into buying either or you know a little about both. So HDD stands for hard disk drive,commonly called a hard drive is the most common device for storing and writing information. We use it in our computers to store all our drivers, and other important data and information. If you are still a little confused, imagine you are downloading a bunch of music and decide you will store it in a “Music” folder within the C drive of your computer. You are saving this music in your hard drive. Hard drives are good because without them it would be really hard to store data.

Now what gives gives the HDD, or hard drive, its name is that within the hard drive are “hard” rotating disks. They are officially called platters. Now these platters, or disks, are covered with very interesting magnetic material that allows the hard drive to write, store and read information. Hard Drives are decently priced and get more expensive by the gigabyte (GB). It would depend on the person though whether or not money is a major issue. Hard drives are the most common form of secondary storage also known as auxiliary storage. Auxiliary means additional or supplementary.

Now SSD, or solid-state drive is another kind of data storage device. The major difference is that instead of using “hard disks” to read and write data it used solid-state memory to store your data. The cool thing about solid-state drives is that they use microchips to hold data. The microchips store the data on non-volatile memory chips. When the memory is non-volatile it will save your data even if it is not supplied with constant electricity. See this is very interesting right? There are no moving parts within a solid-state drive which help keep the decibels down. If you are unsure what a decibel is it is the measurement of sound.

Some of the pros of having an solid-state drive over a hard drive is that well it is silent, and will less likely be burned out by physical shock. Trust me physical shock can be a very bad thing. Solid-state drives also have a much lower access time meaning they are faster to read and write on. Access time is the amount of time it takes for the drive to gain access and use certain data. Think about how long it may take you to do certain downloads to your hard drive. Or how long it takes for you to find and open a specific program stored on the hard drive. This all has to do with the amount of access time. For solid-state drives there is a lower access time meaning the time for files and data to be accessed on the drive is a lot less making it faster.

Even though the solid-state drive may have these pros they can be far more expensive per gigabyte. This can make a huge different in the choice hard drive or solid-state drive because of price. So after all that you have just learned which will you chose? Hard drive or solid-state drive? The hard drives are most common probably because of price. Even though solid-state drives are silent, and more safe because you don't have to worry so much about it getting killed by physical shock. The fact that they cost even more by gigabyte and just for a 120GB drive it can cost up to $214. While a hard drive for 500gb can sell fro $149. I mean the price difference is very huge. For some though the benefits of the solid-state drive is enough for them. So is the solid-state drive worth the price? Or until those prices decrease a little is it hard drive all the way?

For me I am sticking with hard drives, but I may just change my mind and one day save up for a solid-state drive. So is it hard drive disks or solid-state drives? I will let you decide.