Everyone knows there computer has a hard drive in it. Where else would you store all your data? Lets discuss the difference between a SSD (Solid State Drive) and a HDD (Hard Disk Drive).
When you buy a computer it will typically come with an HDD installed. An HDD is an older model hard drive. If you look at the image above, you can see a disk with an arm on it, similar to a record player. When you save documents and store data this arm moves back and forth across the disc writing on it. Since this drive has moving hardware that actively moves inside it can be a little less reliable compared to newer technology that is now available. This technology does has a 1.64% failure rate. What can cause a hard disk drive to fail? Firmware corruption, heat, water damage, hardware failure, or user error are a few of the reasons consumers see their drive fail.
Now lets discuss the newer technology that is an SSD or Solid State Drive. This new hard drive has no internal moving parts. It's failure rate stands at a .98% making the failure rate of a hard drive decrease by .66%. This technology can be called a SATA SSD or the newer version called a NVMe SSD. The SATA SSD looks similar to an HHD yet is still smaller while the NVMe SSD is more compact (See Image Below).
The speeds between the three versions have drastically increased as well. An HHD or Hard Disk Drive can copy 30-150MB of data per second. The SATA SSD can copy data at 300-500MB per second and with the biggest increase being seen with the NVMe SSD, it will copy data at 3,000-3,500MB per second.
While hard drives do not fail that often, it is still something consumers have to deal with. If your hard drive fails, you hear a clicking sound or just in general seem to be having issues, contact your local computer repair company to have it looked at so you can figure out how best to move forward.