Difference between SSD and HDD

Key Difference: SSD stands for Solid State Drive or Solid State Disk. It is a plug and play storage device that uses semiconductor as a storage medium. HDD stands for Hard Disk Drive. These disks make use of quickly rotating magnetic platters to retrieve or record data. Unlike hard drives, SSDs do not contain any moving part. SSDs are considered to be more efficient than HDDs in factors like durability, power consumption, faster access, etc. However, HDD wins over SDD on factors like availability, storage space and pricing.

SSD stands for Solid State Drive. They are known to provide some significant benefits over the traditional hard drives. The primary storage mechanism is based on semiconductors and that is why these drives are known as solid state drives. These are different from the hard drive disks, as HDDs use magnetic media as the storage medium. SSD does not contain any moving parts and therefore there is almost no risk of a mechanical failure. It provides numerous advantages like fast access to stored information, no noise production, less power consumption, etc. The first SSD was implemented in IBM supercomputers in the 1970s and 1980s. The components of SSD include:

Either DRAM or EEFPROM memory boards
A memory bus board
A CPU
A battery card

These drives are equipped with their own CPUs for managing data storage, and therefore they are faster than the conventional rotating hard disks.

HDD stands for Hard Disk Drives. These drives use magnetism for storing data. The data is stored on a rotating platter. These drives are often preferred for the capability of storing data and that too at a reasonable rate. In appearance, a HDD is quiet the same as a SDD from outside. They have large capacity to store data in comparison to SSD. Due to the presence of moving parts, audible clicks and spinning can be heard while using a HDD. The components of a hard disk include:

Disk Case
Disk Platter
Spindle
Actuator
Read/ Write Arm

These disks are preferred by users who are ready to compromise on the peak system performance but not on the amount of storage space. They are also considered to be simple than other types of drives. Hybrid hard disks are blending the HDD technology and SDD technology to get the benefits of both.

Comparison between SSD and HDD:

	SSD	HDD
Full Form	Solid State Drive	Hard Disk Drive
Definition	The primary storage mechanism is based on semiconductors and that is why these drives are known as solid state drives.	These disks make use of quickly rotating magnetic platters to retrieve or record data. State Drive. They are known to provide some significant benefits over the traditional hard drives.
Pricing	Expensive	Cheap
Speed	Fast	Slow
Durability	Comparatively more	Comparatively less
Form factors	Possibility of shrinking further	Limit on the size (only upto a certain small size, they can be manufactured)
Noise	No noise	Audible noise
Signs of failure	None	Usually show signs like – throwing a S.M.A.R.T error
Performance (data access, boot ups, file transfers)	High	Low
Technology	Recent	Old
Defragmentation	Not necessary	Required periodically
Weight	Comparatively light	Comparatively heavy
Heat produced	Little	More
Storage Capacity	Less	More