I recently heard a very cool IT joke. It goes like this:
Question: What is the difference between a used car salesperson and a computer/IT sales person?
Answer: The used car salesperson knows that they are lying.
You need to make a decision between HDD and SDD, but you are not sure about all the hype, so what is the truth? Should you buy a HDD or an SSD?
The correct answer depends on your requirements.
Question: Do you need a backup device? Quick Answer: Buy an HDD
General Information about SDD and HDD
SSD is great at random read and writes and outperforms HDD, but few people know that SDD has limits on the number of writes the device can perform. (Always check manufacture endurance specification as SDD fails spectacularly and totally as opposed to the average HDD endurance failure)
HDD are a lot cheaper per byte than SDD
HDD sometimes outperforms SDD: Generally HDD are great for sequential write use and HDD outperforms SDD on large buffer writes (This varies from device to device but is true for the average/general products)
HDD EOL (end of life) failures are usually gradual and can be predicted in advance of catastrophic failures
SDD EOL fails spectacularly
How safe are my backups and my backed up data?
Question: How long does data on my storage device last?
Answer: Data written to HDD generally is safe for at least 5 (Five) years (but could, and sometimes does, last ten years or more) – The average SDD has a significantly shorter average “safe” data life and I guestimate it to be about 33% of that of HDD
All HDD and SDD data needs to be copied and recopied REGULARLY (or cycled/re-written) – Which is the main reason why HDD is the best option for backup storage use, the second reason is the write buffer size on SDD…