Solid-state drives (SSDs) are storage media for computing devices, but they can read as well as write data much faster than traditional HDD hard drives thanks to flash memory, making them best for working quickly and smoothly on a PC.
General questions and information about SSD hard drives
What does the abbreviation SSD stand for??
The shortcut SSD stands for both "Solid-State-Drive" as well as for "Solid-state disc". In German, these terms can most likely be loosely translated as "Solid state drive"Translate.
However, the term "drive" in the name "Solid State Drive" is misleading, since an SSD has no moving parts and is thus actually not a drive that makes a certain medium work. There SSDs but more and more frequently alongside or as HDD Hard Drive Replacement the term "drive" in the name "solid-state drive" is quite intentional.
What is a solid-state drive hard disk?
Picture of a SSD – hard disk (SanDisk X110)
SSD hard drives unlike hard disk drives (HDD), SSDs do not store data on magnetic discs but on the integrated flash memory of the Solid State Drive. For this reason, an SSD can read and write data much faster and is therefore significantly faster than an HDD.
In addition to solid state drives, other devices such as SSDs are also used.B. USB sticks and SD memory cards The SSD also uses a form of flash memory as a storage medium, but these do not come close to the reading and writing speed of a good SSD hard disk.
How does an SSD hard drive work?
An SSD uses memory more efficiently than HDDs do. Solid state drives read and write frequently used data to the cache, to retrieve and access these files more clearly faster.
SSD hard disks also ensure, in contrast to HDD hard disks, that they data that is no longer needed and deleted is actually deleted and cleaned up and not as with hard disk drives (HDD) only zeroed and overwritten. Due to this procedure, it is only understandable that an SSD hard disk often consumes more power than a normal HDD hard disk, but this can be overcome by the performance gain.
Who invented the SSD hard disk?
SSD hard disks for private users have only been around for a few years, more precisely since the year 1999. Since 2009 SSD hard disks are getting bigger and also cheaper and therefore more interesting for the average computer user.
The first forerunners of solid state drives have already been around since the late 1950s and probably goes to the account of IBM company. Since the mid-1970s/80s, these SSDs have also been used in the IBM supercomputers as storage media in Form of semiconductor memory uses.
Who needs an SSD hard disk or. When is a solid-state drive worthwhile??
There is no generalized answer to this, but it is usually the case that once someone has seen and used the advantages of an SSD, they want to use it again and again and no longer want to do without it.
All users who frequently do complex work (such as.B. Image, sound and video editingUsers who use an SSD to perform complex tasks (such as data processing) on a computer will enjoy shorter loading times due to the faster data processing of an SSD and can therefore use the SSD for more complex tasks work faster and more efficiently.
SSD hard disks are increasingly being used in laptops, tablets and smartphones
Where are SSD hard disks used?
SSD hard drives are increasingly used in new PCs, laptops and iMacs. Sometimes SSD hard disks are already available in the bargain configurations of discounters or electronics markets.
However, it is also possible to install an SSD hard disk in almost every older computer, if it has compatible hardware in the form of a mainboard with the right connections, and to use the SSDs there Advantages of solid state disks Enjoy.
What are the advantages of an SSD hard disk??
The biggest advantage of SSD hard disks is the increased read and write speed in contrast to conventional HDD hard disks. As a result, the operating system boots significantly faster and the programs and games installed on the SSD hard disk also start and run faster.
Another advantage is that solid-state drives are more efficient than HDDs due to the use of Flash memory a have higher shock resistance, since here no disks must be rotated magnetically and not first the positions of the desired data must be "reached". For this reason, SSDs are becoming increasingly popular in mobile computers such as smartphones, tablets and notebooks.
How can I tell if I have an SSD hard disk??
Normally, when you start the operating system, you can immediately tell if you are using an SSD hard drive or not, because with a well-set-up solid-state disc hard drive, the operating system is usually up and running within a few seconds. Under Windows you can still see in the Device manager (under Start> Control Panel> Device manager) which hardware is correctly installed and connected.
Installed drives under the Windows Device Manager
In Device manager under the tab "Drives" are the installed hard disks is displayed, on the example screenshot this is on the one hand a Western Digital Blue 2.5 inch 1 TB (terabyte) HDD hard drive and one 256 GB (gigabyte) Toshiba HG5 Series mSATA SSD.
questions about the speed of solid state drives
Why are Solid-State-Drives faster than HDD hard disks?
Solid-State-Discs – hard disks are by the use of the flash memory clearly faster than HDD hard disks, because here the data must be found not like with the IDE and SATA – Hard Disk Drives first by the positioning of the read and write head on the magnetic disk, but should be able to be read directly from the SSD’s cache.
Why do solid-state discs become slower??
Since deleted data on an SSD hard disk is not completely deleted, but only removed from the data content directory, it can happen after some time that when saving new files, the old files already deleted from the content directory are now actually deleted and thus overwritten.
This can happen especially with older solid-state drives or also with SSD hard disks that have the functions "TRIM" and "garbage collection" do not support for performance losses. If necessary, reformatting the solid-state disc will help here.
Why is my SSD hard disk so slow?
That an SSD hard disk is slow can have many reasons.
On the one hand, it can be that the solid-state drive hard disk is at must adjust other components in the computer and thus loses speed, because the other components throttle them.
On the other hand it can also be a sign that something is broken on the solid-state disc hard drive. But for this there are numerous tools to recognize the reasons, one of them would be the "AS SSD benchmark tool"what you can download here.
Questions about using SSD hard disks
What to install on an SSD hard drive?
Of course, the very first thing you should do is operating system of a computer (z.B: Windows or Linux) should be installed on the SSD hard disk. This is the only way to get the full performance of a solid-state disk in the daily use of the computer the full performance of a solid-state drive in the daily use of the computer.
Besides that it makes sense to use the most frequently used programs and games to install on the SSD. With games, the graphics are not improved with the help of an SSD, but there is above all an increase in performance Lower loading times for larger games, which can increase the gaming fun significantly.
How big should the SSD hard disk be??
Here it depends of course on what you want to do with your PC, laptop and/or iMac and how to use it in the daily work.
Of course, the required Size of the SSD hard disk The more programs and games one wants to install and use on the SSD hard disk, the more storage space is of course needed on the solid state disk.
Technical questions about SSD hard disks
How to install a SSD hard disk drive?
No matter if you install a solid-state drive in a PC or an Laptop would like to install, both are possible for Advanced computer users normally in a few steps. Before installation of an SSD hard disk However, it should first be checked whether the PC or laptop has any is compatible with an SSD.
Installation of a SSD hard disk in a PC
At PC It is best to install an SSD hard disk in the same way as a normal HDD hard disk, for this purpose there are suitable 3.5 inch mounting frame, since most solid-state disks only have a Size of 2.5 inch have and are therefore a bit too small for the hard drive slots.
Now only the Power cable and the SATA connector cable of the solid-state disc – hard drive to the Mainboard of the PC and the next time the computer is restarted, if everything has gone well and the PC is compatible, the SSD hard drive should be recognized and thus ready for use.
Installation of an SSD hard drive in a laptop
With notebooks and laptops, the installation is a little more difficult.
Here one must first look at, how many hard drives the laptop supports, as there is considerably less space available than with a PC.
However, newer models already have a additional hard drive bay for SSD hard drives. Otherwise, the previous hard drive of the notebook must be replaced with a solid-state disc. Again, after installation, the Power and SATA connection cable with the Motherboard of the laptop be connected.