There are many reasons behind a slow computer. It could be anything from a slower processor speed, to lower RAM.
It could also be related to your hard disk drive.
If it is, SSD (Solid State Drive) can be a solution for a slower computer.
If data transfer or file processing time is slow on your computer it could be because of your hard disk drive or HDD.
The time may be nigh to replace it with an SSD (solid-state drive).
If you’re planning to do so, to speed up your computer, this article will provide you with a quick explanation of the difference between HDD and SSD.
Contents
Hard Disk Data Transfer Speed
These days with cloud storage freely and affordably available, computer storage capacity isn’t much of an issue.
The main concern is hard disk speed.
HDDs perform much slower than SSDs.
The main drawback of an HDD is its high latency level. Read and write times take longer.
Compared to SSDs, HDDs support a lower number of input/output requests per second (IOPs).
The reason for HDDs’ slower speed is their spinning platters. Also, read/write heads are used. All these are mechanical parts.
That’s the reason why computer boot-up time is longer with an HDD. Some manufacturers claim that an SSD works up to 10 times faster than an SSD.
While you would have to take this with a pinch of salt, SSDs do offer you a speed boost.
Data Transfer Mode
With an HDD, data transfer is in sequential mode. The read-write head looks for or seeks a suitable location in the hard drive to successfully carry out an operation.
This mechanical operation takes time. The speed of data transfer can also be affected by the file layout system in the hard drive.
If the file system is heavily fragmented, the seek time increases and your computer will be slower.
In the case of an SSD, data transfer is in the random access mode rather than sequential.
This makes for a faster operation as there’s no need for the disk to look for a particular location in the drive.
Also, SSDs don’t come with read/write heads. So, no time is wasted in disk head motion.
Heat and Power Consumption
Hard disk drives use more electricity to enable them to function. As such more heat and noise are generated.
SSD requires no mechanical rotation. There’s less power consumption and a low amount of noise and heat are generated.
Defragmentation
Hard disk fragmentation happens when a file copied to it is broken up into different parts to fit the available space on the disk.
The result is files or parts of them are scattered about on your disk.
As files are often written, removed, or transferred, hard disk fragmentation occurs over time.
When bits of a file are scattered over different files on a hard disk, it takes longer reading and writing time.
This results in slower computer performance overall. To fix this problem, one has to defragment the hard disk often.
Many often fail to do this or do not know they have to do it and are saddled with slower computers.
SSDs don’t fall prey to disk fragmentation. So, one doesn’t have to defragment
SSD drive performance is not impacted by fragmentation. So defragmentation is not necessary to keep your hard disk drive in tip-top shape.
Here are more differences between HDD and SSDs that you should take note of.
Weight
Since hard disk drives largely consist of mechanical parts, they’re much heavier than an SSD.
Storage Space
When it comes to storage space, HDDs have the edge over SSDs. Currently, you can buy a hard disk drive with a storage capacity of 22 TB.
Consumer SSDs provide up to 8TB of storage space. Of course, this will increase in the future.
Price
HDDs are cheaper compared to SSDs.
A 1TB internal HDD costs around $40 while a 1TB SSD costs around $90, at the time of writing.
