Both a solid-state drive (SSD) and hard disk drive (HDD) store computer data and they’re widely used for backups. How data’s stored and accessed is the main difference.
Solid-state drive (SSD)
Solid-state drive (SSDs) are a newer type of storage media that uses memory chips to store data. Think of a USB thumb drive (aka flash drive) that can store a lot of information.
The advantage of an SSD is faster access to data by using memory chips rather than a physical spinning disk that’s found in hard drives.
One typical use of an SSD includes using it as the primary operating drive for your computer.
Its fast access makes the overall experience snappier and streamlined. No more waiting 30 seconds for a program to load. No more “warming up” the computer for 5 minutes.
We’ve also seen a huge uptick in the multimedia industry for SSD usage. Videographers shooting raw 4k to 8k video are using A LOT of storage capacity for their creative projects. And they also need the performance from an SSD while they edit their projects.
For example, one minute of raw footage in 8k full format is about 4 GB, according to Red’s Red Ranger camera shooting in 24 frames per second and a 10:1 redcode ratio.
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Hard drives (HDDs) are the most ubiquitous type of data storage media around. For decades, we’ve used hard drives in a 3.5-inch physical form factor (and later in a laptop 2.5-inch physical form factor).
Even today, you likely have a hard drive in a computer sitting at home, school, or workplace.
By 2020 standards, hard drives are the most affordable way to store data locally (meaning not using the internet or “the cloud”).
You can store hundreds of thousands of computer files and thousands of hours of music and/or video for less than $100 USD (using a 4TB HDD).
Hard drives are quite affordable for their capacities. They’re great as general-purpose archive storage devices when you don’t need to access your data every day.
However, the HDD is limited to how fast it spins on its platters (like a CD or vinyl record) to access and display its information. So, it would not be advisable for businesses and individuals to use spinning hard drives to store large amounts of information that you need regularly.
HDD vs. SSD: What’s better?
First, let’s first discuss what kinds of things you might want to back up. I’m not talking about computer data we use daily. I’m talking about the daily, weekly, monthly, whatever frequency backups (either manual drag-and-drop or a backup package created by backup software).
These backups come in handy when disaster strikes. Perhaps your computer sustained a power surge and it fried multiple parts. Maybe a pipe burst and it drowned your computer. Or — nature forbid — a fire burns up the computer.
Whatever the case, the question is which storage media is best for backup. It depends on what you’re using it for.
If your backup is something in your daily routine, it might make sense to use an SSD because you’re having to sift through large amounts of data every day. Most use cases are like the one above, where backups are usually for archiving data in case of emergency.
Photo backup
For photos and photo editing, a hard drive likely fits your needs in filing and storing the information.
However, if you’re frequently photo editing many photos, you may notice a performance boost (and lack of time waiting on files to open or save) with an SSD before transferring to an HDD for permanent storage.
Final verdict: HDD
Operational & home office data backup
Any office data or home data used for storing general information (documents, financial records, health records, etc.) could use a hard drive. The price per GB is much lower for HDDs than with SSDs, so you can save money.
The extra HDD space will keep you happy for years, and there’s nothing wrong with having extra. Since most of these files will be accessed on an ad hoc basis, its performance is adequate for general backup purposes.
Final verdict: HDD
General backup
Did you know that it’s important to do general operating system image backups as well? Not only is it important for us to maintain file backups or several copies of our files, it’s more important that you also make frequent backups.
For example, this Mac user would’ve been out of luck if they didn’t have a Time Machine system backup from 5 months prior.
Final verdict: HDD
