SSD Discs Explained

You’ve probably read and heard a great deal about Solid State drives, or seen that most new computers these days are sold with them as a benefit. But what does this actually mean?

Well believe it or not, until very recently computer storage technology hadn’t advanced much for decades. Yes, hard drives became larger as capacity became cheaper, advances in engineering made them spin faster, and new interfaces were developed to transfer data to and from the computer itself at a more efficient rate, but all the while it was the same technology that underpinned them. Magnetic platters containing your data would be spun around and a small motor moved a read head backwards and forwards across them. That’s the “burbling” noise your disc drive always used to make, the noise of the motor operating. And there came a point where all the technological advances in the world could not make that process any faster. Never mind the fact that a device with a lot of moving parts was liable to go wrong when it reached a certain age.

Solid state computer ‘drives’ do away with that problem. They use the same technology that is used to power the storage in your mobile phone, encoding everything onto dedicated banks of memory that retain their information even when power is turned off. Reading and writing is done at blistering speeds and the drives themselves aren’t susceptible to physical knocks and bumps, making them even more reliable than ever before.

Previously this type of storage used to be expensive, making drives the size needed to run a desktop or laptop computer prohibitively expensive, but in recent years that has changed. That’s why virually all new computers are now fitted with SSD drives as default.

That also means it is a simple process to fit one to an older computer. Virtually all desktops and the vast majority of laptops can be upgraded to swap your old hard drive to a new, faster model. The effect on your computer is transformative. They now boot in seconds, apps can be loaded in an instant, even the largest files taking mere moments to appear when you access them. It is far and away the best gift you can give to an older machine, extending its useful life for two years or more.

And the good news is the upgrade is quick and non-disruptive. Using our sophisticated tools we can make an identical copy of your old drive to the new one, swap them over and restore your working environment exactly the way it was before.

Interested? Contact The IT Guide for more information. It is a cheap, simple and some experts would argue essential upgrade to ensure your computer hardware is running to the best of its potential.