SSDs have become mainstream in the last decade or so, but have not completely replaced the hard drive as many had predicted would be the case.

Hard disk drives (HDDs) are mechanical devices containing moving parts, making then much more susceptible to physical damage. However, the magnetic platter where the data is stored are capable of storing a lot; it has been predicted that we may see the reveal of a 30TB HDD in 2022. Solid-state drives (SSDs), on the other hand, contain no moving parts, and use flash memory chips to store data; this makes them much less susceptible to physical damage. The main drawback, however, is that consumer grade SSDs simply can’t compete with HDDs when it comes to storage capacity, What’s more, the cost per gigabyte is still much higher when you compare SSDs and HDDs.

For home users, using an SSD as your primary storage device is a no-brainer; they’re fast, reliable, use less energy, and compact. Where you might want to consider using HDDs at home is for backups on external hard drives. In commercial settings, it is simply not presently viable to storage all data on SSDs. If we take, for example, a security camera setup. Security cameras in buildings are becoming more sophisticated, with HD and now 4K models common. Recording hour upon hour of surveillance footage to SSDs simply isn’t feasible financially.

In conclusion, solid-state drives are replacing hard disk drives as the primary storage device in PCs, particularly laptops. But there is still a place for the hard disk drive, which are becoming more associated with commercial storage due to the high price of solid-state drives.