Laptop Hard Drives

Drive type

Most of the latest laptops have moved away from mechanical hard drives (HDDs) in favour of smaller, more robust solid state drives (SSDs). SSDs are faster, use less power and use flash memory for storage rather than spinning platters so are silent and have longer lifespans. The downside is they are more expensive per gigabyte of storage and have smaller data capacities than HDDs.

Solid state hybrid drives are the newest type of storage drive. They combine a small amount of solid state memory with a mechanical hard drive to give you the best of both worlds - speed and performance combined with storage capacity. If budget is limited and you need maximum storage, HDD is a good choice. If fast data access speeds and high performance are key, go for an SSD.

Capacity

Hard drive capacity is the next most important factor to consider. Most current laptop models ship with at least 256Gb of capacity and many have 512Gb drives installed as standard. There are smaller and larger drives available though so work out what capacity you'll need allowing for future growth based on the type of files you need to create and store.

Spindle speed

For conventional hard drives, another feature to look at is the drive spindle speed. This is expressed in RPM (revolutions per minute). Usually, the faster the speed, the quicker data is read from and written to the drive. When data gets transferred from one section of a hard drive to another, it uses a temporary storage area within the drive called the cache (or buffer). A large hard drive buffer size therefore means faster data transfer as more data can be stored at a time. Data transfer speeds for SSDs are listed as sequential or sustained read and write speeds.

Failure rate

If you're purchasing a mechanical laptop hard drive, it's worth noting the drive's failure rate. As stated above, because they have moving parts, laptop hard drives are prone to failure; some within 12 months and others after 6 years or more. The failure rate varies by make and model and should be listed in the drive's technical specifications.

Interface

Finally, if you're planning to upgrade or replace a laptop drive you'll need to take into account the type and size of drive bay your laptop uses. Many laptops feature a 2.5 inch drive bay which can take either 9.5 mm drives or 7.0 mm models (usually found on thin profile laptops). Some laptops use mSATA or M.2 cards for storage rather than a hard drive or SSD. It's important to know the interface and physical size you need before going ahead and making a purchase.