The Solid State Drive (SSD) has become a very hot term in the computer industry over the last few years. As its popularity increased, a number of myths have been created regarding the SSD. Due to some of these myths, many people end up making wrong decisions when it comes to personal computing. Let’s explore some of these common myths, let's explore the reality vs fantasy notion surrounding these myths.
Many people still believe that solid state drives are too expensive in comparison to normal hard drives. It's true, most new technology tends to be pricey.
SSD failure comes at a cost. And, the same's true with SSDs, when comparing its counterpart, the hard disk drive. Over the last few years, there has been an increase in companies that specialize in the manufacture of SSD’s. Due to this influx in SSD manufacturing, solid state drives have become very reasonable in the last few years. Moreover, the other good news is that the price of solid state drives continues to decline, mainly due to advancements in NAND technology.
People who already use computers with hard disk drive as the data storage medium restrain themselves from upgrading their computers to solid state drives, thinking that either the SSD will not work with their machine or that the SSDs are complicated to install. But, in today’s digital world, you have the freedom and option to use a computer with the type of file storage medium you want. Most of today’s laptops and desktops are compatible with SSDs. The SSD can also be used with netbooks, tablets and even a number of mobile devices. Moreover, SSDs are really user-friendly in terms of installation and usage. Solid state drives are not at all hard to install. In fact, you can install solid state drives in less than ten minutes, even if you might not be a tech-savvy individual. After the SSD has been installed, you can then make a full backup of your old hard disk drive and copy it over to the newly installed SSD, thus preserving all of your existing data.
There are another group of computer users that are under the impression that solid state drives have an indefinite life span. The logical reason behind this myth is that the SSD does not have any moving mechanical components inside of it as in the hard disk drive. But, this misconception does not mean that solid state drives are free from failure. Like any other electronic device, life expectancy of a solid state drive is reduced over time. Moreover, solid state drives can become damaged if dropped, exposed to moisture, natural disaster, or vibrations. But there are advantages in owning an SSD. One of these advantages is that SSD’s are much faster in read and write times.
There are two types of flash memory currently used in solid state drives: the single-layer cell (SLC) and the multiple-layer cell (MLC). SLC based solid state drives are more durable and more expensive when compared to their MLC based counterpart. In short, if you wish to purchase a data storage device that is capable of keeping up with high performing applications, you should purchase an SLC based solid state drive.
Most users who are already using systems with SSDs are extremely happy and confident that their SSDs can be easily repaired if something was to happen to their SSD. Truth be told, the majority of the everyday users out there do not take the percussion to back up their critical data. Nevertheless, the reality is that the complexity of
broken SSD data recovery options on a solid state drive will depend on how the data's saved. And, other factors include, if encryption was used, or if the SSD was formatted.
If the data or the SSD has been encrypted, then the process of data recovery becomes more complicated. The data can still be recovered in the most complicated of cases, but the best decision that anybody can make is to just go ahead and regularly back up their data. In short, when it comes to SSD’s; you should try to understand the actual workings of a solid state drive and then make the wise decision whether to purchase a new SLC based SSD storage device or just go out and purchase a plan to a cloud storage service which already utilizes SSD for their servers and data storage.
