Types of hard drives and choosing the best hard drive
Stay with JBQ in the article Types of hard drives and choosing the best hard drive.
A hard drive is a non volatile hardware component in a computer that serves as storage for all digital content. It holds program files, documents, images, videos, music, games, etc.
The non volatile nature of hard drives means they won’t lose data, even if the power goes out. Because of this, they help computers store files and other data for long periods of time as long as they don’t get damaged or corrupted.
Since IBM introduced the first hard drive in 1956, hard drives have evolved from being the size of a refrigerator with a storage capacity of just 5 megabytes to pocket-sized ones with a maximum storage capacity of 4 terabytes.
In this article, I’ll cover the different types of hard drives so you can choose the best one for your computer.
Types of hard disk
Currently, hard disks are
divided into 4 major types:
1. Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA)
2. Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA)
3. Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)
4. solid state drive (SSD)
These names come from how they are connected to the computer. In this article, I am now going to explain each of these types of hard drives as briefly as possible.
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Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA)
PATA hard drives were first introduced to the market by Compaq and Western Digital in 1986. They can have a capacity of up to 80 GB and transfer data at a speed of 133 MB / s.
They were called the Advanced Parallel Technology attachment because they used a parallel ATA interface to connect to the computer.
Apart from PATA, they are also called integrated drive electronics (IDE) and advanced integrated drive electronics (EIDE).
PATA hard drives are made of mechanical moving parts and are based on parallel signaling technology – meaning they transfer multiple bits of data simultaneously.
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Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA)
In recent times, many desktop and laptop computers have received SATA hard drives because they have replaced PATA hard drives in terms of size, power consumption, and even better price.
The computer connection mode remains the same as PATA, but instead of parallel signaling technology for data transfer, they use serial signaling technology. This means they transfer data one bit at a time.
A significant advantage that SATA hard drives have over PATA hard drives is data transfer speeds of 150 to 300 MB/s. In addition, they have thinner cables and a cable limit of 1 meter.
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Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)
SCSI hard drives are superior to SATA and PATA drives for many reasons such as round-the-clock operation, speed, storage and several others.
For connectivity, SCSI hard drives use a small computer system interface – a standard for connecting peripheral devices such as printers, scanners, etc.
Best of all, they allow the connection of peripheral devices such as printers, scanners and other hard drives. In addition, they transfer data at a speed of 320 MB/s and you can connect them internally or externally.
Connections via SCSI in personal computers are now replaced by Universal Serial Bus (USB). This means that SCSI is no longer used as consumer hardware.
solid state drive (SSD)
SSD hard disks are one of the newest hard disk technologies at the time of writing this article.
Unlike hard disk technologies before SSD drives, they do not consist of moving parts and do not use magnets to store data.
Instead, they use integrated circuits (ICs) just like third-generation computers. This makes them more durable, faster and less prone to damage and corruption.
SSD hard drives have a significant advantage in transferring data at a speed of 550 MB/s and enable faster boot times than previous types of hard drives.
With such a great transfer speed, it’s a great price. The cost of NVMe drives is very high and much higher than SATA SSD.
Despite its high cost, NVMe drives are slowly becoming popular for their fast read/write speeds in heavy workloads such as gaming, video editing, and other intensive tasks.
Today, even laptops and mini PCs come with an M.2 NVMe slot.
One of the popular form factors of NVMe drives is M.2, especially M.2 2280. An important point to note here is that SATA SSDs are also available in the M.2 form factor, but with pins and slots (B Key and M Key) are different for SATA M.2 and NVMe M.2 drives.
benefits
1. Very fast, in fact the fastest type of storage of all
2. M.2 form factors are too low for compact structures.
Disadvantages
1. Very expensive
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When to choose SATA HDD, SSD or NVMe?
You may be looking to buy a new hard drive for a number of reasons:
1. If you are building a new PC
2. You are using an old SATA hard drive and are looking to upgrade to an SSD or NVMe drive
3. If your current hard drive is running out of space and you need to upgrade to larger memory
Regardless of the situation, if you’re looking to buy a new hard drive, you have three choices: SATA HDD, SATA SSD, and NVMe SSD. So, which type of hard drive is best for a situation? We explain below:
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Result
This article has shown you the different types of hard drives and explained them in detail, so that you can learn more about hard drives and choose the best one for your needs.
From PATA to SATA, SCSI and SSD, hard drives continue to evolve and research continues to make better drives.
In fact, there is a new type of SSD hard drives called NVMe (non-volatile memory express) SSD that has the capacity to transfer data at a speed of 3.5 GB/s. This makes them the best choice for high-resolution video editing and gaming, although they require more power than true SSDs.
Thank you for reading.
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