Buying a Hard Drive: What You Need to Know

Whether you are using a desktop or laptop, investing in one of the best external hard drives is a fantastic choice. When you have large files to store and have low space on your computer or desktop, it is not only a smart investment but also an excellent way to save money. With the cloud space available for data storage, external hard drives lost their importance lately. However, modern hard drives are more stylish, durable, and faster than ever. Even you can access them whenever and where ever you want; there is no issue of the internet, unlike cloud storage.

It is excellent to create a backup of your important files over the cloud storage, but what will you do if the internet goes down or you are at the place with no connectivity to the internet. Have you thought about this? In these cases, an external backup or SSD or hard drive will work for you. There are many varieties of external SSD available of reputed companies, including Toshiba, Seagate, Hitachi, Samsung, and Dell hard drive. All hard drives die after a few years, and it is a smart choice to purchase a new one every second year for securing your data.

    Things you must know before buying a Hard Disk Drive

·         SSD vs. Hard Disk Drive

The first and foremost consideration while buying a device for storing data is whether you need a hard disk drive or solid-state drive. There are a few pros and cons of both, while traditionally, they serve the same purpose. Like, instead of a spinning metal disk found in HDD, an SSD uses flash memory. SSD is more like a giant SD card or USB drive. SSDs use flash memory to read data, so they understand and write faster than HDDs. Former conserve energy as it consumes less power and also extends laptop battery life.

·   Specifications and performance

Have a look at the list of specifications and performance of drives:

    1.      Storage capacity

The storage capacity of HDD is much higher than that of SSD, capping out of 16TB drive, whereas later it is only 5TB drive space. The solid-state drive cannot hold much space, and HDD has a wide range of storage capacity.

    2.      Transfer speeds

Numerous factors determine the performance of the drive; however, RPMs (resolution per minute) is the most important one. RPMs must be higher for faster transferring of data from and to the drive. Moreover, you can ignore the SATA speed of the drive. For instance, a disc can be listed as 2.0GB/s and 6200RPM. The SATA speed is that first value, which describes the theoretical maximum speed of a SATA connection. No hard disk drive can transfer data at that kind of speed. However, a 6200RPM drive will always be faster than a 5400RPM drive.

     3.      Cache speed

When there is a requirement to transfer data from one section of the drive to the other, it needs a particular area of embedded memory, which is generally known as cache or buffer memory. The more the buffer memory faster, the more data will be transferred, and more info can be stored at the same time.

    4.      Access times

Some of the other factors that impact performance in HDD are failure rate or the time it takes to read and write data.

·   Prices and costs

When looking for hard drives, you will come across a range of hard drive options, including Seagate, Hitachi, Samsung, and Dell hard drive. All of these have variations in their performance and cost but will look very similar on the surface. It is up to the requirement of an individual which hard drive to buy depending upon the factors and features. Select the one which is apt and fits your needs in the best possible way. 

     Hard drive sizes and interfaces

You have to pick a form factor once you have decided between what kinds of hard drive you want HDD or SSD. In HDDs, more disks are needed for higher data capacity, as data is stored on spinning metal disks. Whereas in SSDs, it doesn’t have any moving parts and uses flash memory to read and write data.

·     Internal vs. external hard drives

The last and final thing to consider while selecting a data storage drive is whether that hard drive is going to use in commercial or industrial laptop or desktop. You can choose between externally connected hard drives and internally installed ones depending on the use of the drive.

The bottom line

With the wide range of data storage devices available today, choosing one can be a daunting task. However, you can take the help of these considerations before making a choice. So don’t be anxious, just keep in mind your requirements while making a purchase.

Hardware Information Technology