You might think that SSDs are the perfect storage solution. They’re lightweight, compact, and offer blazing-fast read and write speeds. I do think they’re the perfect storage solution for everything but one use case. Here’s where traditional hard drives still reign supreme.
SSDs are getting smaller and faster with larger capacities
NVMe is what I’ve always wanted an SSD to be
I remember when I was doing computer repair full time and SATA SSDs first started gaining real popularity. They had been around for a few years at the time, but were finally coming down to more affordable prices. The SATA interface was still frustrating to work with, and the drives were definitely smaller and lighter, but they weren’t “ideal” yet to me.
Fast forward a few years and NVMe drives come out and completely revolutionize the storage space. These drives are smaller, lighter, and faster than any SATA SSD could ever dream of. With NVMe drives, you can fit 8TB in something smaller than a stick of RAM. It’s pretty impressive that we’re now able to fit so much storage on something so small.
SSDs don’t have the same standby lifespan as platter drives
Platter drives might have bit rot, but at least they don’t lose your data as easily
It’s not new news that no drives last forever when unpowered. Even powered, traditional hard drives tend to start losing data over time due to bit rot. You might think your SSD is impervious to this—and it is, but maybe not how you think.
Bit rot doesn’t affect SSDs because there is no mechanical platter with little magnets getting flipped. However, solid state drives have something else to fight entirely.
SSDs rely on a stored electrical charge to keep the NAND flash cells functioning properly. If the NAND cells lose 100% of their charge, there’s a chance that they could start to lose the data stored on them. It’s not a guaranteed thing, but it is a risk.
I’ve never personally experienced an SSD losing its storage, even when being unpowered for many years, but it’s definitely a risk you run. This makes SSDs less optimal for long-term “cold” storage than traditional hard drives.
Whenever I’m looking for storage that I know needs to last a long time, especially unpowered, I will choose mechanical drives over SSDs every time.
- Storage Capacity
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2 – 26TB
- Workload
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550TB/yr
Western Digital’s Red Pro NAS hard drives come in sizes from 2TB to 26TB.
Old-fashioned “spinning rust” drives are priced way better for mass storage
Newer isn’t always better
The other reason that traditional hard drives beat out SSDs for mass storage is simply pricing. An 8TB NVMe SSD will set you back $1,050, and an 8TB SATA SSD costs $1,000 at the time of writing. If you want to go larger than 8TB, you have to step up to U.2 drives, which are both more expensive and much more difficult to use with consumer hardware.
On the other hand, you can grab an 8TB IronWolf NAS hard drive for $200. I recently picked up a 12TB refurbished data center hard drive for $235. If 8TB or 12TB isn’t enough for you, a 28TB drive can be had for under $500 at a place like Server Part Deals in manufacturer recertified condition, or $800 if you want it brand-new (though it’s often out of stock new).
Either way you slice it, traditional hard drive are simply more affordable and are available in larger capacities than solid state drives are. For building out a storage server (or just upgrading your desktop with more storage), platter-based drives are the best choice.
Eventually, I expect larger SSDs to come to the consumer market, and hopefully prices will fall to a more affordable place, too. I don’t really ever expect SSDs to become price-parity with hard drives though—the technology is just so vastly different.
So, unless you need ultra-fast read and write speeds, or you’re extremely limited on space, just get normal hard drives for mass storage. SSDs are great and all, but they’re just not the best tool for the job.
