Solid-State Drive (SSD)

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A Solid-State Drive (SSD) is a type of storage device used in computers. This non-volatile storage media stores persistent data on solid-state flash memory. SSDs replace traditional Hard Disk Drives in computers and perform the same basic functions as a hard drive. But SSDs are significantly faster in comparison. With an SSD, the device's operating system will boot up more rapidly, programs will load quicker and files can be saved faster.

A traditional hard drive consists of a spinning disk with a read/write head on a mechanical arm called an actuator. An HDD reads and writes data magnetically. The magnetic properties, however, can lead to mechanical breakdowns.

By comparison, an SSD has no moving parts to break or spin up or down. The two key components in an SSD are the flash controller and NAND flash memory chips. This configuration is optimized to deliver high read/write performance for sequential and random data requests.

Source: https://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/SSD-solid-state-drive