Editor’s note: This post has been updated since it was last published in January 2019 with the latest information to help you take advantage of SSDs. Most new laptop and desktop computers come with a solid-state drive (SSD) installed instead of the traditional hard disk drive (HDD) we’ve all gotten used to over the past 30-plus years. If you own a computer with an HDD installed, maybe you’re finding it runs a bit slow and perhaps you’d like to boost performance by installing an SSD. If your computer is more than a couple of years old, replacing the hard drive with an SSD is one of the most co ..read more

This blog post was originally published in March 2016 and was updated in September 2018. Since then, HDD and SSD drive technology continues to improve, so we’re sharing our latest update to this post. Between all of the different computer drives available, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the differences between them. The two fundamental drives you should know the differences between are hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs). You might be wondering, what’s the difference between a HDD and a SSD? Which drive is best to use? What kind of drive is more likely to fail? We spend a l ..read more

What do I do with a Mac that still has personal data on it? Do I take out the disk drive and smash it? Do I sweep it with a really strong magnet? Is there a difference in how I handle a hard drive (HDD) versus a solid-state drive (SSD)? Well, taking a sledgehammer or projectile weapon to your old machine is certainly one way to make the data irretrievable, and it can be enormously cathartic as long as you follow appropriate safety and disposal protocols. But there are far less destructive ways to make sure your data is gone for good. Let me introduce you to secure erasing. Your computer and t ..read more

What’s not to love about solid state drives (SSDs)? They are faster than conventional hard disk drives (HDDs), more compact, have no moving parts, are immune to magnetic fields, and can withstand more shocks and vibration than conventional magnetic platter disks. And, they are becoming available in larger and larger capacities while their cost comes down. If you’ve upgraded an older computer with an SSD, you no doubt instantly saw the benefits. Your computer booted in less time, your applications loaded faster, and even when you ran out of memory, and apps and data had to be swapped to disk ..read more

In Part 1 of HDD vs SSD: What Does the Future for Storage Hold?, we looked at the primary differences between HDDs and SSDs and the history of both of these types of data storage. We also considered the best uses for each. In Part 2, we take a deeper look at the differences between HDDs and SSDs, how both HDD and SSD technologies are evolving, and how Backblaze takes advantage of SSDs in our operations and data centers. The first time you booted a computer or opened an app on a computer with a solid-state-drive (SSD), you likely were delighted. I know I was. I loved the speed, silence, and ..read more

This is part one of a series. Part Two is posted here. Customers frequently ask us whether and when we plan to move our cloud backup and data storage to SSDs (Solid-State Drives). That’s not a surprising question considering the many advantages SSDs have over magnetic platter type drives, also known as HDDs (Hard-Disk Drives). We’re a large user of HDDs in our data centers (currently 100,000 hard drives holding over 500 petabytes of data). We want to provide the best performance, reliability, and economy for our cloud backup and cloud storage services, so we continually evaluate which drives ..read more

Solid state drives (SSDs) are fast and efficient. More new computers than ever come with them, and many of us have upgraded our existing PCs and Macs to them to get better performance or to replace dead or dying spinning hard drives. With prices dropping on larger SSDs, those of us who have outgrown our current models are ready to upgrade. What’s more, SSDs die and need to be replaced just like everything else. When it comes time to hand down, recycle, or get rid of your SSD, what do you do? Read on for details. Don’t Bother Degaussing, Drilling Holes, or “Zeroing Out” an SSD First, let’s foc ..read more

Need help troubleshooting a problematic solid state drive (SSD)? Here’s a list of problems SSD users commonly run into, along with some suggestions on how to fix them. SSD Failure Let’s go over some of the warning signs of a potential SSD failure. Any of these could be indications that an SSD is on its way out. Files can’t be read from or written to the drive. The computer runs excessively slow. The computer won’t boot, you get a flashing question mark (on Mac) or “No boot device” error (on Windows). Frequent “blue screen of death/black screen of death” errors. Apps freeze or crash. Your dri ..read more

Seagate just introduced a 60TB SSD. Wow. As Backblaze scurries about upgrading from 2TB to 8TB hard drives in our Storage Pods, we just have to stop for the moment and consider what a 3.6PB Storage Pod would look like and how much it would cost. Let’s dive in to the details… What We Know About the Seagate 60TB SSD A number of sources (Engadget, Computerworld, Mashable, and Tom’s Hardware, to name a few) covered the news. From the Backblaze Storage Pod point of view, here are some important things to know. The Seagate 60TB SSD comes in a 3.5-inch form factor. It uses a 12 Gbps SAS interface an ..read more